Ovechkin Returns (Updated)

thanks god he's back

Max23,
Fair enough. I didn't catch most of pregame, so I'll take your word on it.

Geez, the guys need to control their sticks. And how wacky are the bounces this season?

This is such a weird game.

can somebody explain why the goalie wasn't there?

He's taken like two shifts and that's it. He also fanned on a couple shot opportunities on his last shift.

Definitely doesn't appear 100% healthy. Ugh.

If you're talking about that near miss, when refs call a delayed penalty, the team that will go on the PP will often pull their goalie in favor of an extra skater since if the other team touches the puck, the whistle goes for the penalty. Nearly foolproof, except, well, almost tonight.

all this penalties! stop!

told ya i saw the hit on Ovie and it sure looked like a slight tear to possible dislocation.

Not going to be the same I say. Get used to it.

thanks jmu_capsgirl

told ya it was bound to happen. these young kids don't play smart hockey and play too recklessly.

They will learn one day.

no cup this year it looks like.

Lepisto is not an NHL defenseman. That is becoming more and more clear as we get deeper into the season. That misplay was just brutal, end of the shift or not.

windjammersouth: your comments are worthless. go back under your bridge.

no I'm right cbs75. In fact I'm dead on don't you think. Don't get mad at me get mad at your T.V.

Hey look on the bright side -- you can root for the Redskins or Wizards :oP

Goalies are usually pulled during delayed penalty calls. When the ref signifies who the penalty is on, the play does not stop until the penalized team touches the puck. So on that particular play, if the Caps had touched the puck there, there would be no way they could score, that's why they pulled McDonald.

the worst injuries in hockey are your brain, shoulder, ankle, thigh, hand, elbow, and back.

Did i miss any body parts?

these refs are a joke

By the way, that was to yrb1.

I CANNOT believe all these penalties!!!!!!!

two penalties on Ovechkin in the 2nd. I guess that's one way to rest an ailing shoulder...

thanks,rachel

knee, funny bone, shin, neck, collar bone, sternum, calf, toe, finger.

I can name body parts, too!

jmu: I think you missed groin!

well, the effort is there tonight. I think we can agree on that. rookie ref tryin to make a point on the NHL MVP? Dope.

Also...I think maybe windjammer has watched too many of those Holiday Inn commercials. You know: I'm not a doctor, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

He makes the baby Jesus sad durring the christmas season.

oh.. I forgot to mention...couple years ago, I got smacked in the face with a stick blade and lost three teeth. That hurt like the Dickens.

Just sayin cuz I didnt see that on Dr. Windjammer DDS. list of important body parts. Last time I checked...teeth are kinda cool to have.

windjammersouth's bridge is probably in Philly and it is just mad that spear boy is hurt again.

*smacks head* Tess! How could I have forgot! Oh no, I just injured my brain. The. most. devastating. hockey. injury. ever.

@JMU...LMAO Well played. Very well played. Almost had pop out the nose!

Not to make light of guys with concussions (see Pothier, Brian; and possibly Erskine, John).

no, no, no. wasn't taken that way. well, at least not by people who dont have an injured brain.

Oh man. I need to take cold meds more often. I'm semi-witty all of a sudden.

SMOOOOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTTTTT

Man, Macdonald is SOLID

I don't know if the boys ate their orange wedges between periods. They look a little sluggish at the start, huh?

Quick, Snow, sign him to a 15-year deal!!

Yeah Brash!

SO COOL! Rock Cartwright & Fred Smoot are at the game!! :) GO Caps & Redskins!

Yeah Brash!!!!!!!!!

well..I'll shut up now, right? Hey..thats what you want from the "energy" line. Ugly goals.

Hang on Johnie!!

OK, things are looking up...Ovie is back to being Ovie, Donald has a goal, and I just finished addressing my Christmas cards.

Uh, was that blonde they just showed Ovi's reality show girl???

I really love it when Brashear scores!

Lepisto having himself a heck of a game...

Just flipped over to FSN-Pittsburgh. The Pens are beating Carolina 5-2 midway through the 3rd.

Nice Brash. Way to keep working hard.
Great to see all the lines contribute.

Too many hooks and holds, which means they are beating us with speed.

are people really dumb enough to go to Cash-Point?
If you go there...you don't deserve to have a car. You're too dumb to drive.

why do they insist on going to commercial break when the action isn't over?

lamp,
easy...lol

i agree that sami just aint ready for prime time. seems like teams are on to him and make sure to pressure him. although i will say he was hung out to dry on that second goal. ovie turned away when he should have hung out to help clear the zone....

@JMU_capsgirl

Hey Joan welcome back to the party. How was the beach this summer?

Maybe its just me, but I see Sami making a lot of the same mistakes young blueliners make in their first year, including a guy named Mike Green. He's not the dman thats going to make you forget he's on the ice he's so smooth. He's the guy that pinches in, creates some offense, and makes a mistake or two that makes you question his d talent. That's just how I see him, though.

And woooooo! Let's go boys. Keep the pressure on!

I've given myself a five min. major to calm down

This might sound excessive but I would have liked to see Brash get the GWG. Anyway, nice one Eric!

game, set, match

Wooooo!

