Caps Jet Out Of Town With A Win
Washington Capitals 1, Winnipeg Jets 0
The Caps defeated the Jets by a score of 1-0 on Thursday night in Winnipeg. Dale Hunter went with Michal Neuvirth in goal in place of the struggling Tomas Vokoun and it paid off as Neuvy shut out the Jets saving 26 out of 26.
Mikey started off the first period wonderfully saving 14 shots. He looked in position for the most part and made a save that the slower Tomas Vokoun would have never made quickly moving from one side of the net to the other to stop a Kane goal.
Meanwhile the Caps struggling offense got only 7 shots on net. Alan May was not happy with that poor scoreless offense:
With May just about ready to put on the uniform, the Caps O came out in the 2nd just as bad as the 1st. On a 2 on 1 where the defender left Knuble wide open for a four foot shot, he passed the puck to the other covered player and the Caps didn't even get a shot out of an opportunity that could have been a goal. Ok they weren't that bad, lots of breaks, but no goals! (Locker said it was their best offensive period under Dale Hunter...No Locker...no)
Another fast break later in the period resulted in a shot, but a poor shot by Laich that went wide of the empty net. Laich turned it over on another break, and missed a shot on another break.
While the first session was all about Mikey N, the 2nd period was more about the Jets Goalie Ondrej Pavelec (Pronounced Andre...are you serious). Pavelec saved 12 Caps shots in the period and evened Neuvy's 1st period performance.
In the same period Wideman had the defensive play of the game. With Neuvy out of the crease Wideman took to the goaltender duties and made a great stop on a Winnipeg shot to keep the game even at zero.
The 3rd period was rather boring (only 13 combined shots in the period) until with 1:14 left Backstrom stole the puck passed it over to Marjo who dumped it back to Ovi for the sweet shot and the game winner. Ovi didn't do much of anything all game, but he put the puck in the net when he had to and sent the fans home sad after they booed and chanted "Ovi" all night long.
The Caps will face the Avalanche and possibly Varlamov on Saturday night in Colorado at 9pm.
Game Notes:
- I haven't cheered for a save in weeks. Finally some great saves.
- Not exactly sure how too many men on the ice works.
- I also still don't get intentional offsides.
- Took me 30 games to figure out that icing was based on the half court line, and not the opposite blue line.
1 comment:
1. too many men is when a team makes a bad line change, basically--only allowed to be 5 men on the ice at the time, so say someone thinks it's their shift and it's not, someone stays on too long, someone doesn't get off fast enough, if they end up with six men on the ice for more than a few seconds, it's a penalty. the most hilarious and infuriating of penalties.
2. usually intentional offsides is someone just trying to get the play stopped for whatever reason--can't get it out, need a breather, etc. it's one of those kind of arbitrary ref things, sometimes good calls, sometimes not.
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