So, I did indeed get to go to the Caps/Pens game last night. Sorry, folks — no camera with me, so no photos, but it was an interesting game in a number of ways, if an unhappy one, as the Caps lost 4-3. Some highs and lows:
- Crosby vs. Ovechkin lived up to the hype for a bit. More in the first period for Ovie and the second for Crosby. There were a few beautiful passes and pretty goals in this game. The Caps started off quickly, jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first, but their inability to stay out of the penalty box quickly caught up with them, as they gave up power play goals on three straight penalties.
- The Caps had what was definitely one of the single worst power play stretches that I’ve ever seen on their hopelessly inept four-minute advantage after Semin got decked in the mouth in the first period. I can’t remember the last time I saw a team that was completely unable to set anything up in the zone and couldn’t manage a single shot from the point on a long power play like that. (Or maybe they managed one shot — it didn’t look like it at the game, but the guys on the postgame radio show said otherwise; they call games for a living and have research guys, so I figure they know of what they speak.) Interestingly enough, on said post-game show, there was general decrying the uneven penalty calling (more on that later), and more than one person was saying that the Pens guy who decked Semin should have gotten a major instead of a double minor. I say that quibbling over that is missing the forest for the trees; the Caps totally wasted the four minutes they got — what difference would a fifth have made? It’s not like they scored two goals on the double minor and were cheated out of the chance for more. Let’s master the basics before jumping to postdoc work, hmm?
- However much the complaining about the refs smacks of loser talk, it was true, however, that the refs had a horrible game. The Caps had two power plays all game, including that miserable double minor. In the third period, the refs called Semin for a trip — nevermind the fact that he was actually shooting the puck at the time. That was an impossible call that had me yelling “That’s garbage!” along with the other 5000 Caps fans in attendance (versus what seemed like 13,000 Penguins fans in what looked to be a sold-out Verizon Center). The refs were piss poor.
- Strangest goal of the night was scored while Georges Laraque and Donald Brashear were just starting to square off for a short-but-intense heavyweight bout. For some reason, the refs didn’t blow the whistle while that one started, and the Pens scored (though it looked like a near thing from my seat — the start of the fight and the goal happened at about the same time).
- As usual, the Steel City faithful made the trip down, despite the fact that it’s the middle of the week and they probably had work the next morning. Jeez. How do they find the time to do that?
Overall I had a good time, despite the fact that for most of the game the Caps seemed incapable of mounting any kind of sustained pressure. They were good at the beginning of the game, good again at the end, but the middle is what got ’em. Glutton for punishment that I am, I’m probably going to next week’s game against the Panthers, too.