The Verizon Center in Washington, DC was filled with happy fans for the first time in about a month.  The home team Washington Capitals slowly put their foot on the gas and never let up, defeating the sliding New Jersey Devils by a score of 5-1.

Andrew Gordon was the fun story of the game. After spending a few minutes at the bench long before warm ups began, he had a smile on his face all night. Scoring his first career NHL goal on the Devils’ future Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur in the first period was well deserved for a guy that went to the net and banged it in. The follow up kiss he gave Marcus Johansson on the bench was one of the oddest hockey moments witnessed in Verizon Center in some time. but just added to the feel good nature of events.

I’m sure you can find better commentary and analysis at places like Russian Machine Never Breaks, Japer’s Rink, On Frozen Blog and the others.  I have some photos here and on flickr. Enjoy!