Tsukareta!

Man, after watching that Caps game, I'm tired.

I was thinking to myself earlier today that Ovie would definitely bring his A-game, and I'd be shocked if he didn't score. But the hat-trick (plus the shot off the post that Knuble pushed over the line for the winning margin) was beyond my wildest hopes.

And man, I forgot who did it (Bradley, maybe? I forgot to take note), but the team's really gonna have to razz the Cap who had the open goal and decided to attempt a deke before shooting, giving Fleury time to get back into position to block the shot.

This was one heck of a game, though. The Caps started the same way that I had theorized might give them trouble against the Thrashers the other day; they played for the first five minutes as if showing up would be enough to win the game. That put them in an early two-goal hole. They narrowed that deficit to one in the second period, before allowing two more Pittsburgh goals. But a beautiful shot-and-follow by Fehr narrowed the margin back to two before the end of the half.

I think, though, that that was where fatigue caught up to the Penguins, because it was almost all Caps in the third period. Ovechkin's two goals highlighted the very well-played period, which tied the game. The Pens caught a bit of a second wind in the first minute or so of overtime, but a high stick by Orpik on Semin put the Caps on the power play to ice the game.

And it finally hit me over the head earlier; I've been watching the Caps point total, but only to compare it to San Jose's for the league lead. It finally occurred to me ten or fifteen minutes ago that that's a really fabulous total. They've got twenty-three games left for the twelve points they'd need to get to one hundred (which is a nice milestone for a great season). And, without checking, I'd guess they're on pace to break the team record for points in a season by a hefty margin (yes, I know they're on pace to break it; the only question is by how much).

Update: I finally went and looked at team history stats. The Caps have cleared 100 points five times in their history. Although last year set the record for total points (108), that was only 18.7% above league average in points. So the best Caps team was probably the '85-'86 team that had 107 points, which was 33.75% above league average. Unfortunately, that was part of the run of years where the fourth-place team in the Patrick division kept winning the division in the playoffs, so that Caps were out quickly.

Just to show how good that (2nd place in division, 3rd in league!) '85-'86 team was, last year's team would have needed 122 points, which would have put them five points ahead of the Sharks for best record in the league, to be equivalently far above league average. Which also goes to show how absurdly good that Oilers team was that finished twelve points ahead of the Caps.