I'm back from my trip to New York to visit the family, and I'll be out at the arena tonight when the Caps take on the Habs. All of my photographers are out of town tonight, so I'll be flying solo.
Look for more later today.
GAME PREVIEWS: Looks like many of the usual suspects are MIA tonight -- not really a surprise given that it's the Holiday season.
Mike Vogel
NHL.com
Japers' Rink
The Peerless Prognosticator
Caps Chick
Bonus link: Caps Chick frets over her divided loyalties.
More in a bit.
A THOUGHT ON CAPS-BUFFALO: After the Caps defeated the Sabres 7-4 a few weeks back, I asked head coach Glen Hanlon at the postgame press conference whether or not he and the Caps had figured out something of a blueprint on how to beat the best team in the Eastern Conference. When answering, Hanlon made it clear that the Caps had been lucky to catch Buffalo on back to back nights, and that it hadn't hurt that the Sabres were down to five defensemen after a couple game misconducts had been handed out. Guess he was right.
Again, more in a bit.
STARTING LINEUPS: HABS: G: Huet; D: Rivet, Bouillon; W: Johnson, Perezhogin; C: Bonk. CAPS: G: Kolzig; D: Pothier, Green; W: Laich, Klepis; C: Beech.
SCRATCHES: HABS: Niinimaa and Murray. CAPS: Morrisonn, Johansson and Muir.
AS THE PUCK DROPS: According to tonight's seating chart, Channel 4's Lindsay Czarniak is supposed to be sitting next to me, but she has yet to arrive. I'm crushed.
As always, the recap is after the jump. Again, sorry, but no photos tonight.
END OF FIRST PERIOD: HABS 2 CAPS 0.
* Hanlon is playing with the lines again, having Zubrus center Semin and Ovechkin, with Gordon centering Clark and Pettinger.
* Brooks Laich got some power play time on right wing in place of Clark during the Caps first power play. The second forward unit on the PP is Beech centering Pettinger and Clark.
* Late in the Caps' first power play, Alexi Kovalev was pressuring Ovechkin in the Caps zone on the forecheck when he launched a careless one handed slash that caught Ovechkin in the face. There was no call.
* At 9:25 with the teams skating 4-on-4, the Caps lose a goal thanks to a quick whistle. A whistle that was way too quick.
* Note to JP: Looks like Brian Pothier got your message from last night.
* At 12:36 the Habs break through to take the lead. After Tomas Plekanec dropped the puck off to Guillaume Latendresse, he slung the puck across the zone and found Maithieu Dandenault cutting to the net on the right wing for an easy tap-in.
* On the very next shift, Donald Brashear creates a dust-up in front of the Canadiens net. The man knows his job.
* Caps power play is having its problems again. One odd moment: The Caps seemed to get mixed up on a line change, allowing Habs defenseman Craig Rivet to simply sit and wait inside the right wing faceoff circle while the team made the change. Cost them about 5-10 extra seconds in power play time.
* At 18:15 the Habs stretch the lead to 2-0 thanks to an Aaron Downey goal. With his back to the goal along the right wing boards, Radek Bonk hurled the puck on net as Downey was cutting in on Kolzig all alone. When Kolzig couldn't handle the rebound, Downey jumped on it and jammed it in.
* For the period, the Caps outshot the Habs 14-7 and had the better of the play. As they say in international Soccer, both Montreal goals were scored against the run of play. On the faceoff, the Caps are getting crushed for the second night in a row, losing 18 of 22.
* Other interesting stats from the first period: Alexander Semin logged the most ice time for the Caps, with 8:04. Ovechkin had 7:35. The oft-criticized Steve Eminger clocked in at 7:22, while Pothier had 6:48.
END OF SECOND PERIOD: HABS 2 CAPS 0.
* Just one minute in, Francis Bouillion puts Pettinger in a headlock when the Caps forward was poking a little too hard for the puck after Huet had covered it. But the real fireworks start at 2:57 when Donald Brashear and Downey crop the gloves. It gets comical for a moment as Brashear drops his hands to his sides when Downey refuses to engage, and you can understand why just moments later as he withers under a hail of left crosses and uppercuts from Brashear. It's a TKO for the Donald. After the fight, Downey goes straight to the Habs locker room.
* As hard as this might be to believe, it might well be time for the Caps to start practicing line changes. On three separate instances in this period, the team has given up an odd man rush on a line change. Luckily for the Caps, Kolzig came up big all three times stopping Alexander Perezhogin and Chris Higgins. Still, it simply looks bad.
* Just 20 seconds after escaping the box, Semin creates a scoring chance on the forecheck, winning himself a breakaway chance on Huet, but the Habs goalie turns it aside easily.
* At the horn, Eminger and Plekanec get into it, but the scuffle goes nowhere.
* For the period, the Habs outshoot the Caps, 11-5. Faceoffs continue to be a problem, with the Caps ony winning 3 of 10 for the period.
* Pothier logged almost 11 minutes of ice time in the period.
* Jawing with Dmitry from Sovietsky Sport about the Brashear-Downey fight. From where he was sitting, it was Downey who dropped the gloves first, essentially forcing Brashear to answer the challenge. Also, he relayed to me the word that MSG in Buffalo didn't show the video of Daniel Briere's attempt to castrate Ovechkin last night. In case you missed it, here it is:
Later, Briere backed down when he was challenged by Ovechkin. Pretty gutless if you ask me.
FINAL: HABS 4 CAPS 1. While the Caps got their chances tonight, the difference was Huet, who seemed to allow virtually no rebounds and came up with the big stops every time to stymie the Caps.
* With Mike Komisarek in the box, the Caps get the first power play chance of the period. They keep creating chances, none better than when Ovechkin finds Semin on a sweet backdoor play, but Semin simply couldn't handle the pass.
* Kolzig keeps the Caps in the game when he stops Sheldon Souray on a wraparound attempt.
* At 14:36 the Habs get the goal they need to put the game away on the power play. Camped at the top of the slot, Sheldon Souray sends a wrist shot right on net where Saku Koivu tips it past Kolzig. 3-0 Habs.
* With Rivet and Bonk in the box at 17:04, the Caps finally get one back when Semin collects a rebound off the left post and puts a backhand past Huet. Ovechkin and Zubrus get the helpers.
* With the Caps on another power play, Souray lofts a clearing attempt that goes all the way down the ice and finds the back of the net. 4-1, Habs.
* Attendance 15,609, though it seemed a lot higher than that tonight with tons of Habs fans in the building. Caps outshot the Habs 31-27, which is why Huet was named first star of the night. Good night and we'll see you on New Year's Day for the game against the Coyotes.
Habs fan here. First post. I honestly think the Canadiens dominated your team tonight. Markov was all over Ovechkin, rendering him almost invisible. Latendresse provided the spark for getting us ahead.
We didn’t play our best game, but were still quite superior to your mid-table team. I think our goalie was robbed of a shutout at the end by the referees.
good luck on making the playoffs.