When I watched the first meeting between the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins (played at the Verizon Center), I knew that it was going to be a larger than life match. Aside from the two teams not liking each other, the knowledge that it was being filmed on HBO and was the prelude to the Winter Classic gave it more meaning. The match ended 3-2 in favor of the Penguins where Pascal Dupuis scored the winning goal during the shootout after overtime. While I was rooting for the Caps, I think the Penguins play some of the best ice hockey known to man. They have since they drafted the great Mario Lemieux all the way to Sidney Crosby. And they got former Russian Super League star Yevgeny Malkin who is such a solid player. The Penguins had their brush with mortality in their recent win streak as they fell to the Philadelphia Flyers and ahem -- my New York Islanders but they have owned the Caps. So it was sure nice to see the Caps get a huge win despite Alex Ovechkin not scoring once more. Yes, I know that too much is being made out of Ovie's not scoring but c'mon. Who doesn't have slumps? As Washington GM George McPhee said, "Whether it's Pavel Bure or former Caps Jaromir Jagr (who won two Stanley Cups with the Pens of Lemieux) or Peter Bondra, offensive stars get into a stretch where they are not scoring and their whole game seems to fall apart." Caps coach Bruce Boudreaux figures that after a two-goal match, Ovie will be his old dangerous self.
But the Winter Classic -- Eric Fehr with two goals for Washington! How about that? Ovie leads the Caps in celebrating after Fehr's goal. Now the win put them on level points with the Tampa Bay Lightning at 51 points in the Southeast Division of the NHL's Eastern Conference. In the meantime, the loss of both the Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings puts them both at 53 points for the season. Oh yeah. All pics are from NHLI. Thanks!
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