Question (not sure who asked): How far do you think this team is from winning the Stanley Cup?
Dale Hunter: Yeah you know some long it’s it’s the right way to play and you know and, ah, you know to to win and and ah that’s what you have to play it and you know it’s ah next year we’ll you know you can you can always start off and ah that’s your goal to win.
Before last night’s game I realized that the warmup music they were playing was what they used to play back in the go-go days 2009. Through Twitter, Jordan Greenberg (the guy that plays the music), told me they’ve been playing it all along. If this is true, I must be getting older and forgetting stuff. Hope I remember that can be a useful skill.
The game itself against the New York Islanders went through a number of phases. The phase where the Capitals were pretty much dominating, winning every battle for every puck, getting off lots of shots and giving up almost none, yet managing to end the period not he wrong end of of an 0-1 score. Second period was kind of the same…still winning almost all the battles, but it took eight minutes or so for the Capitals to register their first shot of the period. Um. In the third period, it felt a little bit like the game in Carolina last week.
Then the Islanders went up by another goal. A few more minutes passed and some fans started heading for the exits when Matt Hendricks took a penalty with about 7 minutes left. After that, though, the earth spun backwards and everything was right again. Troy Brouwer scored twice in the final few minutes to tie the game at two and I saw something I hadn’t seen at Verizon Center in quite a while…The fans didn’t sit back down after Brouwer’s first goal. The ones that were left. Or, at least, a bunch of them.
Overtime. Does anyone remember a game a year ago almost to the day? When Alex Ovechkin just couldn’t pretend he’s not a total, bitchin’ rock star from Mars and rolled out the magic in overtime against the Islanders? Well, it was kinda like that, but different. The result was right.
To read more better stuff, check out On Frozen Blog, Ed Frankovic, Japer’s Rink, Russian Machine, Capitals Outsider and District Sports Page.
You can see my photos below and on flickr, but I highly recommend Tom Turk’s photos, too. Really great stuff! Russian Machine has a nice little collection worth looking at as well.
In the history of Pittsburgh Penguins – Washington Capitals rivalries, there have been many memorable games that have been and will be discussed and remembered for years. Last night’s game probably was not one of them. That’s kind of strange considering it had more than a couple memorable moments and was a shutout. Alexander Semin missed some that he really should have had. Alex Ovechkin forgot he’s supposed to shoot more intend of looking to pass to his partners, Tomas Vokoun forgot where his crease was, Matt Hendricks had a great fight early and a great shift late…The list doesn’t seem to end, yet the game will be largely forgotten pretty quickly as just another game in the middle of the season.
You know this isn’t the place to read about the game. Those places are Russian Machine, Japer’s Rink, District Sports Page (they have photos, too), Ed Frankovic and the rest. You come here to look at pictures, or sometimes go look at them on flickr.
In another solid and tight game, the Washington Capitals extended their win streak to four games and are now 9-0 with Mike Green in the lineup this season after beating the Calgary Flames by a score of 3-1. Alex Ovechkin is scoring like “Is party now.” Everything is groovy.
Except that Nick Backstrom left the game early shortly after taking an elbow to the head. And Alexander Semin may or may not have suffered a deep cut to his right arm on Saturday in Columbus. And the Capitals are heading West to play in San Jose and Los Angeles. At least they win every time they visit those cities. Oh, wait.
Well, let’s see…
Read more about the game with ideas and observations that probably make sense at Japer’s Rink, Russian Machine, Ed Frankovic, District Sports Page, and Kings of Leonsis.
See my photos below or on flickr.
Speaking of my photos… I know some of you check out my photos pretty often, or at least I hope at least a few of you do. For those that do, you may have noticed the look of my photos changing a bit over the past few games. I’ve been making some tweaks to my processing routine. While they still aren’t quite turning out quite like I’d like them to, they’re getting closer.
I was wondering, though, what do you think? Have you noticed? If you have, do you like the changes? Dislike them? Or generally, what do you like about my photos? Or not like? Let me know. I would really like to hear from you. Thanks!
It was brutal, it was punchy, it was smily, it was like old times. But, was it really like old times, or was it more like new times where the Washington Capitals show their fans glimpses of the good old days of late last decade before falling back into all the bad habits again? I don’t know, but I’m sure you can guess which one I’d like to think it is.
What I do know is that I didn’t a single half decent photo of the Jason Chimera’s fight with Mike Weber and the photos I got of Troy Brouwer’s fight with Christian Ehrhoff were not the greatest either.
I also know I got some nice photos of the Caps showing something they haven’t been showing much of in Verizon Center for a long time…joy. From Alex Ovechkin’s nearly classic post goal posing with huge smiles to Troy Brouwer skating back to the bench with an ear to ear grin after his fight, the Capitals looked like they were having fun on the ice last night against the Buffalo Sabres. It was good to see. It’s always more fun taking photos of that kind of stuff.
Bet you can guess what I’m gong to say next…yup. For more details on the game instead of mindless babble, read the write ups at Russian Machine, Ed Frankovic, Japer’s Rink and District Sports Page. Look at my photos below or on flickr.
