Down in OT

Not a whole lot to say about the game tonight. The Caps played very well in the first and third periods, and pretty poorly in the second.

OV had a very blase game, not really doing much of anything.

MarJo had a very good game, buzzing around a lot and causing trouble for Buffalo. Alzner also did very well, getting a goal and playing good defense in his own end.

Boudreau used some interesting line combinations, moving MarJo up to the top line for a chunk of the game, dropping Backstrom down also.

Holtby had a fantastic game. The three goals he allowed; he was screened on the first, a bad bounce gave an unblockable shot on the second, and the third was... well, he got behind the defense. I was a little disappointed he missed that one, but he didn't misplay it, or anything like that. He just missed it. The only bad thing he did in the game was getting a little over-ambitious in playing the puck behind the net. That was the one time the defense bailed him out.

Otherwise? The officiating was not very even. There were several non-calls on Buffalo that were a bit suspect, and they seemed to come down harder on the Caps than I thought warranted. In particular, the penalty on Backstrom at the end of the game; I could not figure any way that that would be a four minute penalty. In fact, it looked marginal to me being a penalty at all. Overall, the penalty killing was quite good, allowing only one goal in the seven man-down situations.

Anyway, the six game win streak is over, but at least the team got a point out of it. That keeps them a point ahead of Philly, who squished the Panthers. It also gives some more room to catch up to the Western Conference teams who are slightly behind the Caps with games in hand. Ah well.

Back to the Phone Booth tomorrow to face the birds. Hopefully things will go a bit better.