Follow @james_tanner123 I plan on giving the hockeybuzz the Capitals coverage it wants, needs, deserves, longs for, craves, desires and wishes it had. Unfortunately a bout of the flu, coupled with a simultaneous computer crash, left us blogless and (I assume) panicking like crazy people.
All is well. I am well.
The Caps actually lost to the Islanders on Tuesday, going down 3-2 in a game I found to be boring until the very end. The Islanders will do that to you. They scored a somewhat controversial empty-net goal, only to have Ovechkin come back and score with 47 seconds left. Thus, a 2-1 game was 3-2.
Either way, the game was notable for the return to action of John Carlson.
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Last night's game was at home vs the Bruins and despite playing their second game in a row, the Capitals were far able to win the game, despite the Bruins being far and away the superior team.
Except when Backstrom, Oshie and Ovechkin were on the ice - they were dominant and scored a goal each.
Boston attempted nine more shots, got 11 more on net and Braydon Holtby was spectacular when he needed to be.
Playing his second game back-to-back after missing nearly a month, Carlson had a bad game, but, when you're in first place, who cares?
It's also worth questioning if there is something wrong with the Bruins. They have all the peripheral stats needed to suggest they're among the NHL's best, but the record doesn't reflect that.
Claude Julien, for whatever reason, appears close to being fired. Perhaps it's reading too much into it, but maybe he panicked a bit when he started Rask in back-to-back games.
The Bruins already won the first one, they were up against the best team in hockey, and Julien for-sure knows that goalies statistically do terrible when playing back to back.
But, he did it anyways and now Rask is injured. Good bye, dreams of hockey-pool comeback.
The Caps, still in first place, will be off until Saturday when they face the Canadiens.
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Evgeny Kuznetsov - 7 goals, 13 assists - was named the NHL's first star of the month for January. I don't really care at all about these kinds of things, but considering he was having sort of an off year, it's encouraging to see.
Just what the league needs right, players on the Capitals to start playing better!!
Thanks for reading.