Caps vs. Penguin Scum 2-7-2010 Post-Mortem

It wasn't ending like that...  Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• After botching two first period chances and getting the hose turned on him with the instigator penalties, Mike Knuble had the presence of mind to poke home the rebound for the Game Winning Knoal in overtime.  He must have been the only one to realize that Captain A.O.'s shot hit the goal post and did not go in.  Good thing he did because his doing so must have been a message to the Yinzers that the steel mills were re-opening because we have never seen those fools disappear so fast.  And why?  It was only a regular season game.
• Yeah Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore gave up four goals on 24 shots through two periods.  However he came up with a H U G E save on Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Lowblow Cindy Crosby on the 5-on-3 late in the second period.  That save right there kept the game close enough for the Caps to launch the comeback in the third period everybody knew was coming even though it was only a meaningless regular season game.
• And for the first time all season, the Two-Time Regeining NHL MVP, Captain A.O. notched a Hat Trick and an assist.  The three goals gave him a three goal lead over Lowblow Cindy (who passed on a prime chance of her own to put the Penguin Scum ahead late in the game.  We thought she was shooting more this season???) for the Rocket Richard.  The four points gives him an eight point lead over Henrik Sedin for the Art Ross another meaningless regular season trophy.  The cherry-picking defensive zone slouch also increased his league-leading +/-  3 points to 41 over Jeff "Sergeant" Schutlz (who was also a +3 today).  The complete all-around players, Lowblow Cindy and Evgeni Malkin-Lindros, were a -1 and even despite two goals and two assists respectively.

THE BAD:

• The Caps are usually a good team in the faceoff circle, not so today as they were 34-39.

THE UGLY:

• Well first things first, Tyler Sloan was returned to the lineup for some reason today and comes up with a lazy outlet pass that Lowblow Cindy easily picked off and scored upon.  That barely nudges out Tom Poti's ugly turnover at the blueline leading to the Penguin Scum's fourth goal for the John "Coach's Pet" Erksine Bowles Bonehead Play of the Game.  Poti's bad pass had to be knocked down, Sloan's poor outlet had nobody intended for it and all Lowblow Cindy had to do was skate up to it.
• Paired on Friday night with Tom Kowal, Tim Peel called a pretty good game.  I guess he and Frederick L'Ecuyer were upset about all the museums being closed yesterday because this was a hose job today reminiscent of the Second Round last year.  First of all, when the Nothing But Cindy announcing crew are calling Barbara Streisand on your calls in favor of the Penguin Scum more than once, you know something is up.  Secondly, even us with our bad eyesight at the opposite end of the rink could tell that Sarge didn't slash anybody and that the stick broke on its own.  That call with 4:08 left in the third ensured at least a Bettman point for the Penguin Scum.
• But our favorite hose job of the day came on Nicklas Backstrom's 10 minute misconduct in the second period.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot did he do to deserve that?  Furthermore, how in the world did the guy who started the whole scrum after the goal get off scott-free?  Brooks Orpik going after Brian Pothier for a clean hit went completely unpenalized but the top two scorers for the Caps were sent to the Sin Bin from the melee.

Well folks, the game was playing out about as we had expected until Chris Kuntiz ran over Theodore.  That got the Caps angry and forced the zebras to get out the hoses to keep it close.  Sure, the Yinzers will say, "it's only the regular season" and "we didn't get into D.C. until 2:15 a.m." but once again, the Penguin Scum took a pretty good shot at the Caps and came up on the short end of the stick.  Once the Caps got going it was clear that the only way to keep the game close was the parade the Caps to the penalty box and kick 2/3's of the top line out for a half a period at different points.  As the streak moves forward, it is going to be harder and harder to keep it going because everybody wants to be the one who ends it.  Luckily the Caps were dead set against the Penguin Scum being the ones who ended it because they have to have growing doubts that they can beat us.  And the better news is that if we can survive the hose jobs now, we can survive them in the Spring.

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