November 24, 2006
Hockey Night In Washington: Caps vs. Maple Leafs
Sorry, but I got to the box a little late tonight. I'm joined by Ellen Blanchard who is at ice level with a photo hole for tonight's game.
As for me, I'm about nine stories above the action in the press box. Just like last time, I'm available by AIM and my handle is Emacwriter.
Happy Thanksgiving to all our readers South of the border in the U.S.
Back in a moment.
Pregame Capsules:
Mike Vogel
J.P.
Caps Nut
Caps Chick (In attendance after clearance from her lawyers)
Puckhead
Peerless Prognosicator
On Frozen Blog continues to follow "sweater-gate".
Starting lineups as soon as I get them. Don't forget, Brashear and Sutherby are serving suspensions, while Glen Hanlon's wallet is $30,000 lighter. Meanwhile, Eric Fehr has arrived from Hershey.
We're less than seven minutes from faceoff. Be right back.
Interesting news out of T.O. today: The NHL and the Maple Leafs have agreed to cooperate with the production of a new film starring Tom Cavanaugh of Ed fame:
[He] plays a gay ex-Leaf in a comedy film Breakfast With Scot currently being shot in the GTA and Hamilton. He's one-half of a homosexual couple — his partner is the team lawyer — whose lives are turned upside down after becoming guardians of Scot, "a budding queen of an 11-year-old boy," according to the storyline.
My friend Chris Young has some thoughts over at JABS.
STARTING LINEUP: TORONTO: G: Raycroft; D: Kaberle, McCabe; W: Peca, Battaglia; C: Steen. CAPS: G: Johnson; D: Erskine, Eminger; W Bradley, Zednik; C: Gordon.
Brashear and Sutherby got a nice cheer during the pre-game introduction. Hard not to see a message in Erskine getting tonight's start after Wednesday's brawl. Puck about to drop. Look for photos between 1st and 2nd Period.
PHOTOS: Here's Andrew Raycroft, who's having a rather easy night of it so far:
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
Here's Chris Clark crowding Raycroft.
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
Steve Eminger was crushed into the glass by Alex Ponikarovsky. He got 2 minutes for boarding.
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
2ND PERIOD PHOTOS: Toronto spent a lot of time in Washington's end tonight.
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
Yes Darcy, that's a goal.
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
Alex Ponikarovsky crowds Johnson. Like everybody else did tonight.
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
Kyle Wellwood scored tonight. And so did six other guys. I can't remember all the names...
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
3RD PERIOD PHOTOS: Here's Boyd Gordon:
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
Brent Johnson on a rare puck that wasn't on net...
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
Toronto's Hal Gill:
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
A nice tight shot on Jakub Klepis.
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
The unhappy recap is after the jump.
END OF FIRST PERIOD: TORONTO 2 CAPS 1: The Leafs jumped all over the Caps early, but Washington recovered quickly enough to get a goal back before the end of the period.
The Leafs struck first only 1:03 into the first when Nik Antropov dug a puck out from behind the net and backhanded the puck in front of the net where Kyle Wellwood slapped it past Johnson for the 1-0 lead.
Only 1:41 later, Michael Peca picked up a Bates Battaglia clearing pass at the Toronto blue line. He skated the length of the ice up the left wing and wristed the puck past Johnson for a 2-0 lead.
The Caps got one back before the end of the period with Pavel Kubina in the box. After Raycroft was unable to corral a slap shot by Mike Green, the rebound came to Richard Zednik who backhanded the puck on net. Raycroft gave up another rebound which Alex Ovechkin pounced on for his 14th of the season.
END OF SECOND PERIOD: TORONTO 6 CAPS 1: Greetings from the worst period of Caps hockey so far this season: Four goals against, three in about a minute alone. I'm not sure what else there is to say, other than whatever momentum the team might have had coming out of Wednesday's brawl with the Thrashers has disappeared in a blizzard of vulcanized rubber.
Granted, one or two were pretty fluky, but the breakdowns are just too many to recont. Let's just say that Bryan McCabe, Jeff O'Neill, Hal Gill and Darcy Tucker (!) all scored for the Leafs as Toronto spent most of the period in Washington's end of the ice. I just don't recognize this team, unless of course you want to compare it to the one that took the ice for the 2005-06 season. It's a breakdown as complete as it can be.
The third period will probably go pretty quickly, especially with a game less than 24 hours from now on Long Island. After that, I don't want to know what the next Caps practice is going to look like.
FINAL: TORONTO 7 CAPS 1: And a tic-tac-toe goal from Matt Stajan makes it 7-1. What else is there to say right now, other than the Caps sustained the first real righteous beating of the season tonight. On every other night of the season, the Caps have generally been competitive, but not tonight. Not much time to turn things around before tomorrow night on Long Island.
Attendance 14,892.
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06:38 PM