Leafs 3 Caps 2 (SO)

For about 57 minutes tonight the Caps and Leafs got us to jump into the DeLorean and head back in time...to the Dead Puck Era. A time when 50 goal scorers were about as common as Halley's Comet and the only thing lower than the offence was the television ratings. Other than Alex Ovechkin's goal in the second period, there were very few moments of brilliance in this one. It was a game played between the blue lines, as the Leafs fired up the flux capacitor and rebooted New Jersey's hideous neutral zone trap. Martin Gerber (seriously, Martin Fucking Gerber! Ottawa ran this guy out of town with pitchforks for crying out loud) and Jose Theodore kept the game at 1-1, with Theo seeing most of the few good chances there were.

Then at about the 3 minute mark, the Caps finally turned it into their kind of game: fast-paced, high-tempo with lots of puck possession in the other team's end. But what really jump started the craziness was a Caps mistake. John Erskine got whistled for very iffy hooking penalty and on the ensuing power play, Toronto's Pavel Kubina (who scored the game-winner the last time these two teams played) fired a slap shot that had eyes, trickling past Theo to give the Leafs a 2-1 lead.

The Caps, as is their wont, came back, scoring on a wild scramble. Of course, it was Brooks Laich scoring the goal. It looked like Laich got the puck into net before shoving Gerber back into the goal. The ref was right there on top of the play in perfect position. That didn't stop Gerber from going all Tuukka Rask out there, bumping the referee and shoving the linesman, earning himself a game misconduct.

From there, our trip back to the Dead Puck Era came full circle as Curtis Joseph, one of the top goalies of that era, dragged his 41-year-old self off the bench minus a warmup. But the rusty CuJo looked more Fred Savage than Judge Reinhold (if you can guess that reference, you win a 6-pack of beer on me) and stoned Ovie cold with a brilliant pad save. He was even better in overtime as the Caps dominated play, outshooting the Leafs 8-0 in the extra session. The Caps got a power play late in OT and CuJo made two outstanding stops on Mike Green and Alex Semin to give his team a chance in the shootout.

Toronto's Jeff Hamilton, an amazing 53 percent in shootouts, scored on the first attempt against Theo, who hadn't faced any shots for roughly 6 minutes. It was yet another reason to hate the shootout: Caps were dominating action, with only CuJo's unbelievable performance keeping Toronto in it and end up losing because of a silly breakaway competition. Nonetheless, the Caps did have three shooters and CuJo stoned them all. Well, except Alex Semin whose propensity to miss the net is maddening. Still, give the old man credit, he dialed up the same kind of performance that Ottawa Senators fans got wayyy to used to seeing in the earlier part of this decade.

Here now are the game highlights, courtesy of NHL.com.

So, until next time, let's say good night to the 5-game road trip and say good night to da bad guys.

Good Guys Links- Capitals

We'll go a little long on this links section, since some new ones got posted up yesterday after my Caps links post. Tonight, the Caps wrap up a five-game road trip in Toronto and from there, they only have two games in the next 8 days, both at the Phone Booth (March 27 vs. Tampa and April 1 vs the Islanders). So here's some Caps news from around the internets. Enjoy suckas.

- The flu bug has worked its way onto the Caps roster. Alex Semin and Professor Matt Bradley both have it and Coach Bruce Boudreau says they are "iffy" for tonight's game in Toronto.

"Get your stinkin' mandibles off Professor Bradley you damn dirty bug!"

- To make up for the possible loss of Semin and Professor Matt, the Caps have called up goalie Darren Machesney and the wonderfully named Steve Pinizzotto. To make room, Simeon Varlamov was sent down to Hershey for salary cap reasons. According to Tank, Semin and Bradley are doing better. With a name like Pinizzotto, he's already my 5th favorite Cap. Sounds like something out of "The Godfather" or something.

"Find out more about this...Pinizzotto character."


- Couple of Caps related items from Dan Steinberg over at DC Sports Bog. First post is about the large numbers of Caps fans that swarmed Raleigh, North Carolina to attend Saturday's Caps-'Canes tilt.

- Steinz again, this time arguing why Alex Ovechkin is no Terrell Owens.

