Washington Capitals Hockey
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
M-V-P, Ovie at 63 (plus a tie for first ain't bad
either)
 Luc
Robitaille. Alex
Ovechkin. That's it, those are the guys who have scored
the most goals as a left wing in National Hockey League
history.
One minor difference: Robitaille recorded his feat in
1992-93, during an 84 game season. Ovechkin has 63 through 80 with two
games to go. And unlike Robitaille, Ovie will not finish 4th in the
goal
scoring race -- paving the way for a probable MVP award in what could
be a massive haul of hardware come this summer.
But hockey is a team
game. And Ovechkin would be thrilled if his team performed as well as
Lucky Luc's did that season as his Kings made it all the way to the
Stanley Cup Finals.
Winning the Hart Trophy as league MVP is coming more
into focus for Ovechkin now that the Capitals are tied for first in the
Southeast Division with Carolina after a 4-1 victory. The win evens
the Capitals and Hurricanes at 90 points with two games remaining for
each team. However, with tiebreakers in hand for Carolina, the odds of
the Capitals reaching the postseason for the first time in five years
are a bit less than 50/50.
I have already laid
out the NHL tiebreakers, but it's suddenly become much easier
to pinpoint exactly what needs to occur for the Capitals to overtake
the Hurricanes.
The Capitals automatically lose out on the second
tiebreaker (head to head record). So if they don't earn more points
than
Carolina does, they'd have to out-win the 'Canes (the first
tiebreaker). But the Capitals are one win back and
would have to move one win ahead.
With two games left, it is impossible to do so and still finish with
the same number of points as Carolina.
So it's quite simple. Four points are available for each
team to take with two remaining games. The Capitals must
get one more
point than Carolina does the rest of the way. End of story.
A
FEW NOTES FROM THE GAME:
- How are those
deadline deals looking these days?
- Cristobal
Huet was spectacular yet again, stopping 21 of 22 shots.
During his seven game win streak, Huet has a 1.67 GAA and .937 SV%.
He's gained more than a bit of confidence as well, saying "We're gonna
go all the way." Not quite up there with Namath -- yet.
- The Capitals received some beneficial calls from the
officials all evening long, finally making up a bit for that Boston
debacle over three weeks ago. The nine power plays the Capitals
received were two more than they had in any other game this season.
- Astonishingly, the Hurricanes (the NHL's power play
chance leader) have had three games of 10 or more PPs this season.
- Line of the game: Ovechkin - 1 goal, 6
shots, 5 hits, 2 blocked shots, 1 for 1 on faceoffs.
- Runner up: Matt
Cooke - 1 goal, 6 hits, 2 blocked shots in 14:25 of ice
time.
- Runner up to the runner up (equivalent to the second
assist): Alexander Semin
- 1 goal, 3 hits (yes, 3 hits!), his first "plus" game in 21 games.
- The game did not come without bad news as Shaone Morrisonn was
rocked by a clean hit from Jeff
Hamilton. As Morrisonn made his way to the dressing room,
he threw his stick in disgust realizing the potential magnitude of the
injury. At this moment, the severity is unknown though it may be a
shoulder separation from the looks of it.
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