Caps Close out Rangers, Hawks still in there!!

What a difference a couple of days makes!

My Washington Capitals defeated my New York Rangers (favorite goalie Henrik Lundqvist) in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference FQ Finals by a score of 3- 1. That made the series 4 - 1 Caps and my prediction completely inaccurate!

On the other side, the Western Conference Q - Final between the Vancouver Canucks and Chicago Blackhawks is going to a game 7. The Hawks clawed their way back down 3 games to even the series at 3 apiece. The story of game 4 was the 7 -2 thrashing of the Canucks in Chicago. Game 5 ended 5 - 0 Hawks and Game 6 ended up going to OT, with the Hawks winning 4 - 3 on a goal by Ben Smith with less than five minutes to go in the first OT period. So, game 7 goes Tuesday in Vancouver.
Game 6 highlights -- In what most analysts called a great move, Canucks backup Cory Schneider started the game. Never was one team up more than a goal over the other. The Canucks opened the scoring and teams traded goals up until the score was 3 - 3. Schneider, in his first ever playoff start, was hurt early in the 3rd period on a game tying penalty shot by Michael Frolik. A cold Roberto Luongo, who wasn't even sitting on the bench all game long, came in and only faced 2 shots for the remainder of the 3rd period.
The hometown crowd erupted and so did I when Smith netted that goal. I was so nervous the entire game, knowing the game could go either way. I was also watching the game with 4 Canucks fans, which is something I hate to do (watch hockey with other people, to clarify). I don't watch hockey the way a lot of people do. I can be completely objective, even if my favorite player or team is playing. I'm definitely not a homer.

Anyway, here's to a great game seven. May the team with the momentum win!

Caps at Hawks + Ovi's game misconduct (March 14 game)

The Washington Capitals visited the Chicago Blackhawks at United Center on an early Sunday matchup. It was a highly anticipated game, played nationally in the US on NBC as their 'Game of the Week'.

With the game already 1 - 0 on a Jonathan Towes goal at the 7:00 minute mark of the first period, Alexander Ovechkin pushed Hawks dman Brian Campbell heavily into the boards. Ovechkin instantly knew he was going to the box, and as he was sitting in the 'sin bin' he was told by a linesman that he was finished for the day. He was called for a boarding major and a game misconduct, and left the game much to the delight of the 18,000 + Hawks faithful.
On the 5 minute powerplay, the Hawks went up 2 - 0 on Toews second of the afternoon.
The only thing on the score sheet in the second period is a goal by John Madden, which gave the Hawks a three goal advantage. 3 - 0 Hawks after a period and a half. Pierre McQuire was between the benches and noted the body language on the Caps bench. They looked lost without their captain. As the clock wound down on the second period, a scuffle ensued that saw three guys head into the room knowing they would start the third in the box. The Caps would have a powerplay to start the third on fresh ice.
The Caps failed to produce on their first pp of the third. But at the 3:51 mark, Hawks Hendry took a double minor after a high stick on Semin cut # 28 under the chin. On the pp, Brooks Laich netted his 22nd of the season. Cue the comeback - 3 - 1 Hawks. Hawks Colin Fraser earned himself 2 minutes for highsticking on a delayed call and that put the Caps on a 5 on 3 for two full minutes, as the double minor was still being served. Just as the 5 on 3 ended, Nicklas Backstrom nets his 27th of the season and 13 seconds after that, Eric Fehr tied it up 3 - 3. The rest of the period saw the Hawks back on their heels, the Caps having changed the momentum of the game completely. After 60 regulation minutes, the score was tied 3 - 3 and headed to OT.

With three minutes elapsed in the third period, Nicklas Backstrom gave the puck away to Hawks Troy Brouwer at his own defensive zone. Brouwer was going in on a partial break on Caps goalie Jose Theodore, and Backstrom used his deceptive speed to catch up to him and sweep the puck away from Brouwer. He didn't get a shot off. The puck hit the boards and Backie scooped it up in his own zone. He skated down the left wing, came up the middle in the offensive zone, burned Hawks dman Brent Seabrook (who looked silly spinning around) on a nifty move and flicked the puck through the legs of goaltender Antti Niemi. Game over. Caps win 4 - 3 on Backie's 2nd goal of the night.

McQuire noted that after the game, newly aquired Cap, Eric Belanger said to him, "We didn't do that in Minnesota".

All the talk after the game was Ovechkin's hit on Brian Campbell. Campbell did not return to the game after the hit in the first period. Speculation was that Ovechkin would be automatically suspended because of his history. All was cleared up by Caps media Nate Ewell, who tweeted: "Ovechkin not subjecct to an automatic suspension because more than a half season has elapsed since his last boarding major"

Ovechkin addressed the media promptly after the win. "It was not a hard hit. I just pushed him. I saw the replay a couple of times. He just fell bad. That's it."
Ovechkin went on to praise his teammates who clawed their way back into the game. "It's nice to see when teams come back especially from 3 - 0. I know the guys are very happy and coach is happy. It's always nice when you come back and win in overtime in that kind of game. Mentally, it is very important for us."

As far as further discipline from the League, Ovechkin says, "it's hockey and I'm ready for everything."

With the Caps win this afternoon, they've broken the 100 point plateau, the first team to do so this season. They sit atop the League with 101 points, and are the fastest in Caps franchise history to hit 100 points.
Also of note, the Caps have come back from 3 goals down three times this season.

Oh yeah, at the second period intermission, NBCs Mike Milbury assessed the Ovechkin hit on Campbell as, "Ovechkin's 5 minute pushing major".

Olympics - end of the road for me (maybe)

"This is the worst day of my hockey life", is what I said after Sweden lost 4 - 3 to Slovakia in their quarterfinal match last night. The game was over at 12:14 a.m Calgary time, and that's all I could manage to say.

The night started out with Canada laying a beating on Russia, the score being 7 - 3 when all was said and done.
Then the Finns blanked the Czechs 2 - 0.
And in what was the upset of the games in men's hockey, Slovakia beat up on my Swedes 4 - 3. Oh sure, the Swedes made it interesting, scoring goals 37 seconds apart to tie the game 2 - 2 at one point in the second period. With my heart racing as quickly as the .10 second clock, the clock ticked down and it was all over.

All in all, the 5 Washington Capitals that were in the Olympics all lost out in a matter of hours!
Russians Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Semyon Varlamov went out first, then Czech Thomas Fleishmann, and finally, the Swedish Nicklas Bäckström.

From espn.go.com -- "I don't know, I don't have an explanation right now," a stunned Backstrom said. "I don't feel we were on top of our game. They're a good team, we knew that before the game, but we weren't ready maybe.

"We should be better than what we showed. I'm just really upset right now."

That's what bothers me most - my guys expecting more from themselves and when it doesn't happen, them feeling upset over something they can not directly control.

Now they can all get back to the business at hand and focus on making a good Cup run with their Capitals.
The rest of my Caps had their first practice yesterday at Kettler.

(P.S - at one point during the Russia/Canada game, I remember thinking that if it were the Capitals playing this version of team Canada, Caps could come back from a 3-goal deficit easy.)

I do not wear black clothes, but if I did, today would be the day to dust them off...

I don't know if I'll have enough interest left in me to continue watching the rest of the men's hockey. I would be rooting for the Finns I think. Maybe I'll put the gold medal game on in the background as I'm housecleaning on Sunday. Right now though, I've just moved into the 'acceptance' stage.