Recap 3/19 vs Detroit

Well shut my mouth and call me a believer.  Well, no, not yet anyway. But last night's effort might just go a ways towards making new converts.

Alex Ovechkin scored two goals on the power play and Mike Knuble continued his scoring ways by contributing yet another goal.  Both are getting hot at just the right time.

To be honest, I was going to watch the game from afar.  Even without Nicklas Lidstrom and on a four game slide, the Wings are always a dangerous team.  I wasn't liking what the result could be especially after the debacle the night before when they just collapsed after a period and a half.  To say the least I was pleasantly surprised. And I was overjoyed when the mighty mite Keith Aucoin put away goal number four guaranteeing reduced price pizza for the next day.

Now if only the Caps could hang on.  Because there was still well over a period left to play.  And, well, it's still the Red Wings.  If any team could put a dent in the Caps' perfect record when leading after two periods it would have been Detroit.  Things started getting a little tense when Knuble took a tripping penalty late in the third.  Great.  Of course none of this would have gotten started if Matt Hendricks hadn't taken yet another dumb penalty that led to a Kyle Quincey power play goal back in the second period.

Somehow the Caps managed to kill off the first minute of the Wings' power play and a call against Henrik Zetterberg took care of the rest. Jason Chimera got a well-deserved (and well-timed) empty netter to seal it.

Mike Green had a much better game and came away with an assist and a +2 rating.  Perhaps he's finally getting back into playing like only he can. Or he's now used to the system.  Whichever.  Of course it may or may not be a coincidence that Dmitry Orlov was also absent from the game....

Braden Holtby, called up to replace an injured Tomas Vokoun filled in admirably, but seemed to fade towards the end.  By all accounts, the Joe Louis Arena was unusually humid which possibly contributed to that.  He would end up stopping 30 shots. But he's not quite there in terms of being a reliable goalie...yet.

Alex Semin continues to quietly produce, putting up two assists.  Along the same lines, Marcus Johnasson had a much better game and also chipped in a pair of assists.

So how about the power play all of a sudden?  Three goals on the night, but of course one of them was into and empty net.....

Next up are the Flyers on Thursday.  We haven't fared well against them, so it might be time to turn that around.