Caps vs. Oilers 1-17-2008 Post-Mortem

So we finally figured out how to win a gimmick huh??? Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• 4 goals on 17 shots in the second period alone. Whatever was said in the locker room in the first intermission worked because the Caps started to bury the chances they missed in the first period.
• Alex Ovechkin with another goal and an assist upping his career point total to 255. Late in the third period he was a one man wrecking crew.
• Boyd Gordon in his second game on the second line posted two assists but more importantly, he's brought a measure of defensive stability to the line.

THE BAD:

• The Power Play was 0 for 5 tonight. While I expected a struggle against the 9th best Penalty Killers, I didn't expect the Caps to look so disorganized.
• We still can't handle an aggressive forecheck as we got bottled up too frequently in our own zone and turned the puck over there too much as well.
• It took over eight minutes for the Caps to register a shot on goal in the third period. By that time not only had Edmonton gotten 5 shots on goal, but they had also tied up the game.

THE UGLY:

• John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles is a +1 by mistake. He was on the ice for the game tying goal by the Oilers but for some reason, the official scorer decided to improperly charge Shaone Morrrissonnn as being on the ice instead of the Coach's Pet. As a matter of fact, A.O., Nicklas Backstrom, and Viktor Kozlov were also improperly charged with a minus on that situation as the fourth line of Matt Bradley, Mr. Donald Brashear, and Brooks "and Dunn" Laich were on the ice instead of the first line. Only Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green was properly credited with a minus for being on the ice when the goal was scored. But getting back to the Coach's Pet, not only was he wildly out of position on the Power Play goal the Oilers scored in the second, he screened Olie Kolzig on the game tying goal, and why in the world was he jumping into the play in overtime?
• And speaking of improper scoring. After the first Edmonton goal, the scoreboard read Caps 1, Oilers 0. Then when Alexander Semin scored at the end of the second period, the scoreboard read Caps 188, Oilers 3. It's nice to see Dishonest Abe is still buying the best surplus equipment he can find.
• While the Penalty Killers were officially 3 for 5, a third goal was scored just two seconds after a penalty expired. This was a night when the special teams certainly were "Special."
• The game was decided by a gimmick.

There was certainly more action tonight than I expected but it should have been a runaway blowout for the Caps. The Caps had the Oilers hemmed in their own zone early on in the game and generated tons of turnovers and chance but couldn't score a goal. They did hit two posts early in the game. While at this point we'll take two points any way we can get them, we need to stop falling behind before playing the way we know we can.

It has been... A TWO POINT NIGHT!!!