Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The Puck Stops Here: Caps beat Luongo and Canucks 5-1.

Roberto Luongo loved playing the Washington Capitals. After winning eleven straight against the Caps, he had good reason to.

However, last night was not as planned for the outstanding net-minder as Washington hung five goals in two periods on their way to a 5-1 win. Luongo was pulled in favor of Curtis Sanford for the remainder of the game.

Alexander Semin continues to build on his rampant start to the season, scoring twice more in last nights win. He now sits third overall in NHL scoring with three goals and three assists for six points (3G, 3A), trailing Ranger forwards Brandon Dubinsky and Aaron Voros.

The Capitals were able to limit Vancouver to only 10 shots on goal (though Bruce Boudreau felt it to be more like 15), which set a new team record which was previously 11 shots.

Another player who had a good game was center Michael Nylander who had a four point night (1G, 3A), including a penalty shot goal after Willie Mitchell shot an errand stick to prohibit a pass on the power play. Credit to WeRocktheRed for the nice shot!


Brent Johnson recorded his 100th career win last night, and Bodureau has yet to divulge who will get the start in Pittsburgh on Thursday.




Sergei Fedorov showed Caps fans and management that he can be relied upon to play defense, with another good showing on the point; the first being during the preseason. Last night the 38 year old Selke Winner tallied an assist and was a +3 rating to finish the game.

Fedorov's position for Thursday's match-up is still undetermined
was back at center position in practice today. However, Corey Masiak of the Washington Times reports that it was due in large part to the lack of fowards in practice today as Alexander Semin, Donald Brashear and Viktor Kozlov did not skate today.

"No real updates on Sergei Fedorov's position for Thursday night. He practiced at forward today, but Boudreau said it was because they were short up front. Fedorov seemed OK with playing either position, which has been his stance all along."

Other notes:

-Viktor Kozlov will be out a couple of weeks with an undisclosed injury suffered in last nights game.

-Capitals General Manager George McPhee stated today that they are close to loaning out one of Simeon Varlamov or Michael Neuvirth to another AHL team. More news will most likely be made available tomorrow.

To read up on either or both of these notes, you can check out Tarik's blog for more information.

Tomorrow will be an off day at The Weagle as we'll be working on some articles on Capitals Prospects for this weekend.

Our next write-up will preview Thursday's contest in Pittsburgh.

Here is a video of the Washington Capitals 2007-08 Southeast Championship Banner run posted by the Washington Capitals YouTube Crew.


1 comment:

I Rock the Red said...

Heyyas! Here are my pix from Monday night. If you grab any, please give me credit. :)