BB will probably give Ovie the day off for that one.

Woo on the goals... so stressful I can't watch this (connection too slow in this hotel). How did the boys do - aside from the win?

brash did get the gwg

Oh yeah, Brash did get the GWG.

Nice one boys!

Mauree- I thought they guys came out with more energy, played a more physical style and took the play to the Isles. A rookie ref loved playing the whistle tonight and that kinda took away from the flow a little, but the effort was solid and the boys looked pretty good.

I am concerned that OV might be a little dinged up. Hope not though.

Hope you are well.

Oh....for you and the others....just picked up the rights to New Castle Brown Ale!!

...and the new house!! Wooooooooooo.

Devils just beat the Flyers in OT.

brash fight lol? he doesnt hit he just envisions the 1million plus he is getting for being a veteran(too old to fight more than once a month)on a team where he bathes in past glories and floats like the majority of this team as evidenced in our performance against Florida. Wainting for this has been to lead this team is a joke and is why we are not going anywhere with him and nylander and others who just dont give a shyt on every shift of every game like u need to to win and avoid embarrassment in todays nhl

Posted by: wendel2 | December 4, 2008 2:10 PM

spot on commentary from wendel. brash just sat around and collected his paycheck tonight...

*wiping the tear from my eye* thank you Tess! Another holiday miracle

@ dcsportsfan1.

dude why so negative? We won get over it. give yourself a 5-minute major and cool out.

:oP

I believe dcsportsfan1 was quoting. At least, that's what "Posted by: wendel2 | December 4, 2008 2:10 PM" generally means.

we?

windjammersouth

I think he was sarcastic :D

lamp: thanks, and good, we needed a good win :)

does someone want to explain the right-click, cut & paste options? I'm too tired.

I thought it was genious. I hope others bow down at the genious of the comedy.

you dont need to explain things to windjammer. he's proven himself to be a pretty smart and clever guy. i mean, it's not easy to cut and paste over and over again.

@jmu_capsgirl: How's the new house working out?

uh you missed the comment underneath and the comments throughout the day.

The beach??? vollyball??? Bar golf?? Hanging out with the young n's

I love how a victory brings out the razor sharp wit of all of you. I've been laughing for the last hour. Thanks to everyone!!

One too many penalties for my liking, but other than that, it was a fairly solid game. Loved seeing all that SOG's! Need to keep doing that each game. What was it, 40+ SOG's tonight.

Nice to see Brash score. It was long over due. It was also pretty sweet to see Alzner's intelligence on the ice. To have the mentality to bounce it off the boards like that, was pretty amazing. Well to me, anyway.

Ovie never stops amazing me. I mean seriously, the guy gets hurt, but still has the energy to come back, play physical and score more points. Yeah, he's done this before, (i.e. Last season's game against Montreal where he broke his nose got stitches and scored 4 goals) but those injuries weren't as serious as a shoulder injury. Oh, and what class he displayed passing up the empty net goal, and giving it to Backs.

Some of the passes Kozlov made tonight just put me in awe. Specifically that one pass in either the 1st or 2nd period (can't remember which) where he dangled through a defender, then passes the puck to Flash. Unfortunate Flash couldn't finish, though.

I really like Lepisto on the PP. Not only has he gotten a few assists, but he shoots the puck just about every chance he gets.

I did not realize how small Aucoin was, until the second period. That said, he's just one little ball of energy. Fast skater, made some amazing passes, forechecked pretty well. Unlucky he wasn't able to notch that shorthanded goal.

mauree- I'm sure there are some things that people can pick at, but it was a solid effort. Elicea hit the nail on the head as well.

There are still too many guys parked in the crease all night, but that will change. The PK was sharp on the SOG were great. Seems like they get the hint to throw rubber at the net and then get the dirty goals.

Lets just hope the trend starts to snowball!

I have noticed on this board a lot of questions asked by people that are new to watching Hockey. That tells me that OV and the boys are creating buzz and bringing in new fans...that is a GREAT for who I believe to be one of the BEST owners ever.
Second...I didn't see the game, but noticed it was a sellout tonight. Please tell me the majority of fans there were Cap Fans and that there wasn't an over abundance of folks from the Island...

windjammersouth, Not exactly sure what you're trying to say, but you've lost me. I'm all about learning and relieving my own ignorance though, so feel free to enlighten me.

;-)

And if I really wanted to be winked at and not talked to, I'd put on a dress and heels and walk through a construction site.

Tim- couldn't agree more. Isn't it nice to see that more new folks are embracing the Caps and hockey in general? Use to make me pissed because DC is such a bandwagon, front-runner kind of town, and most of the newbee's didn't know the difference between "hooking" and, well..HOOKING. but what the hell...the more the merrier.

I didn't go tonight (2nd game I had to miss from being sick. Ryan is 1 and 1 so the jury is out on my replacement :) but the other games I went to, the crowds were about 95% Caps fans. Except for the Montreal game.

