Goaltending Breakdowns Lead to Feast of the Snipers
Daniel Briere settled what appeared to a mad dash to the last goal on Tuesday night as the Caps and Flyers waged the first of what will be four very entertaining hockey games spread over this marathon of a season.
Although that may have only been the 3rd game of the regular season for both teams, it quickly turned into a high octane, non-stop goal scoring affair that could have been a playoff game.
11 goals scored in the last 44 minutes of the game. Wow. Penalties aside, of course(all 17 of ‘em).
Mike Richards turned Semyon Varlamov’s hard work through the first 20 minutes of the game into utter disaster when he found the back of the Capitals net on 3 occasions in the 2nd period, his 3rd, 4th and 5th of the season, and Alex Ovechkin(#4 & 5) and Alex Semin(#3 & 4) helped remind Flyer fans why Ray Emery isn’t exactly the best goalie in the game.
But how could you ever blame the goalies in a game like that?
I will let you all decide who was right or wrong and how the referees meddled with the outcome, but for now, the one sure thing that has come from the Flyers 6-5 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals is that these two teams have just begun a war that will last all season long.
Boudreau’s take:
“I think you take eight minors in a game, and you’re not going to win a game,” says Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “Six in one period. That’s how four goals get scored against you, when you get six penalties in a period. That’s just not acceptable.”
“We got a point,” notes Boudreau. “Anytime you come from behind in the third period – and their tying goal was pretty fluky; I think we put it in our own net. We can’t afford to allow 10 goals in two games. You’re not going to win a lot of hockey games, I don’t care who you have on your team.”
Mike Knuble on how the Caps let the game slip away:
“We did well in the first,” says Knuble. “I thought we took over the game in the first, and then we got in penalty trouble in the second, and really our momentum went away. They had all the momentum.
“We came in after the second [period] talking about penalties. You can’t take penalties. And again we’re taking one with five minutes left or whatever. Those are the things you learn and we’ll learn that as a team here real fast that you’ve got to stay out of the box late. We got away with it for a lot of the game, and that could have been the difference. We kept getting the breaks to get back, but eventually that penalty cost us.”
- Quotes can be found @
the Caps site.
All 3 of the goalies, Jose Theodore included, were bombarded by both clubs and proved to those watching that, as much as they will make the difference for their teams during the regular season, when it comes to playing each other, it is always going to be which team has more players who want to get that last goal and win.
Tonight it was the Flyers edging the Caps in the last 90 seconds of play and demonstrating that they will have no problem keeping up with the Capitals high flying scoring ways. Washington, on the other hand, can hold their heads high as their first true test yielded positive results and, despite the loss, high-lighted specific areas their team will need to strengthen for when the snow begins to melt in April.
When all was said and done after 63:52 of play tonight, the Capitals and Flyers served notice to all 28 other teams in the NHL that if any of them want to win a Stanley Cup this year, they are going to have to better than these two.
There will only be 3 more games between these teams for the rest of the year, so mark them on your calendar!
- Oct.27 in DC
- Dec.5 in Philly
- Jan.7 in DC
Expect these two teams to pay special attention to one another as each time they face each other as they may very well be determining the outcome of the Eastern Conference’s top seed.
***Despite the loss, it's amazing to note that Alex Ovechkin now has 9 points in 3 games(5-4), Nicklas Backstrom now has 8 assists, Alex Semin has 7 points(4-3) and Brooks Laich's 1 assist against Philly gives him 6 points in 3 games(3-3).
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Go Caps!!!!!
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