While giving up a 3 goal lead in game 2 had to be demoralizing for the Habs, game 3 might be the nail in the coffin for their psyches. The Habs came out and played their best period of hockey this series in the first and it netted them nothing
. The Caps are back. The defense held tight finally overwhelming with the backcheck, and the unknowns (outside of DC) came up with the offense as the Habs concentrated on Ovechkin. There is a reason Boudreau won coach of the year before he even coached a full season in the NHL, and McPhee should be the executive of the year after this run. I would have gone with Theodore tonight, but Varly was obviously the right choice; he was stunning. I didn't understand why Steckel was a healthy scratch; he was our best player game 1 and has been shut down on the penalty kill. (And is our key to beating the Pens and the refs if it comes to that.) But Boudreau made the gut decision to go with Boyd Gordon on the fourth line, and was rewarded with a shorthanded goal and 13 for 15 from the circle. McPhee bringing in the depth to be able to make these switches mid-series is huge. Chimera is the best mid-season pickup, turning into our own Avery or Barnaby, except with more speed and class without the dirtiness.
. The Caps are back. The defense held tight finally overwhelming with the backcheck, and the unknowns (outside of DC) came up with the offense as the Habs concentrated on Ovechkin. There is a reason Boudreau won coach of the year before he even coached a full season in the NHL, and McPhee should be the executive of the year after this run. I would have gone with Theodore tonight, but Varly was obviously the right choice; he was stunning. I didn't understand why Steckel was a healthy scratch; he was our best player game 1 and has been shut down on the penalty kill. (And is our key to beating the Pens and the refs if it comes to that.) But Boudreau made the gut decision to go with Boyd Gordon on the fourth line, and was rewarded with a shorthanded goal and 13 for 15 from the circle. McPhee bringing in the depth to be able to make these switches mid-series is huge. Chimera is the best mid-season pickup, turning into our own Avery or Barnaby, except with more speed and class without the dirtiness.The Caps hits are wearing the undersized Habs down more game by game. The only thing the Caps led in any statistical category in the first period was hits at a 15-7 clip. The results came in the second with the four goal onslaught and 4 minutes of penalty time alone to a frustrated Plakanec. That's the second game in a row one of their top-liners has gone away for a significant chunk of time. OV has been neutralized (by OV standards, he still scored a goal,) but Montreal's top liners all had a -4 rating tonight. Boudreau made the adjustments with the players McPhee got for him, and those two should share the hard hat for the night.
And the Caps are not even playing their best hockey. They were dominated in the first, and the Canadiens still couldn't get a lead. OV was neutralized, and Semin continues to prove that Backstrom's extension should have been hammered out well before his. He stopped short of preventing a Caps icing for fear of getting hit. OV gave him a perfect pass to a wide open net that he flubbed. Green is finally playing defense, but his offense is still AWOL. OV had only one shot but made it count, so flummoxing the Canadian scoreboard guy they put the goal up for the Canadiens. (I know the Canadians have a propensity for cheating but even the refs noticed that.)And currently, the number one power play in the league has less goals than the penalty killing unit. (0-7 tonight, 0-14 this series, 0 for the last 21 stretching back to the regular season, and Gordon scored shorthanded tonight.) The Caps are finally jogging, but by no means are they sprinting. They have woken up from the malaise of a team that clinched at least the third seed in early March, and have scored 10 out of the series last 12 goals. They are unbeatable if Varly stays hot and all cylinders start clicking, not just in this series, but the rest of the way. But lets not deal in ifs, lets just win the 14 left and be on with it.
If the Caps keep it up and win game 4 this series is over. Maybe we can get a sneak peak of Hershey for game 5 in DC. I know this would shortchange the fans at Verizon on Friday, but they have an assignment to occupy them. Lets show Canada what a classy hockey town looks like. When O Canada comes on pre-game don't boo like the classless Canadians did tonight amongst chants of "OV Sucks" during the Star Spangled Banner. Cheer for them, they could use the pick-up. They don't have much in Canada besides hockey, and by the looks of tonight's game
and these "die-hard" hockey fans filing out halfway through the third period in a playoff game, that doesn't amount to much either. Its not the first time these people have done this, and it probably won't be the last. They did it across the nation at the Vancouver-LA game as well. I know I have pointed out Canada's intolerance in this blog before, with their history of Nazism and the oppression of all players non-Canadian by the NHL front office. But this is still spilling over as shown in the picture above with the Nazi salute and the angry child in their Canadian garb and actions before the game. Maybe they aren't as classless as Philly fans, right? Wow, you have really hit rock bottom when Flyers fans show you up. I hope we beat these SOBs a combined 20-0 for number 14 and 13 on the hit list.
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