Caps vs. Thug Leafs 1-15-2010 Post-Mortem

And you wondered why we called them the Thug Leafs...  Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• Some kudos to the penalty killers who have taken things on the chin recently but came up large with a 1:41 5-on-3 kill late in the third period.  Yeah, the game was well in hand and a Toronto goal at that point would have been purely cosmetic.  But Caps killed it as if the game was on the line and were 7 for 8 for the entire game.
• Mike Knuble scoring two goals tonight.  But what was most impressive/important is that they were the "garbage goals" that the Caps have been accused of lacking in the past.
• The Power Play got rolling tonight, 2 for 5 on just four shots on goal.
• Oh yeah, that Captain A.O. guy.  Only one goal tonight, but four assists and we were wondering why he didn't get a point on the Caps 6th goal tonight?  He's 65 points behind Mike Ridley for 6th on the Caps All-Time Scoring list and wouldn't put it past him to make a serious run at that.  But he is only two points off the NHL Points lead and should he end up with another Art Ross Trophy despite missing 8 games, he should win the Hart and Pearson Trophies again as well.

THE BAD:

• For a little bit there it looked as if the curse of the early goal would bite us again.  After scoring on their first shot, the Caps only took one other for the next ten minutes and that came on a dump-in.  8 shots total in the first period compared to 14 for the Thug Leafs.
• How did the Caps end up with twice as many penalty minutes, 48, as the Thug Leafs, 24, when the Caps won the game by 5 goals?

THE UGLY:

• Garnet Exelby:
  
  
  
  
  Photo from Thug Leafs.com
  
  
  

Ok folks, we need an explanation here because we thought that the whole idea of the instigator penalty is to penalize a player who starts a fight with a player who did not want to fight.  Much like Steve Downie on Tuesday night with Captain A.O., is there any shadow of a doubt that Colton Orr was looking to start a fight when he went hunting Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green's head in the third period down by five goals?  We don't think so, but that's what you get when Chris Rooney is on the ice attempting to officiate a hockey game.  Otherwise, you could be forgiven for thinking like we did this morning that the Caps were not going to take tonight's game seriously enough.  Well, they clearly did as they made this look as easy as it should have been.  Amazing what happens when the home team is off the night before while the visiting team is playing.

It has been...  A TWO POINT NIGHT!!!