20111125

Jason Chimera goes for a swim...

Those were the words that came out of the receiver when I turned on the game, the other night (the projector was not yet warmed up). My first thought, "Crap, I left the set-top box tuned to that channel". I noticed the horn in the background, and my second thought was that the Caps must be doing well, maybe adding another goal in a blowout. Finally, I got the channel changed before any more words came out.

So I finally got the beginning of the game, and started watching. The Caps were looking pretty good, and the Caps got on the board first only five minutes in. Carlson hit a long pass to OV in the O zone, OV's first touch was a backhand pass to Semin streaking down the other side, and Semin buried it in the back of the net. It was very pretty.

As an aside, though, I had a weird reaction to seeing it. Growing up, I didn't think much of the pure goal scorers, thinking them selfish players unwilling to work with their teammates (not saying that was an educated opinion, just what I thought at the time). In any event, the first thing that went through my head when OV passed that one was that I really want to see him shooting. I always want that to be his first thought (not necessarily to follow through, but to consider it).

Anyway, as I said, odd reaction aside, it was a very nice goal.

The next twenty minutes felt a bit more like Vegas, though, as Ladd, Chimmer, Wellwood, and Backstrom each scored their seventh goal of the season. That was all the scoring for the next thirty minutes, until Little put it past Vokoun with about seven and a half left in regulation. Very disappointing.

Play went back and forth for the rest of the period, but nobody was able to get it to hit the twine. Finally, two minutes into overtime, MarJo, Wideman, and Chimmer combined to put it past Pavelec to win the game. And then I got to see Chimmer's celebration that led to the call I'd heard at the beginning. (Incidentally, I noticed that Chimmer got a number of shifts at the end of the game; Bruce rewarding his hard work, I guess.)

It was a nice finish to the game, and there were certainly positives to take away. I liked that the Caps were never trailing, and did a good job playing a decent amount in the Jets' end of the ice. But they kept letting Winnipeg back into the game; that needs to stop.

Semin had a pretty good game, coming back from his scratch. Orlov got his first point with an assist on Backstrom's goal (and generally looked good, as well; very physical). Carlson, Alzner, and Wideman also added assists from the blue line. OV got on the board. The PK was perfect (Perreault even looked pretty good in his one shift on the PK).

But there were definitely negatives, as well. Vokoun didn't look great. The power play wasn't.

But that's about it until today's matinee game against the Rangers.

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