Thursday, February 7, 2008

Can You Say First?

First place in the Southeast Division. Sure seemed like a pipe dream less than three months ago, but here we are, three weeeks before the trading deadline and the Washington Capitals have gained sole possession of first place in the division.

This is what it looks like folks:

In what is turning out to be one of the greatest turnarounds in National Hockey League history, the Capitals are well on their way to doing the unthinkable. And this is a heck of a step to accomplish.

Beginning with their win in Philadelphia on November 23rd (Bruce Boudreau's first game as the bench boss,) the Capitals have gone 20-10-4 to explode from last place to first in spite of continued injury problems and inconsistent goaltending. Tonight, however, Olie Kolzig was as good as he had to be, stopping 31 shots and keeping the Caps in the game until they were able to pull away from Philadelphia in third period.

The scoring got off to a slow start: no goals in the first and a trading of tallies in the second to start the third period tied at one. That's when Matt Bradley, Viktor Kozlov, and Alex Ovechkin all scored less than eight minutes into the final period to move Washington into a commanding 4-1 lead. Little did we know at the time that Ovechkin's 46th goal would also turn out to be his league leading eighth game winner. While on the topic of Ovie's NHL ranks, his 73 points bests Vinny Lecavalier's total by three, and his team leading +12 rating has moved him into a tie for 23rd among NHL forwards -- a far cry from his career mark of -17.

Washington wouldn't be where they are without Ovechkin, yet at the same time, they wouldn't be where they are without the 19 other guys who have been contributing. The night's recent life donors include Brooks Laich (who started off the scoring on a nifty top-shelf backhand,) Matt Bradley (whose hard work tends to go unnoticed until he deflects an insurance goal into the hated Flyers' cage,) and Viktor Kozlov (who went AWOL the first 46 games but has scored seven goals and added four assists in nine games since.) Kozlov currently ranks second on the team with a +9 rating and in shots with 141. Time to take him off the hit-list.

Tom Poti continues to contribute from the blue line as we've been expecting him to do all year. Another well-timed pinch at the point gave him credit for an assist on Kozlov's goal. He now has points in three of his last four games after going nine straight and 13 of 14 without a single point.

After last night's McCreary debacle, I've been trying to tell myself that it was a fluke and they have nothing against the Capitals. I was, however, becoming a bit skeptical as this game progressed. A couple lame penalty kills on Washington put the ridiculously potent Flyer power play on the ice a couple times too many. An earlier highsticking call on Donald Brashear proved fruitless for the Flyer PP, but the most absurd of all calls was the interference call on Quintin Laing. He barely made incidental contact with Martin Biron's stick and was called for interference. The Flyers used the poor call to get on the board for the first time late in the second period. The McCreary thing I can write off as terrible positioning and a brain freeze, but the latest string of events was particularly dumbfounding.

The officials finally gave the Caps a break when they went upstairs to review the goal on Kolzig that would have pushed the score to 4-2. The puck appeared in before the net was dislodged, but the goal was disallowed. Hey, maybe the zebras were beginning to feel bad for us. Or maybe they just really suck lately. I'm just glad they didn't decide to call a couple tight ones on Philly and give the Caps two-man advantage.  We all know what happens on those.

Regardless of the unusual events over the past couple games, Washington could not have predicted their current first place position unless every other team went on strike and the Capitals failed to get the memo. It's been that type of a miraculous reversal -- the stuff that legends are made of (at least if they do something in the playoffs.)

The Capitals have a well deserved day off where they will sit back and watch Vancouver try to beat Atlanta (in regulation, hopefully.) We'll be looking for Florida to fall short in Ottawa and a Tampa Bay loss in Nashville would make for a great nightcap. Then it's on like popcorn as the Capitals host Carolina on Friday night in a Southeast Division battle in every sense of the word.

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