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Originally Posted by Wolfpack
Hope si had a good time at the game. Somewhat of a microcosm of Carolina's season again. We get guys hurt, we make bafflingly idiotic plays, we play hard, we lose.
I am still trying to figure out Cam Ward's line of thinking on the goal he surrendered with less than a second left in the second period. The Caps got a late breakaway and a shot off the wing that Ward stopped, but instead of smothering or making a strong effort to clear, he got himself stuck awkwardly on the ice and could only muster a weak paddle that went straight to Alexander Semin, who only had to lift it over Ward and back into the goal to tie the game. If he makes a better play, the Canes may have won in regulation (then again it's Carolina in 2009-10...they probably would have found another way to lose).
At any rate, the "Tim Gleason for Next Captain" bandwagon picked up a fair number of passengers tonight. Gleason took a puck to the face deflecting an Ovechkin shot early in the game. He took a humongous number of stitches (estimates have reached 30), got a fully shielded helmet, went back out and played. He then got a bit of karmic justice by bagging a surprising short-hander that tied the game in the third period. Regardless, a real gutsy performance, especially considering it would have been easy to pack it in for the night for him since the Hurricanes aren't going anywhere this year. More and more, I'm really glad we traded Jack Johnson for him.
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I thoroughly enjoyed the game. Caps looked dead for a period and a half but, talking to a couple of fans around- this was their only home game in almost 3 weeks (19 days, I think). The goal being waived off changed the complexion of the game as it took about a minute to go from 3-1 to 2-2.
A couple of thoughts on the Caps
-They're just a ridiculously fun team to watch. Yeah, they have the best player in the game, but that entire line is pretty darn good. They looked bored and tired, but never really out of it. If it had gone to 3-1, tho, I think that mountain might have been really tough to climb.
-Their defense is prone to bouts of stupid. It's hard to say how good they really are as it seems like 2/3rds of the game is spent in the other team's end. It's like an NFL team with a prolific offense where the defense looks like they are better than they are because they're always put in a position to succeed and not on the field that long.
-Wow do they need help in the net. Theodore reminds us all why he got kicked out of Montreal. And Colorado. The shot total that night was something like 40-15 in favor of Washington but the game was tied 3-3 going into OT. And a couple of those goals were soft goals.
-After Theodore gave up soft goal #2 (goal #3), the team went back on its heals the rest of regulation. They were just so worried that if they didn't stay back and help, he couldn't stop a shot from my 5 year old nephew. The Canes knew it too and at that point started throwing stuff from the blue line at him, just to see if he could even stop it... and he almost let one by.
-I love the NHL atmosphere. Again, been to lots of minor league hockey but never the NHL. It reminded me of minor league fans only more energetic and more into the team. Whereas football fans are fat, beer-swilling, semi-belligerent guys who occasionally bring their family to games, hockey fans are the closest things we have to soccer hooligans: fairly lean, even more beer-guzzling, extremely belligerent folks who bring their kids to games to teach them how to kill. Oh, and female hockey fans are some of the coolest people on earth, albeit typically a smidge (or more) crazy.
SI