Forget the old priest and the young priest…give me a Swede, a Russian, a French Canadian, a handful of workhorses and the offspring of a legend any old day. That’s all the Caps really needed to clear out whatever was lurking in HSBC Arena.

And I don’t just mean scary Buffalo fans.

There was a lot going against the Caps tonight. A couple more injuries (ho hum), a building in which they’re terminally unlucky, a road game in a season where the road has not been exactly kind…so naturally they come out storming and keep the foot on the gas for most of the game, rolling toward another two points. It’s a testament again to the coaching staff, the handful of healthy bodies left and the continuing depth on this team that they’ve maintained such a torrid pace.

If it sounds like I’ve said that before, it’s because I have.

And yet holding a 12 point lead in the division while missing about a third of the regular lineup just never ceases to amaze me, so it bears repeating. Again and again and again. And again.

We all knew that in order for the Caps to gain that 12 point lead over idle Carolina, in order for them to vanquish the Buffalo wing-chomping demons, they would need a complete team effort. Tonight they got that and then some.

It starts in net, and Jose Theodore was at times great and at times spectacular, looking every bit the confident, athletic goalie the Caps have needed. He’s allowed five goals in the last three games and the two tonight were hardly his fault; if he can get back to the form we all know he can have, this team is going to be a force to be reckoned with.

Jose certainly was great – but the player of the night for me had to be Nicklas Backstrom. There have been few greater joys as a Caps fan and as a hockey fan than watching Backstrom’s continued evolution into one of the elite centers of the game. Tonight was just one more chapter in that evolution, just one more bit of proof that he is an immensely talented player and at just 21 years old, an immensely talented player who is only going to improve. Ovechkin certainly had a decent game tonight – but it was Backstrom and his linemate Kozlov who really ran that show whenever they were on the ice.

And that right there tells us how much he’s changed; he’s got the confidence to control the play on his own, he’s shooting more, he’s hitting more…all while continuing to make those amazing passes that make him so complementary to his Russian linemates.

As for the rest of the team, they weren’t exactly slouches. Brooks Laich gets yet another dirty, front of the net goal for his eleventh of the season and his sixth goal in nine games. Chris Clark is slowly starting to look like the Clark of old, feistiness and all. The reunited Bears line of Fehr, Steckel and Bourque were flying all over the place. The defense did a great job of frustrating the Sabres even with the ongoing depletion. Every player had at least ten minutes of ice time, with the exception of Bourque…who was one second short.

Heh.

And Gordon’s empty net goal was…well, an empty net goal, but it’s Gordon so I’ll say that it was a really nice empty net goal.

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses, of course. It never is. A rare defensive miscue led to the Sabres’ first goal, and the Caps did gave up a power play goal – sure, it was with 10 seconds left and sure, it came after some excellent penalty killing all night long.

But come on, I need to maintain some street cred! So yes. Bad PK. BAD PK.

So with two points we bid adieu to the 2008 portion of the ‘08-’09 season. The next time we’ll see these boys it’ll be a new year – but we have a lot to look forward to in the coming months, and I for one can’t wait to see what comes next.

To all of you lovely Caps fans, have a safe, happy and healthy New Year – see you all in 2009!

As I watched the candles burn down Sunday night, the final night of Hanukkah, I found myself growing a little sentimental. After all, it’s fun to ask for stuff – and even more fun to get it. And bidding farewell to one of the least important holidays of the year is just always a little tough.

Luckily, I can stretch it out a few more days just by belatedly wrapping up those Hanukkah wishes! I’m sneaky that way. So without further ado, my final three nights of greed hope for peace on earth and goodwill toward men, blah blah blah:

Night #6 – All Star Magic

I’m not naive enough to think that Ovechkin will make it into the starters for the All Star Game later this month – not with Penguins fans and Canadiens fans engaging in a pissing contest the way they are. But as Corey brings up in the Times today, there is a good chance that we still may see not just Ovechkin but Green and Backstrom representing the east as well. There’s no question they’re all deserving, especially Backstrom; the rest is up to the powers that be.

It’s been a long time since the Caps sent more than one representative to the ASG. You have to go back to 2003, when Jagr and Gonchar represented DC. And while we can freely debate how important the game really is and whether it wouldn’t be better for the boys to rest – particularly given the current and endless slate of injuries – it’s still nice to get some validation of just how talented this team is.

Even the most cynical fan, the one dismissing the game as an unworthy spectacle, would have to tune in to see more than one of our boys skating alongside the league’s best…where they rightly belong. We’ll find out in a few weeks whether that wish will come true.

Night #7 – A Brooks Laich hat trick

…oops. SO close. Maybe tonight, right?

Night #8 – A successful, happy, healthy team led by (but not carried by) the Great 8 himself.

We all love Alex Ovechkin. There’s nary a Caps fan around who hasn’t pledged their eternal devotion to him, and there’s a reason – aside from the fact that he is the best hockey player in the world and the most exciting, he’s also the most entertaining, humorous, personable and down to earth kid you’ll ever see. This city has fallen head over heels, and the rest of the hockey world is starting to follow.

The best part is that he’s finally surrounded by a cast whose talent, while not on the same level, is complementary to Ovechkin’s. It is and will always be Ovechkin’s team, that’s a given; but as the talent around him rises, as young prospects blossom into skilled NHLers, the team identity is beginning to take form outside of #8. Discussions among fans should be about the Caps – Ovechkin and Semin and Green and Backstrom and Laich and…etc.

