Game Two

Well, after a fairly dreary first game, where the caps seemed to be skating around as if showing up for the game would be enough to win it (gee, that seems familiar, doesn't it?), the offense showed up with a chip on its shoulder tonight.

I missed the opening period (and forgot to set the DVR! :( ), but the four goals in the second period were nice to watch (well, the three I saw, anyway; the first sure looked nice on replay, though). Well, actually, OV's non-penalty shot goal wasn't exactly pretty; in fact, it was kind of like the tying goal the US got in the waning seconds against Canada in the Olympics. "Throw it at the net, and good things will happen."

Hopefully, that will become the team mantra.

Nice showings by Carlson (at both ends, no less) and Flash. I wouldn't have thought Flash had it in him for that pass to Chimera. I'm still a bit skeptical about him as a center, especially after him being a net negative on Corsi last season, but hopefully this is the start of a much better season. (Of course, he does usually start the season strong. Ugh. I hate writing that.)

A bit of a mixed night for OV; the goals were certainly nice, but he seemed to have an awful lot of trouble with his skates. He fell over much more easily than we expect for him several times. Hopefully, just aberrations.

And a pretty goal for Fehr, too. He got an awful lot of altitude on that shot, despite shooting from so close to the net. And it was only ten or fifteen seconds before that that I had noted with approval that he was getting PP time.

And wasn't that a chippy ending. I don't think I've seen a Caps game with that many fights since the early 80's. And I'm pretty sure I've never seen a Devils game with that many. What was up with that Kovalchuk/Lambo-greenie matchup? Neither of them is one that I'd expect to see dropping the gloves. Which might explain, I suppose, why it wasn't much of a fight in terms of blows landing.

You can bet that DJ King will be suiting up for the next meeting with the Devils; I think he's got an appointment to give Mr Leblond a facial for his treatment of MarJo.

Kudos, too, to MarJo for keeping his cool in that assault, although the commentators mentioned he blew a play in the first period that led to a Devils goal.

Finally, kudos to Neuvirth for the 31 saves, and to the PK as a whole. Not just for the shortie that Laich calmly buried, but for keeping a clean sheet for the game.

Update: Forgot to mention that it was pretty scary seeing Pavelec collapse to the ice without anything else going on in yesterday's game. I just read that he's got a concussion, but is conscious. Still no idea what caused the collapse, though. I really hope he'll be ok.