Howling for dinner

[I wrote this four or five days ago, but am finally getting around to posting it.] Last night's Caps game was kind of a "two steps forward, one step back" game.

I haven't talked too much about it, but Carlson seems to have regressed a bit since last season. Part of that, I suspect, is that he hasn't been playing with Alzner lately. Well, tonight shows us his highs and lows. He did get a goal, but he also had a terrible play at the point in fielding a faceoff that gave Vrbata a solo breakaway that resulted in a shorthanded goal.

How about that power play? Well, they did end up breaking an 0 for 20+ streak, but there was that shorthanded goal. Oh, and the other shorthanded goal in the second period (again on a solo breakaway).

All that aside, I was pretty pleased with the game, as a whole. They did a good job of keeping possession, and not allowing the Yotes to set up much (or for extended periods). Most importantly, they were working hard (all of the penalties (except for the delay of game, arguably) they drew were the result of working hard, and putting pressure on the howlers), not just sitting back.

One thing that was kind of weird was that Boudreau seemed to have put his line combinations through a cuisinart (even more so than usual, that is), but couldn't even stick with the new ones he came up with for tonight. The one that really seemed weird was when OV, Backstrom, and Halpern were on together for half a minute or so, although OV and Backstrom were mostly together with Brouwer. But the shutdown line was also Laich, Chimmer, and Knuble and the second one was Eakin, Johansson, and Ward. One thing I liked was that Perreault was brought back from pergatory to play on the fourth line; he mostly looked good.

You'll probably notice, of course, that Semin wasn't in that list anywhere. He was passing nachos all night (aiming for the top corner, if past experience is any guide), as punishment for his glut of penalties. I'm skeptical that it will do anything, one way or the other, for Semin, but it might still be a good idea, just to show that everyone is accountable. We'll see.

One other interesting tidbit: Orlov was finally called up for the game. He looked pretty good in his 11:56, even if he did get stapled to the bench for most of the third period. The one negative was the goal he was on for in the third (he didn't come back out after that), but that seemed more a bad bounce than him doing something truly wrong (to me, at least). My one disappointment was not getting to see more of his slap-shot, that I've heard so much about. I only remember him getting one off on the night. Of course, he only got one shift on the power play, which doesn't help (on the plus side, they did score on that shift, if one second after the PP ended).

Anyway, next up is Winnipeg, tomorrow night. Let's hope it goes a lot better than their last match-up.