I was late to the game tonight, so I missed Alex Ovechkin's 48-seconds-in goal. I arrived just about the time the team was finishing killing off the boarding call on Nicklas Backstrom ( Read more... )

The Caps' penalty kill went four for four last night, but Varlamov still allowed three goals in seven shots in the third frame, two of which he was off balance (flat on his bum) or out of position (went down too early) - and the game could well have gone quite differently than a 4-3 overtime victory.

( WARNING: Very Long Post Follows, with many observations! )

Standouts were aplenty for the home team. Travis Morin had two goals and an assist, Mathieu Perreault had a beautiful goal and a fantastic assist, Josh Godfrey looked great quarterbacking the power play, John Carlson moved the puck, hit people, got in a scrap and just looked much improved in general from this summer, Viktor Dovgan and Oskar Osala ( Read more... )