Weekend Recap of the Capitals vs the Devils

I got back from NYC this evening and now am just getting caught up on Washington's recent news. If you were wondering... I did rock-the-red in the Big Apple, drawing strange looks from Bruins and Rangers fans that were going to the game on Saturday night, but I could honestly care less. The Rangers ended up winning the game in the shootout, 3-2. I did not attend but the game was pretty exciting and came down to a replay that (correctly) disallowed goal by Patrice Bergeron. And that is all for pro-Rangers hockey talk...

As for the Capitals, I looked at the box score of Saturday's game and thought nothing of it...and when I finally watched the highlights, I was going crazy. That is the definition of stealing a point. Ovechkin's tally as time expired was unreal. I'm not sure the last time Washington scored with (less than) one second left, but after watching the highlights, I immediately thought of Jaromir Jagr's last-second goal to tie Calgary in 2004.

From various sources, the Capitals played like crap, and did not deserve a point. Be this as it may, the Caps were able to gain a standings point and now have points in nine of ten (7-1-2).

Alex Ovechkin now has 13 points in his last six games while linemate Nicklas Backstrom recorded his first five-point game and has 12 points in his past five matches. Backstrom just craked the top 10 in leaders in assists and it is also noteworth that Evgeni Malkin took over the lead in points posting a four-point night on Saturday. Malkin has points in all but one game and is currently on a 13-game point streak that started with a loss to Washington back on October 16th.

Alexander Semin scored one goal and had an assist in that game, but sat out Saturday's game after leaving Friday's game with an upper-body injury.

So now the Capitals will travel on another west-coast road trip. facing Anaheim, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Minnesota.

Washington will then play host to Atlanta and Montreal before going on the road to Columbus for their final game in November...Here is what last year's November looked like compared to this one (through seven games).

2007-2008
1-5-1, points in 29% of games.

2008-2009
5-0-2, points in 100% of games.

That also reminds me that the Capitals are now the only team left that is undefeated in regulation at home in the Eastern Conference (7-0-1). The only other team that is unbeaten in regulation at home is the San Jose Sharks. San Jose's next home game? November 22nd versus Washington.

Remember to check back often for recent Washington Capitals news and updates, including pre and post-game analysis, news from around the league, and the Image of the Night.