My point is, the day will hopefully come when the Caps can win a game not because of Ovechkin’s performance but just with it’s help – when the media will write about Brooks Laich’s two goals fueling the Caps to a win and not #8’s goal and empty-netter.

Happy Holidays to one and all, and enjoy the final game of the 2008 calendar year!

A week ago, the Bruins and Hurricanes clashed in a matinee game just as the Caps took on the Flyers. At the time someone made a comment that Caps fans should really be rooting for Carolina, and it struck me how things were starting to change. We’re no longer concerned with the Hurricanes, or the Panthers, or anyone in the Southeast. To move forward we can’t be.

Because if the motto of the Caps this year is “Good is not good enough”, then we as fans have to embrace the idea that winning the division is good…but not great. The focus now shouldn’t be who is coming up behind us, but who is ahead of us – until we get to the top and the only thing we can do is look behind us.

So keeping that in mind, take a look at where the Caps sit after tonight’s win – with all the injuries, with all the line shuffling and callups and the constant search for chemistry:

And remember that the Caps will play Boston twice in the next month. If we’re keeping our eye on that top spot, if we’re saying that good is really not good enough, then those games just took on a little something extra, didn’t they?

A very Merry (and belated) Christmas to all who partake in the holiday, and to the rest of you I hope your holiday season/December is festive and joyful. And healthy.

Because if this injury bug starts turning on the fans…

At any rate, we have a couple of Hanukkah wishes to cover now that real life has resumed for a couple of days – so start those dreidels a-spinning and sip your Manischewitz wine, time for nights 4 & 5!

(more…)

Last night was really the best Hanukkah/Christmas/Festivus present a girl could ask for. Coming on the road like that, before a break, and in a building we hate against a team we hate more? There are maybe two or three teams against whom that comeback would have been sweeter (and one of them has already suffered a similar fate at the hands of the Caps, so we’ve got that going for us).

But I’m a greedy, greedy person. I want more. I want…

Night #3 – Tom Poti

Oh, now, get your minds out of the gutter. I don’t mean that way.

…although he is a tall drink of water, isn’t he?

No. Seriously. I mean I want Tom Poti back, healthy, in the lineup, manning the point and chipping in offensively and smiling that goofy, lovable smile of his.

When the Caps lost Mike Green to a shoulder injury, it was a tough blow dealt to an already struggling team and a blue line that was already full of holes. But in my opinion, humble as it may be, the loss of Poti has at times been even more detrimental. A lot of people have underestimated what he brings to the lineup when healthy – well, they’re not underestimating it anymore. We need his calm presence back on the blue line, and I mean stat.

When he’s on, there are very few guys who can get around his long reach and big body. And even when he messes up, when he shows a little weakness, his recovery is so good that the defensive play he makes often makes you forget about the bonehead one he made just seconds before.

His impact on the blue line has been similar to Fedorov’s impact on the entire team. He’s steady and comforting and he slows the game down just enough so that his teammates can speed it back up again.

So yes, that’s what I want. Tom Poti.

And a healthy team. Have I mentioned that yet? A healthy team.

Wow.

They never make it easy, do they? Then again that’s what makes this team fun – the never knowing if they’re going to claw their way out of a three or four goal hole, never being sure if a goalie can go from scapegoat to savior, never quite knowing where the next goal will come from.

Except for Alex Ovechkin. You can set your watch by that kid, secure in the knowledge that somehow, someway before the end of the night #8 is going to wow you. He didn’t let us down tonight.
After the Rangers got that fourth goal it would be easy for this team to have packed it in, chalking up another loss to just one too many injuries. But we’ve seen the Caps time and time again reach down and find a resiliency that you don’t see in every team, and it starts with Ovechkin – but everyone plays a role, everyone jumps on board.

We saw it way back in October at the house of the unholy, Mellon Arena, as the Caps overcame a three goal deficit in the third to steal two points from their nemesis. We saw it in Minnesota, a depleted lineup that was losing bodies even as the game continued on, scratching together three late goals to finish just short of a win.

And then tonight. In MSG of all places. An amazing effort to absolutely turn this game on its ear and take advantage of the multitude of defensive sins committed by the Rangers, led by one Alex Ovechkin and finished off by the unlikeliest of sources, the birthday boy himself, Shaone Morrisonn.

That’s Caps hockey for you. Never predictable, never safe…but gosh darn it, it’s thrilling.

There was a lot of redemption out there tonight. Ovechkin’s line was partly responsible for the poor defensive coverage that led to the three (and eventually four) goal deficit, and then they were the ones to click. Fleischmann’s defensive breakdown led to a goal, and then it was his stick tipping in Backstrom’s shot to put the Caps within two. Theodore didn’t help his own cause early on but seemed to gain momentum with every shot, making some huge saves in the latter stages of the Caps’ comeback.

(Now if Giroux can only cash in on a breakaway once in awhile, we’ll be golden. And my roommate won’t put her fist through the TV.)

Just an amazing performance, at least 30 minutes worth of one, by the Cardiac Caps – nice to have them back, isn’t it? With that game in the books, we now get a little breather, some time to get those hearts pumping again, rest the body and the mind and hope that the Caps are doing the same over the next two days.

Seasons greetings from the Cheap Seats!