- Two more Ovechkin related items, both from Toronto papers. First, despite the misleading headline, Tiger Williams, one of the original hockey showmen, liked Ovie's "my stick is on fire" celebration in Tampa. Next, Leafs (and former Caps) coach Ron Wilson and Don Cherry have something in common: their dislike of Ovie's celebrations.

- Japer's and Peerless with previews of tonight's game.

- From OFB, Alex Giroux got his 50th goal for the Chocolatetown Bears. He's the first Bears player to hit 50 in 22 years.

- Another story from Tank, this time about Tomas Fleischmann trying to regain his scoring touch.

- Yesterday I posted the highlights from the last time the Caps played in Toronto. Here is a less happy memory, the last matchup between these two teams at the Phone Booth, which resulted in a 2-1 Leafs victory.

Good Guys Links- Capitals

Hallo mein scheissehunden! (that's German folks, I think)

Welcome back to your usual sports banter here at the old Hangar. I took a little bit of a break yesterday but after putting up 10 posts in 2 days, I figured it was time for one. But we're back with the nonsense that the few of you that come here have come to know and love. We'll start the day off with some Good Guys Links- Caps Edition. Later today I'll catch us up on some Orioles stuff and then have a metal album retrospective and hopefully another episode of "Bad Movies I Love," time permitting. Hopefully I can come at you with a mix of sports and non-sports stuff to help bring balance to the Force. So, without any further rambling introductions, here's some Caps stuff.

- One thing I did not address in my Caps-'Canes recap from Saturday was the officiating. It was, how shall we say, a bit questionable. Here's Billionaire Ted's take on it from his blog.

- Then there is this dandy quote (per Puck Daddy & Tank) from Bruce Boudreau that will surely cost him some cash...
"I've looked at them five times in there and I can't see where these calls are," Boudreau said. "It's my humble opinion, but holy frig. Those are some, in my estimation, some really iffy calls."
"There's no chance [Fleischmann's penalty] was a dive," he added. "His leg got corkscrewed. Then on Green's, when they went to the double minor, they cross-checked him in the head and then Pitkanen went at [Green]. Pitkanen goes at him and Mike retaliates and there still was only two [minutes] given each."

- The much-anticipated Don Cherry reaction about Ovechkin's 50th goal celebration...

Here's some takes from Puck Daddy, OFB, and Peerless. My take? Now that Cherry has had his say, let's all move on with our lives. Please?

- Japer's on the Caps penalty kill.

-OFB has the brackets for this year's NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament, which will culminate at the Phone Booth this year.

- Finally, here's some highlights from the last time the Capitals visited Tuesday's opponent, the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Leafs 2 Caps 1

How do I count the ways on this game? Losing four out of five at home? Two of those games to Toronto and Colorado, two of the worst teams in the league? Yes, they didn't have Alex Ovechkin tonight and Martin Gerber (Martin Fucking Gerber!?!?!) made some terrific saves but there's no excuse for losing to this Toronto team. This is a club that is dying to win the John Tavares Sweepstakes in the draft lottery. They just held a fire sale where they traded just about any good, healthy bodies they had left. And the Caps just lost to them.

This is a team that Caps should have buried. They played well enough to win through two periods, then as Gerber was stopping them cold, the Caps wilted, let down their guard and the Leafs scored two cheapies. Of all the Caps, I think only Alex Semin played a complete game. No coincidence he got the Caps only goal. Jose Theodore also played well but the two goals he let in were shaky. The team in front of him did not give him a lot of help, getting shut out by the 13th best team in the Eastern Conference for 58 minutes. During a timeout, Coach Bruce Boudreau gave his team a well-deserved tongue-lashing. It still didn't wake these guys up and I'm not sure what will.By the way, what does it say about a team's defence when Sergei Fedorov is your 2nd or 3rd best defenceman? That can't be good right? You don't think the Pittsburgh Penguins, hellbent on revenge Sunday, are not licking their chops at the state of this Caps team. But instead of typing more, allow me to tell the story of this game through visual aids.










So that's it for tonight. Next game is Sunday against the hated Penguins at the Phone Booth. Me and the Bunk will be there so i'll have some photos from the game to go with any blog post I may have. If I haven't used that stress reduction kit that is shown above. Until then, say good night to da bad guys...