4/4, 6:30 AM - Capitals top Lightning, 4-1
Well, the Red Out didn’t seem to be quite as prominent last night as it was on the first against Carolina, but the Capitals pulled out a win against a frustrated Tampa Bay team and put themselves, for tonight at least, in the Eastern Conference’s eight spot.
Even with the two points going to the Capitals, much of the discussion about this game will center on Brooks Laich’s disallowed goal in the first period. I’m sure it will be discussed in detail elsewhere, but I’ll just say that it was simply a bad call - if the referees were going to rule that Tomas Fleischmann had interfered on the play, he should have received an interference minor. To waive off the goal but not call Fleischmann for a penalty is exactly the kind of indecisive need-to-please-everyone attitude that referees need to avoid.
DMG’s 3 Stars
(1) Cristobal Huet - 18 saves on 19 shots (.947 save %)
(2) Alex Ovechkin - 2 goals, 5 shots, 3 hits, +1, 2 blocked shots
(3) Viktor Kozlov - 2 assists, +1, 7 shots
Quick Hits
- As an American hockey fan, it bothers me that John Tortorella is going to coach the U.S. in the World Championships, and his team’s pathetic display at the end of last night’s game didn’t do much to enamor me to him.
- Speaking of which,like any sane Caps fan I love Bruce Boudreau, but he made a big mistake not having Donald Brashear on the ice after Doug Janik’s roughing penalty on Fleischmann.
- If not for a combination of Kari Ramo and the Caps missing by inches, it could have been 5-1 by the end of the first.
- Got to love Matt Cooke because even when he’s not scoring he makes his presence felt, and he had 6 hits last night.
- On the Lightning side, 5 of their 15 hits were from defenseman Matt Smaby.
1) Have to disagree with ya about not putting out Brashear. Boudreau would risk an instigator penalty in the last 5 mins call. This would result in automatic suspensions/fines for Brashear, Boudreau and the Caps. It appeared that when Donald DID come out after the altercation he went over to TB bench and said lets just end this and was a calming influence
2) There is NO doubt that Tortorella and the player(s) in question, who basically left their bench during an altercation, deserve severe fines/suspensions as outlined in the NHL rule book.
3) The referees in that instance did a piss-poor job at controlling the ice. No way should the puck have been dropped when the additional Lightning player had yet to exit the ice. The refs should also be fined/suspended for the awful job they did!
You don’t have Brashear out there because we are going ot the playoffs and don’t want to get any suspensions. The Bolts aren’t going anywhere, so it doesn’t matter to them.
I agree about the waved off goal. If it were because of interference then there should have been a penalty. The NHL officiating has been awful all year. I don’t say that as a homer. Its been bad all around. We are going back to the old days of the rules being subjectively determined by the refs instead of being RULES.
Tortorella should be stripped of coaching Team USA. Whether we agree with this or not, isn’t Marc Crawford facing criminal charges for doing essentially the same thing? Give it to Whiny Pete of the Hurricanes. I don’t like him either, but Torts is a disgrace.
I’m still hoarse from screaming and cheering my head off at the last two games. We’ll be back in 423 on Saturday screaming again though even if it kills me.
Just to clarify, I didn’t mean the Capitals should have put Brashear out to stir things up, get retribution (none was needed for one thing) or go looking for a fight. I just thought that since no one on the Lightning could even remotely match up with Brashear (and really I don’t know if they’d have anyone to match up with Erskine) those two should have been on the ice for the next faceoff in the role of peacemaker, with strict instructions not to drop the gloves unless a Lightning player did so first. My guess is that even if the Tampa players were frustrated they didn’t have the death wish that would come with tangling with Brash.
Lorne, I agree with your assessment of Tortorella 100% - as an American hockey fan, I feel that he stands a much better chance of embarrassing USA hockey than he does of having the team do well.