The Caps looked really good tonight, opening the scoring only thirteen seconds in, and controlling play almost from end to end. Even when they were mostly just sitting back and defending (much of the third period), they still looked calm and methodical about it. It was a very good performance, highlighted by scoring at even strength (twice; Perreault and OV), on the power play (OV), and short-handed (Chimmer).
To top it all off, TVo stopped all 42 shots that made it to the net.
But maybe I'm just getting excited at puck luck. Now that I look, the Caps had 14 giveaways, and that's about ten too many. Also, the shot total was only 24. That's also too low; getting four goals on that many is quite a bit of luck. Still, that shot total was probably skewed a fair bit by the Caps large lead in the third, when they had only six shots (coming with some sustained offensive pressure, and one or two rushes (OV was trying hard for the hat trick)). But they mostly spent the third defending.
So I'm not sure whether to be too happy about this one. On the plus side, the special teams were very good, with nothing allowed on the PK (obviously), and scoring on the only PP opportunity. On the minus side, they need more shots, more power play opportunities, and fewer giveaways.
Still, it's nice to be back in the division lead, even if it won't last for very long (which it very well might not, given the upcoming schedule).
In any event, we won't have to wait very long, with Winnipeg coming to town Thursday. We'll see if any momentum was generated by this game.
Ah, and in a side note, Laich did play, if sparingly. So I guess it really was just a day-to-day thing. Hopefully, he'll be able to keep playing.
And I really need to not wait so long to write up games; I completely forgot about the two penalty shots in the Montreal game until I was watching tonight's game. I have no idea how that slipped my mind.
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