20120423

Hi-Low

Last night's Caps-Bruins game was certainly one for highs and lows. Before the game even started, we saw Pittsburgh eliminated. And I will say that I was impressed. It was 4-1 when I turned it on, and Philly was playing as if they were the team losing, not the ones leading. I can't say as I've ever seen the Caps manage that sort of play when ahead.

The first period was played pretty evenly, territorially, perhaps with a slight edge to Boston. The score, of course, didn't go the Caps way, as they were down on goals to Peverley and Krejci (the latter on the power play) and managed only one score on a Greenie slap shot that ricocheted off a defenseman.

The second period was almost all Caps, though. If I remember aright, they took a couple of minutes to get going, but then were just all over the place. They put the Bruins back on their heels, and were only a little bad luck (and, to be fair, some good goaltending from Thomas) from managing three or four goals. Unfortunately, it took them nineteen minutes to actually hit the back of the net (Chimmer, from Backstrom and Hamr), so they ended the period tied again.

And the third period was again back and forth, with Ference putting the B's up twelve minutes in, and OV almost bringing the house down when he tied it three minutes later. Fortunately or unfortunately, that was all the scoring for the period (probably fortunately, as Boston had the better of the play from there on out), so they went into overtime again.

And things continued to go poorly in the extra period. The Caps managed one or two chances, but spent too much time in their own end. And then Backstrom had his second bad turnover of the game (Nicky had a very up-and-down game, with two assists, but two mistakes leading to goals against. Ference's third period goal was largely due to him failing to hustle on a back-check), giving Boston the puck at the blue line, and they brought it in, and Seguin managed to skate past Wideman and Holtby to put it in the net from a sharp angle.

So everyone heads back to Boston for a winner-take-all game seven in Beantown. I'm hoping the Caps can manage to play at least two periods Wednesday the way they played the second period yesterday. If so, they'll move on comfortably. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

And let's hope Dale starts playing guys a bit more smartly. Ward is playing well, but is getting damned few opportunities (at the very least, he should be playing the PK. But he could also use more even strength time). Knuble played, but only for six minutes. Perreault, who's been very effective, did not plya at all. The one good thing I can say is that at least Beagle didn't get more time than OV (though he did get more than Semin, who was, again, very good while he was on the ice).

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