Lamp...for better or worse...this is a front-running town...then again...what city isn't (save for the Cubbie fans in Chicago)?
Ted and his ownership group went about this the right way...they built through the draft, saw the HOCKEY GOD they had in OV and made damn sure that he wasn't going to leave town anytime soon. Cup or no cup this year (but lets think CUP anyway), a nice, deep run into the playoffs, with lots of home games that will help Uncle Ted financially would be WONDERFUL

jmu_capsgirl,

Good effort trying to be nice and reasonable with somone dysfunctional. It is probably looking for something to copy and paste in reply.

Tim- you're right on all accounts. I'm happy for Ted because he just wants to see the boys skate with the cup. I like that. He had a plan and he worked/is working it. Seems like the minors have a good pool of talent and the team is set for continued success. I agree...maybe not this year, but it wont be long. After watching bad hockey for so long, another cup run like '98 would be a blast. Heck...last year was fun.

Funny you mentioned the Cub's. I was born in Chicago and lived there till college. Had my first beer at Cubbie Bear's.

_Mark,
lol. Thanks.

Lamp: Cook County Hospital, 1962...

Although my first beer was nowhere close to Chi-town.

I hope this has already been discussed, but I don't want to spend any energy reading the other comments it being almost 11 already. I just wanted to point out what a special play Ovechkin showed us he was tonight, he scored, he played through injury, and did one of the most selfless things i've seen in pro hockey when he gave the puck to Backstrom for the empty net goal. Ovechkin had a 90 percent chance of making that goal but instead of risking 10 percent he gave it to Backstrom to make sure the team won. Okay now i'm done kissing Ovie's @$$ for the night.

thats so funny. don't know if you know where loretto hospital is, but that's me. near Riverside. Then we moved to Evanston. Right by the Dempster Street Beach. Aaaahhhh. Memories.

Well- thanks again all. I have to try and act like I care tomorrow morning, so I'm gonna hit the hay.

dcfury,
We'll all be kissing his @$$ for the next decade or so. And we're lucky as anything for it!

Ok, i'm now completely tired of seeing this bite us in the ass. When a penalty is almost up, Johnny HAS to let his PP guys know. He does that tonight, FWDs are more careful with the puck and Lepisto isn't hung out to dry by another ill-timed linechange.

This is now the 4th time we have given up a goal at the end of a PP because of carelessness in the O zone. It has yet to happen with JT60 in goal and I am convinced with some warning the 4 against BJ would not happen if he'd just wrap his stick on the ice.

And can someone explain to me why BB changed our guys at that moment, giving no back-check? BB's got to get better at his line changes. Early in the year he had more bad changes but tonight's on the 2nd goal was horrible.

a complete win for a change. its remarkable how good we can be when we give up 2 or less. three or more and we lose.alot of traffic in front tonight and that was teh first game this year that we have paid the price in front of the net. now lets go win 2 this weekend.

dcfury-
Give him the C already.

per Corey Masisak (I'm sure Tarik will post this too): Both Ovie and Boudreau say he went off because of a "skate" and "equipment malfunction" respectively, not an injury.

Wow. THAT there was some hockey.

@dcfury - that is what makes Ovechkin special. The man has no ego. It rocks!

BRASHEAR! OMG! YES! That goal was LONG overdue!

Let's keep winning so windjammersouth will get bored and go away. How'dya like them Big Apples?

I hope thats not like a "wardrobe malfunction..." THAT would be disturbing...
___________________________________________________

per Corey Masisak (I'm sure Tarik will post this too): Both Ovie and Boudreau say he went off because of a "skate" and "equipment malfunction" respectively, not an injury.

Posted by: jmu_capsgirl | December 4, 2008 11:10 PM

@TimDz - *snicker*

No, a "wardrobe malfunction" is what happens when you lose your helmet like someone did tonight... or a glove, like Brashear did - no, wait. Brash might have been jonesin' for a mix-up. ;-)

Did anyone else think Aucoin had a great game??? Ovie showed how unselfish a superstar he really is. Lets go CAPS!!!!

Just came back. For what it's worth:

How'd that Nylander on the wing concept go? Yeesh.

Hopefully Kozlov and Brashear can use tonight to springboard onto more consistent play going forward.

I wish the d-men would stop trying to be Scott Stevens again. It's not NHL 09, stop trying to line people up for hip checks against the boards (Alzner and Sloan, I'm looking at you).

Maybe it's me, but it didn't seem like a complete 60. Raise your hands if you thought they'd score 3 in the third.

It also seemed like the emotion was a little more palpable across the team too, both Lepisto and Morrisonn visibly protested penalties, the latter I don't recall seeing him do.

Anyway, I'll give it a B, take the two, and hope for good things on the road, especially on Sunday.

@TrappedinGA - Aucoin kicked butt and took names out there. Excellent game for the lad from Hershey!

@Section117 - second period wasn't so hot. I'll agree with that B, though. We got the job done. :-)

@irockthered - Hey.....Two points!!! Whatever works. I'm glad BB gave his motivational speech. Lets keep it up! C-A-P-S!!!

Greatest. Giveaway. Ever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm0M2kGpN1s&e

@Windjammersouth

How was the holiday inn express last nite?
Seems like you know it all.