November 22, 2006
Hockey Night In Washington: Caps vs. Thrashers
Just a reminder that I will be at Verizon Center tonight for the game between the Caps and the Thrashers. I'll be going it alone, however, as everyone else is going to be out of town -- that means no pics tonight.
However, you can reach me via AIM where my handle is Emacwriter. See you tonight!
UPDATE: Greetings fromm Verizon Center, where Liz Chang, DC Sports Chick, is sitting to my left. Good to see another blogger sneak in under the wire...
Photo by Eric McErlain
Pregame:
Japers' Rink
Caps Nut
Southeast Shootout
Mike Vogel
On Frozen Blog
Peerless Prognosticator
Sin Bin
DC Caps Chick (Psst. Liz is considering legal action regarding her copyright, but I wasn't the one who told you.)
Get ready for pick-up hockey at the practice rink in Arlington.
STARTING LINEUPS: ATLANTA: G: Hedberg; D: Vishnevski, DeVries; W: Hossa, Kozlov; C: Holik. CAPS: G: Kolzig; D: Pothier, Morrisonn; W: Bradley, Clymer; C: Sutherby.
SCRATCHES: ATLANTA: McCarthy, Havelid and Boulton. CAPS: Beech and Muir. Folks are getting healthy and Beech and Muir are back in street clothes again. That can't feel good.
Puck drops in less than 10 minutes.
END OF FIRST PERIOD: CAPS 1 ATLANTA 0: To tell the truth is was a pretty bland period, but one where we saw Glen Hanlon's confidence in Jakub Klepis pay off in a big way. With Ilya Kovalchuk off the ice for hooking, Klepis took a pass from Brian Pothier inside the faceoff circle before backhanding the puck to Matt Pettinger who beat Johan Hedberg for his fifth goal of the season.
I think the Caps have found their second line center. The other forward on the power play unit was Captain Chris Clark.
For a moment when it looked like Donald Brashear and J.P. Vigier jawed at each other for a few moments before deciding not to go at one another. You'll remember that Vigier got roughed up the last time he was in town. Boyd Gordon continues to play well on the forecheck. With Jamie Heward off for holding, Gordon forced Hedberg to freeze the puck and force a defensive zone faceoff. The kid works real hard.
For the period, Atlanta outshot the Caps 10-7, mostly owed to spending better than four minutes of the period on the power play. Atlanta also led in faceoff wins, 13-8.
END OF SECOND PERIOD: ATLANTA 3 CAPS 2: How many times have we seen the Caps let up on a team that they've had down and out? Too many times if you asked me, and that's exactly what happened in the second period tonight, as the home team is now down a goal headed into the third period.
The Caps stretched the lead to 2-0 thanks to some hard work by Gordon, a man who is going to get more popular around town now that he's establishing a reputation as a smart and tireless player. At 5:03, Gordon picked up a puck behind the Atlanta net that Hedberg had misplayed and threw it out in front of the net where Klepis was waiting to roof it over Hedburg.
But then the wheels started to come off the bus. A little more than a minute later, a Glen Metropolit slapper took a weird bounce to Shane Hnidy inside the right wing faceoff circle. He blasted a shot that evaded Kolzig to cut the lead to 2-1.
A little less than six minutes later with John Erskine in the box the Thrashers struck again. Bobby Holik won a faceoff back to Kovalchuk who backed the puck up to the point and let go of a wrist shot. Holik got his stick on it and deflected it past Kolzig to tie the game, 2-2.
It wasn't much later that ex-Cap Glen Metropolit took a pass from Greg Devries on the left wing and skated in on Kolzig. The Caps goalie stoped a Metropolit slapper, but gave up a rebound that popped high into the air, which is where Metropolit decided to play some lacrosse and bat the puck out of the air and past Kolzig for a 3-2 lead.
Reader Chris Brown passed along the word that Al Koken is reporting that the glass behind Kolzig is brand new, which is the reason the puck took such a wicked bounce. Thanks to Chris for the 411.
After two periods, Atlanta is outshooting the Caps 22-15, and is winning the faceoff battle 28-17. This Atlanta team is dangerous and you simply can't let them get this many chances.
FINAL: ATLANTA 4 CAPS 2: The Caps were able to generate some good offensive chances in the third period, but it wasn't enough as a late mistake off the stick of Klepis allowed Atlanta to salt away the win with a goal by Kovalchuk.
With just inside of six minutes remaining, Klepis dug a Shaone Morrisonn clearing pass from the boards and was looking to complete the breakout. Unfortunately, while Klepis might have been looking for his right wing, he instead found Kovalchuk just inside the Caps blue line. He skated in alone on Kolzig and wristed it past him for a 4-2 lead.
That's four games against Atlanta this year, all losses, though the Caps did salvage a point in the first two games.
Inside of two minutes, Andy Sutton and Ben Clymer dropped the gloves, and it was all because Sutton whiffed on a check he tried to deliver on Mike Green. As the scrum continued, it looked like Clark, busted mouth and all, was looking for a piece of Kovalchuk.
There were some penalties handed out, and the teams were forced to skate 3-on-3, which gave Hanlon an opportunity to put Erskine, Brashear and Bradley on the ice together -- and when the puck dropped, everybody dropped the gloves as they paired off with Vishnevski, Hossa and DeVries. The fans were loving it, and so did the guy playing the music in the arena, as he continued to crank "Welcome to the Jungle" over the arena's PA system.
Liz tells me that Vishnevski has blood all over the back of his jersey, all courtesy of Brashear. And a lot of that blood is splattered in front of the Atlanta bench.
The puck drops and now it's Brian Sutherby with Brad Larsen. The crowd is on their feet going nuts.
They're only getting done with the first set of penalties now. We're diving into Twisted Sister now.
Down to 3-on3 again. Now it's Heward and Mellanby! And Heward wrestles the Atlanta captain to the ice.
I'm sensing a real bonding moment here for the Caps! Liz and I are laughing it up but good here. They've officially run out of room on the scoreboard to list any more penalties!
What a night!
Notes: Somebody proposed on the big screen tonight -- never a good idea.
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See YOU tonight- I'll be up there too :-)
Posted by:
at November 22, 2006 02:34 PM
Of all the nights not to have a photographer!
Posted by:
at November 22, 2006 11:40 PM
JP is so right! Oh well, the next Atlanta game will be just as good, I'm sure.
Great to be up there- thanks for showing me the ropes!
Posted by:
at November 23, 2006 10:54 AM
Sorry that you were not able to get pics of the game, but you do have a good picture during the game.
Nice meeting you. Keep up the great work.
Posted by:
at November 23, 2006 08:08 PM
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