Well, the good news is that the Washington Redskins didn\u2019t lose last week (they don\u2019t play until tonight) and neither did the Washington Capitals!<\/p>\n
It\u2019s another Monday, so it must be time for another Caps Recap!<\/p>\n
After suffering through four straight losses, the Capitals have bounced back and added two more games to the win column last week and have now won four straight. This is certainly worth celebrating, but the fact is, the Caps are still not playing really good hockey. To say their power play is not performing would be an understatement; their power play has proven to be a liability as their opponents scored two shorthanded goals while the Caps went 0-11 on the power play last week alone.<\/p>\n
I suppose you could say the Caps went -2 for 11 on the PP.<\/p>\n
Something else that is interesting is that Caps superstar Alex Ovechkin was rendered without a goal in both of this past week\u2019s contests. You might say that a large part of the teams woes have to do with the slump that Ovechkin finds himself in, which could have something to do with the absence of Alex Semin on the second line.<\/p>\n
Superstars not withstanding; the Caps have seen their B-liner\u2019s step it up and that\u2019s what you need from a good hockey team. Their wins may not have been pretty, but you get no extra points for style.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s get to the recap<\/p>\n
Thursday, October 22nd<\/sup> \u2013 Caps @ Atlanta<\/span> \u2013 <\/strong>In keeping with their trend, the Caps jumped out to an early lead when Eric Fehr scored on an early breakaway just 2:02 into the game. Atlanta matched them step for step in the first period and both teams went into the locker-room tied at 2 goals apiece. In the second period, the Caps victimized Thrashers\u2019 goalie Ondrej Pavalec by scoring three goals in :88 seconds and ending his night early. The Caps\u2019 special teamers gave up a shorthanded and a power-play goal in the third period, but the team managed to hang on and eek out a 5-4 victory.<\/p>\n Dialing Long Distance \u2013 <\/strong>Midway through the second period, Jeff Schultz got the gift of a lifetime scoring a goal from 190 feet away. As he rounded his own net, he received a pass from Caps\u2019 netminder Semyon Varlamov, and tried to pass the puck up the ice to Mike Knuble. As far as passes go, it wasn\u2019t a very good one and never connected with Knuble, but it skipped it\u2019s way up the ice taking an extremely lucky (or unlucky, depending on whom you were rooting for) bounce a mere seven feet from Thrasher\u2019s goalie Ondrej Pavalec shooting right up over his glove and into the net.<\/p>\n Noticeably Absent \u2013 <\/strong>The Capital\u2019s \u201cYoung Guns\u201d (Ovechkin, Backstrom, Semin and Green) were each held without a point in Thursday\u2019s game versus Atlanta (to be fair, Semin wasn\u2019t playing due to injury). The Caps were 0-1 this year when their young stars were held scoreless, and went 1-9-1 in the few times that it happened last year.<\/p>\n Maybe it\u2019s the name Alex\u2026 – <\/strong>With Alexander Semin out with an injury, and Alexander Ovechkin having trouble finding the back of the net, it fell to Alexandre Giroux to get an Alex on the score sheet. Giroux\u2019s goal in the first period was his fourth ever NHL goal and it comes against the organization that let him slip away in the minors. Giroux played for the Thrasher\u2019s AHL affiliate in Chicago for the first part of the \u201807-\u201808 season where he was coached by the Thrashers\u2019 current head coach, John Anderson.<\/p>\n