hockey gods love the caps, but hate me

so for the past month or so, i’ve been planning a trip out of town this weekend – from friday to sunday night. destination? PHILADELPHIA.
that’s right. i’m scheduled to be in philly when the games are in washington, and be in washington when the games are in philly.
you bet i’m trying to sort my schedule out now!

ladies and gentleman, your southeast division champions

i would write a blog post recapping the game, but i have some celebrating to take care of…

in honor of fan appreciation night, let me tell you what the fans will really appreciate!

it all comes down to this.
not to sound like a overdramatic hockey fan, but for the washington capitals, this season can be summed up in tonight’s game – if they win it, they’re in it – the race for the cup.

last night’s surprise carolina loss was, well, surprising. and it puts me on edge for tonight. the fact that the caps lost to florida suggests a newly resurgent team – a team that the caps face tonight.

i’m also not going to focus on the fact that carolina’s loss means that ottawa and boston clinch playoff spots, making any chance of squeaking in at 8th a dream.

and yes, i know we have a better chance of getting in at 3rd, but i like to have options, okay?

at any rate, at least one good thing will come out of tonight’s game – the AO bobblehead!

caps 4, ning 1, OMG WE’RE IN THE PLAYOFFS (for the next 21 hours, anyway)

i am a born pessimist, and about the only thing that gets me hopeful is hockey.
but boy, after the first few minutes of the first period, i was playing all sorts of doomsday scenarios in my head.

the ‘ning scored just 39 seconds into the period. ouch. what a lousy way to start a game.
brooks laich answered with a goal a few seconds later, but the refs refused to allow it because a tampa bay player had touched the tampa bay goalie; thus, goalie interference. it was a totally bad call.
and for the next 10 minutes, i had visions of our playoff hopes going down the drain, and the game ending 1-0 ning, and the disallowed brooks laich goal being the one bad call that ended the dream season.

but at 12:01 in the first period, alex ovechkin suddenly made everything better, with goal #64 tying the game. and i suddenly remembered why i’m not pessimistic about hockey. not with this team. not with this coach. not with this beautiful play in a regular season where our team was in the basement.

things just got better and better from there. in the third period, ao scored number 65. and then boyd gordon scored another. and then tom poti launches a beautiful gliding goal down the ice to score an empty netter – his second of the season.

tampa bay did not go down without a fight – literally. after the poti goal, things degenerated into anarchy. a penalty for too many men on the ice degenerated into a knockout brawl between matt bradley and lessard. brads beat him but good, delaying the inevitable win by several minutes.

and then, the game was over, and there was a lot of this going on…

really, caps, thank you. the past few games have been a beautiful coda on a season that once had me in the depths of despair. now the guys are the scrappy underdogs that everyone wants to root for. and it’s a sweet, sweet feeling .

see you on saturday! kitty cats, we’re gunning for you!

you know what was sweet about the caps-canes game?

a LOT.
but things like this were especially nice:

more photos are up on my flickr pages, but i haven’t had time to upload them yet.
woohooo!

caps 4, canes 1, TIE FOR THE SOUTHEAST!

so here are my feelings about tonight’s game:
WOOOOOOOOOOOO!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

now, let me try to be a little more coherent.
i’m not going to reflect on how important tonight’s game was. i already did that during several nailbiting hours leading up to this game.
let’s reflect on what went right.
first of all, it was cristobal huet. he got first star of the game for his 24 saves, but that doesn’t tell the entire story. the canes did their best to rough him up, and he took several hard hits – only one of which drew a penalty – throughout the evening. he truly went above and beyond the call of duty tonight.

next up for kudos is brooks laich, whose goal tonight brought his season total to his jersey number. much of the focus may be on guys like ovechkin and huet, but laich’s season has been solid, and the caps could use a couple reliable 20-goal scorers like him. his reputation on the ice is almost beginning to approach his reputation off the ice (insert gratuitous ladies’ man joke here.)

