NHL Image of the Night- December 30th

Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins fights with Tim Wallace of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Boston defeated the Penguins by the score of 5-2. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

Pre-Game: Capitals @ Sabres

The last time the Caps played at HSBC Arena, Buffalo had an unfair advantage... Ya see, Washington was without Alex Ovechkin who missed a pair of games to start November (both Capitals losses).

Now Washington took the 5-0 defeat at the hands of Thomas Vanek (two goals) and Buffalo, but redeemed themselves on home ice last week, holding off the Sabres 3-2.

• Chris Bourque has been called-up, while Simeon Varlamov was demoted yesterday. Tarik is reporting that Jose Theodore will start again tonight. Jose has not won in Buffalo since January 14, 2000.
• Karl Alzner will sit out tonight's game with a hand injury. Shouldn't be too bad, but it could be, depending on how bad well Tyler Sloan plays.
• Washington has out shot their opponent in five of the last six games (5-1) and is now 15-6-0 when registering more shots than their opponent.
• Mike Green failed to record a shot for the first time this year in the Caps win against Toronto a few days ago. Green skated almost 21 minutes and picked up two assists.

At the beginning of the month, I examined how the Capitals fared when Alex Ovechkin does not get on the score sheet in the month of December.

This December, the Capitals have gone 10-3, with Ovechkin collecting 12 goals and seven assists in the Caps 13 games. Ovechkin was also named the first star of the week. Here's a look at Ovechkin's (and the Capitals') improvement:

December 2005: 8 goals, 11 assists, Capitals record: 5-6-1
December 2006: 9 goals, 14 assists, Capitals record: 6-7-1
December 2007: 11 goals, 7 assists, Capitals record: 7-2-3
December 2008: 12 goals, 7 assists, Capitals record: 10-3-0 (one game left)


I think Ovechkin is trying to impress me, because every Capitals game I go to, he puts on a show. In the games I've been to this year (opening night, Nov 26 vs Atlanta, Nov 28 vs Montreal, and December 28 vs Toronto), Ovie has scored eight goals, averaging two a game...So if anyone wants to give me tickets, I'm pretty sure I'm his good luck charm.

NHL Image of the Night- December 29th

New York Rangers forward, Petr Prucha is tossed aside by Bill Gurien of the New York Islanders. Prucha scored his second goal of the year and the Rangers held off the Islanders 5-4.

Post-Game: Capitals vs Maple Leafs

On a night where one of the Washington Capitals' greatest was immortalized forever atop the rafters at Verizon Center, fans got quite a show from the Caps young stud winger: Alex Ovechkin.

• Ovechkin tallied two goals, bringing his total to 25 for the year. That's good for second in the league on he's on track for 58 goals. Ovie fired seven shots and now averages over six and a quarter per game. If he keeps up his scoring pace, he's looking at a new personal record of 113 points.
• Brooks Laich had his fourth career two-goal game (all Caps wins) and has been on quite a tear of late. He's no longer being "too cute" for Bruce Boudreau, and picking up those dirty goals like he's supposed to.
• Nicklas Backstrom has 30 assists in 37 games, including the two he had last night. He didn't get 30 assists last year until January 21st...I'm just going on record as saying that Backstrom has been my favorite player since 'Day 1' and I wear his jersey to every game.

Being at the game last night was quite an honor to witness history. Mike Gartner played before my time, but from what Rod Languay, Yvon Labre, and Dale Hunter said, he was quite a guy both on and off the ice. I would compare him to Art Monk in the sense that he was so great, but sincec he never showboated, he flew in under the radar.

Watching the video tribute and his jersey being rasied (video), it really sends chills down your back.

• Oh yeah, and for those who still don't believe in Jose:

Jose is set to start his fifth straight game tomorrow against Buffalo, and has won three in-a-row.

And you've gotta check out this story:



Finally, here are some images my friend and I took during the game:

NHL Image of the Night- December 28th

Mike Gartner's jersey was officially retired as the Washington Capitals took down the Toronto Maple Leafs by the score of 4-1. Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.