One step forward, one step back for Caps

The good news first. With a 4-2 victory over the St. Louis Blues, the Capitals won their 5^th straight and maintained their 8 point advantage over Carolina for first place.

 

Now for the real bad news. A vicious hit from behind may send Alexander Semin out of the lineup an innumerable number of games. You know how they say that “when it rains it pours,” well Semin’s injury wasn’t the only bad news for the Caps. Mike Green was also unable to finish the game, although I’m less clear of how the injury happened. Apparently Capitals Insider is reporting that it was an aggravated shoulder injury.

 

With the Caps coming off a slew of injures, Bruce Boudreau must feel like Wiley Coyote chasing the roadrunner. Your team is healthy, you have the explosives you have the anvil and just as your ready to roll, the incorrigible problem of injuries returns. Falling off that proverbial cliff? For the Capitals tonight that cliff cascade took the form of a sudden late 3^rd period injury to Alexander Semin.  

 

The play happened as Semin was attacking the zone by himself against 3 Blues defenders who collectively forced Alexander to go toward the boards. Semin fell, and just as he got up Blues Forward David Backes slashed him on the back of his knee. Instantly Semin fell back down on his back, and it would be awhile till he got back up again. And when he did eventually get up, Semin had to be helped back to the bench and had to sit down for a couple of minutes before even attempting to walk to the locker room. It truly looked painful.

This turned what should have been a proud night into an angry one. The crowd was angry yelling obscenities at the ref, Ovechkin was angry, charging at the Blues player responsible for the act, and honest till the end, Coach Bruce Boudreau could not and would not repress his feelings to reporters after the game. “I told him (the ref) ‘my guy is down on the ice and they slashed him how did you not call a penalty?’ Boudreau then said that he was told by the ref that he thought Semin was acting. Boudreau, responded in kind, “Because you thought he was diving my guy is going to miss an undeterminable number of games,” said the coach who was then given an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by the ref. Was Bruce really that polite to the ref? “Sure I was,” said Boudreau with a wry smile that indicated that he might have dropped a couple of ‘f-bombs’ in the course of his ‘friendly’ conversation with the ref.  

 

There were other noteworthy things about this game.  For one, Victor Kozlov whom Boudreau has termed the “silent Russian” scored two goals and had one assist while playing with line-mates Nicklas Backstrom and Alexander Semin. That Kozlov had a great game with Backstrom is only a coincidence if you consider gravity to be a mere coincidence. Backstrom instantly makes everyone better and has the vision of a hockey version of Payton Manning. For now though, let’s focus on Kozlov.

Kozlov provided constant pressure all night, putting up 4 shots on goal and scoring his first goal on a nifty wrist shot in which he went from being parallel to the goal on the left side before making a sudden move which forced Blues defensemen Roman Polak to back up giving Kozlov enough time to aim and shoot the puck above the right shoulder of Blues goaltender Ben Bishop as Alexander Ovechkin provided the screen.

With the Blues tying the game off a David Backes tip-in in the 2nd, Kozlov would score his second goal and give the Capitals the lead for good. Kozlov stopped in the Blues zone and sent a light pass to Boyd Gordon charging the net.  Boyd crashed the net hard and although Bishop was able to make the save, Gordon knocked the goaltender over and with Bishop down, Kozlov trailing the play, cleaned up the garbage and fired a shot low between Bishop's legs for the goal. Boudreau was impressed. "He just goes out and does his business,” said Boudreau, “he just gets things done," Boudreau continued.

You can't put it better with that. As Kozlov's goal with 2:54 left in the 2nd made the score 2-1 Caps, Washington sensing a reeling Blues squad, pounced quickly for the kill.

David Steckel had the puck low in the Blues zone and moved back toward the blue line and away from a defender. With the move away from the net, Eric Fehr who was also on the left side, went down toward the goal line to take Steckel's place deeper in the zone. Steckel lightly passed the puck to Fehr, and with the Blues focusing their attention squarely on the left side, no one seemed to notice as Tomas Fleischmann creped into the middle of the zone. One person who did notice was Fehr, as he zipped a pass to Flesichmann who had absolutely no one defending him in front of the net. Fleischman had all the time in the world to pick his shot, winding up a skillfully banging the puck high off the right post and in the back of the net for a goal that made the score 3-1, 40 seconds after Kozlov's goal.

I love Flesichmann's game this year. Unlike last year where he tried making 40 different skating moves or absolutely beat everyone down the ice before shooting, Flesichmann this year has begun to realize that he has enough talent to get things done while still keeping things simple. On the 3rd goal Fleischman simply saw an opening and took it. He didn't have to do anything super special; he just had to be smart.

 

As for Blues Coach Andy Murray, I was slightly surprised to hear him say that he thought the game should have been 2-1 Blues. The Caps honestly could have put a 6 or 7 spot in this game with all their traffic in front of the net. However I'll cut Murray some slack. In all my years covering sports, which admittedly isn't an overwhelming number, I've never heard a coach or player officially call themselves a fan of an opponent. Sure guys have created their opposition for having a great player, but admitting you're a fan? That's about as likely as seeing Pacman Jones standing next to the pope. Still Murray did admit afterwards that he was a fan of one the least publicized Capitals in forward David Steckel. "I'm a big Steckel fan. If somebody has to get a point against us, I'm glad it was Steckel, said Murray of the forward who provided the seconds assist on the Capitals 3rd goal."

Murray was glad it was Steckel? Wow! I guess when you have the worst record in the Western Conference you have to take whatever little positives you can. 

For more info: Your darn right there is an etiquette to hockey fights. The Boston Globe gives us the lowdown.