tonight, alexander semin lived up to his hype. i’ve been frustrated by his lack of ice time this season due to injuries, and more frustrated by some of his fancy footwork on the ice when he is playing, which seems to backfire as often as it clicks. but tonight, semin acted like a proper hockey player and got in some intense hits. great work.

and, of course, the other alex, who sealed the deal with goal 63. admittedly, i’m biased, but if they don’t give him the hart, something is seriously wrong with hockey.

now, two things that worried me – shaone morrisonn left in the first period with an “upper body injury.” that description doesn’t tell you that his helmet got knocked off and he took a pretty serious hit to the head. boyd gordon, went out in the third period, holding a towel to his face. i haven’t seen any information on his status, but he’s tough enough to play with a broken hand, so hopefully, he’ll be able to shake it off before the tampa bay game.

and let me just say again – WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
pictures to come, but i have to head to bed now to dream of purchasing playoff tickets for the caps…

is tonight the most important game for the caps this season?

likely, according to all the folks here, and here, and here, and here.
although i keep telling myself no.
i can’t bother to get any more hyped up about the playoffs, because i’ll blow a gasket.
so let’s review -
if the caps win, it gets them that much closer to the playoffs.
if the caps lose, they’re further away from the playoffs, but have given us an incredible season and rebuild following the pre-thanksgiving collapse.
so many good moments.
so many grinders coming into their own.
so many good players who have been benched by injury, and replaced by young pups who only bring the joy.
seriously – after what happened in the fall, how many of us thought that the playoffs would even be a reality at this point?
i can’t help but thank the caps for this season, no matter what happens tonight.

i can’t watch anymore

as a season ticket holder, i had the chance to upgrade from the cheap seats to a nice set of seats once during the season.
i picked tomorrow night’s game as the night to upgrade. seemed like a good idea at the time, but now, i’m going to be watching the game through my hands – like one does at a horror movie – because we’re in a playoff hunt like crazy. and the tension is killing me!

we’re two points ahead of buffalo, a gap that’s narrowed the past few days, and THREE points behind both boston and philadelphia. and pretty much every single game left is a must win. now, i know the guys are coming off a hugely successful road trip, but all the teams we’re up against are also having amazing runs.

to top it all off, malkin’s also now only 5 points behind ovie in the league, which, combined with the possibility of missing the playoffs, gives ammunition to all those who would deny ovie the hart when he has clearly had an awesome, awesome season. and my fear is that geno’s going to catch up.

i never thought i’d say this, but i just want the season to END. it’s like water torture waiting for the playoff issues to resolve!

Caps 4, Ning 3

Holy mackerel, guys.
First of all, let me say that I appreciate the win. I really do.
But GUYS!
An OVERTIME win against Tampa Bay?
With a game winning goal scored by FLASH?
Clearly, you could have (and should have) dispatched the Ning without having it go into OT. And while it’s nice to see some of the grinders stepping up, relying on Flash to score the gamewinning goal seems to me to be a recipe for disaster.
The only thing that makes me feel better is this quote from the AP article on the game:

“I’m not going to talk about the third period,” said Lightning coach John Tortorella, who walked out his postgame news conference after two questions.

And speaking of AP, take a look at this photo:

and then take a look at the caption:

Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin, of Russia, center, celebrates his goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning with teammates Jeff Schultz (55) and Alexander Semin, of Russia, right, during the third period of their hockey game Thursday, March 27, 2008 in Tampa, Fla. The Capitals defeated the Lightning 4-3 in overtime.

I love AO’s goal scoring craziness as much as the next person, but it seems like a certain captioner needs to get his Russians named Alex straight.

blackhawks FIVE, caps 0, and the title of this blog seems strangely fitting

i can’t complain too much.
the caps won five in a row, so, um, yeah. if we had to lose one, better to lose one big and then be pumped to win the next five games?
sigh.
i’m going to go to work now to try to forget hockey. now THAT’s a change.