The Run continues
The road trip is over and the Lightning move one point ahead of the Thrashers int eh standings, regaining 2nd place in the southeast division with a 2-0 blanking of the Atlanta team.
There are a few stories to the game that can be told — gritty efforts with back to back games, Tim Taylor overcoming injury to play tonight, John Grahame blanking Atlanta for the 2nd time this season and Kari Lehtonen playing a stupendous game, stopping 22 of 24 shots.
The difference maker was the power play - which had been abyssmal for how long? Brad Richards had a shot on the power play bounce off several players legs for a score in the first (the goal was credited to Fredrik Modin.) Vincent Lecavalier backhanded a shot past Lehtonen during a 3rd period power play to put the Bolts up by a deuce.
Grahame’s difference in this game was stopping the shots he had to - something that John has failed to do several times this season, earning the wrath of John Tortorella as well as this fellow John. It was the kidn of effort that helped propel the Lightning during late November.
And while there has been much bile tossed the way of Dmitry Afanasenkov, you had to love how he, Evgeny Artyuhkin and Ryan Craig clicked together while out on ice together tonight.
The Bolts stand 2 points up on the Maple Leafs, one point in front of the Thrashers and a deuce behind the New Jersey Devils who won today… It’s an impossibly long climb if the team wants to re-claim the southeast division lead. … Better seeding and better games ahead are all they can hope for now.
January 22nd, 2006 at 3:04 pm
went to my first non-lightning game last nite when I caught the caps-canes in dc (so I miised the bolts game).
alexander ovechkin looked really good in the caps win. the canes defense was draped all over ovechkin, which opened up other players on offense (ovechkin finished with two assists). wasn’t all that impresed by carolina considering they are first in the division. but then again every dog (even Washington) has its day.
people here in dc are really excited by ovechkin, and people who don’t even follow hockey are talking about him (especially after that goal last week). if washington can surround him with some talent that could be a dangerous offense.
January 22nd, 2006 at 3:34 pm
ski, those are words I never have heard together with anything about the Caps: DC and Excited. Even when the team was winning in the past, the games tended to be dull and people just accepted the Capitals being winners…. ANd didn’t have much more to root for than Bondra.
Last week’s goal was incredible (though flukeish — and for those who missed it: http://www.rh71.com/Projects/Ovechkin/vids/goal32.avi ) and Alex has a tendance to work so hard to score….
My only concern (and you being in DC and seeing him more often than I) with him is that he isn’t a team player? That’s ignorance talking on my part, but with everything this guy is creating I haven’t heard of other Caps players being propped up because of him. I also don’t want to end up hearing stories about him being only offensive minded (not that I have heard them) like other European scoring wonders such as Pavel Bure and Ilya Kovalchuk
January 22nd, 2006 at 7:49 pm
I listen to a good deal of sports talk radio since I’m on the road all the time for the job, and the dc shows have all fallen in love with Ovechkin. I got the same feeling from the fans last nite about the kid. It’s kinda like when St Louis gets the puck, the entire arena is on the edge of their seat to see what will happen.
I haven’t seen anything to suggest he’s not a team player. He’s clearly the most talented player on offense (not that anybody else is all that good), so he has to create his own shot most of the time. Like I wrote before, Carolina focused on him defensively last nite, and Ovechkin responded by passing to open teammates en route to notching up two assists.
January 23rd, 2006 at 10:25 am
Just to jump in and contribute my perspective to the recent Caps talk, I’d have to say that Ovechkin is a hell of a team player. Everyone talks about his 33 goals (or at least That Goal), but he’s also dished 29 assists (just one less than everyone’s favorite Calder Trophy runner-up before tonight’s round of games). Ever since Hanlon switched up the lines to get Zubrus with Ovechkin, both players’ production have enjoyed an evident boost.
Check the SI story on him from last month: http://urlx.org/cnn.com/ddaa (reg. req’d)
This young Caps squad reminds me *a lot* of the petulant Lecavalier days in Bolts’ history when there was a lot of scrappy talent, a ton of guts and balls on the ice every night, but not a lot of wins. Unlike past years (*cough* Jagr), the Caps are on the verge of being contenders again, just give it another season. The only question in my mind as an eight-year Caps fan is: Can Kolzig stick through it? He’s still a phenomenal goaltender when he’s healthy, but he’s getting pretty long in the tooth.
Seriously–maybe Boltsmag isn’t the place to say this–until recently, I couldn’t stand to watch the Lightning play hockey on Center Ice; they were ambivalent and lethargic. The Caps have rarely disappointed on the enjoyment scale, whether live or on TV with the crappy local coverage… and it’s not just Ovechkin.
At the beginning of the season, amid trade rumors, Kolzig stated in an interview with the Post that if the Caps’ management “did it right” like the Lightning did in their run-up to the championship, he’d end his career in Washington. To me, it looks like they’re doing just that.