Caps 7, Florida Panthers 4
That was a good weekend for the Caps. They swept the Panthers and managed to win games even without stars Mike Green (upper-body injury) and Alex Ovechkin (upper-body strain). Both of those players will be re-evaluated after practice on Monday and Tuesday along with defenseman Jeff Schultz (lower-body injury).
Interesting comments from Caps coach Bruce Boudreau when asked if Alexander Semin and Nicklas Backstrom struggle without Ovechkin on the ice – especially considering the strong chemistry that trio has. Semin had a pretty pedestrian game – not the disaster that he had Wednesday in New Jersey, but not exactly Disneyland, either, He committed two more minor penalties – a trip and a cross check – but neither resulted in a goal. Semin also managed just two shots and didn’t record a point. We say it over and over – consistency os the key with Semin. Having said that – expect a hat trick on Wednesday against the Islanders or at least something dynamic. He doesn’t stay in funks for too long.
“I don’t know. It might throw Semin off more than it does Nicky because he has no one really to talk to on the bench [in Russian],” Boudreau said. “Because Alex and Alex do a lot of talking on the bench and so he doesn’t have that communication thing. But it’s really difficult to get inside his head so I couldn’t really tell you.”
Boudreau made the best move of the night when he re-arranged the top line so it was Mike Knuble, Nicklas Backstrom and Tomas Fleischmann to start the third period. They immediately clicked for three goals. Backstrom assisted on two of them.
Rookie Mathieu Perreault only took four shifts in the second period. So he was well rested when he finally broke through with a goal early in the third to tie the game at 3. While his teammates were awarding him the hard hat after the game – given to the hardest working player during a victory – he took a shaving-cream pie in the face from defenseman Mike Green – himself still dressed in his suit after watching the game from a Verizon Center suite.
“I had a lot of energy when I stepped on the ice,” Perreault said. “I felt I had a lot of legs because I was on the bench for a little while. So it was good, I felt good on the ice in the third period.”
The Caps (10-3-4, 24 points) remained seven points up on Tampa Bay (6-4-5, 17 points) in the Southeast Division. But they are 11 up on third-place Atlanta (6-6-1, 13 points), 13 up on Florida (5-9-1, 11 points) and an amazing 17 up on Carolina (2-11-3), which lost again last night and has the worst record in the NHL. The Hurricanes were expected to be a playoff team this year. After all, they made the Eastern Conference finals last spring. The chance to take control of the Southeast wasn’t lost on the Caps players this weekend.
“The way we looked at it, we were down 3-2. We had a chance to really take control, we felt, of our division,” said Caps forward Brooks Laich, who notched his seventh goal of the year in the first period. “If they win this hockey game, now it’s a split and we look at it as a missed opportunity. It was said in the second intermission we have a day off tomorrow, nothing going on tomorrow, so lay it on the line and play hard and we came out and we out hustled them, outworked them.”
Oh – and the Caps also tied the Penguins for the Eastern Conference lead. Both teams have 24 points now after Pittsburgh (12-5) lost 5-0 at San Jose. Don’t think Washington’s players didn’t notice that, either, before they drifted off to sleep Saturday night. Back at it Monday for a 10:30 a.m. practice from the Iceplex. Will also have a story running in Monday morning’s print edition on Tomas Fleischmann and how exactly he shook off a blood clot so quickly to become a scoring machine. The 25-year-old winger now has five goals in six games.
Caps Notes
» Last time Caps scored at least five goals in a period was March 3, 2008 – a nationally televised game where they destroyed Boston, 10-2, at Verizon Center. Washington actually scored six times in the first period that night.
» Caps set a season-high with seven goals against Florida. They last did that on Feb. 1 against Ottawa (7-4) and before that Jan. 1 against Tampa Bay (7-4).
» Mike Knuble recorded a season-high four points on the night (two goals, two assists), tying a career high, and marking just the second time in his career he has recorded four points in game (Feb. 14, 2003 vs. Boston, two goals, two assists). He scored his fifth goal of the season at 11:06 of the third period, after recording a goal at 13:12 of the first period. Knuble also added an assist on both of Tomas Fleischmann’s third-period goals. Knuble now has four multiple-point games on the season. Knuble is the seventh Capital with a multiple-goal game this season.
» Nicklas Backstrom, who entered tonight’s game tied for third with Vinny Prospal (NY Rangers) in the NHL in assists, recorded his 16th ad 17th assists of the season.
» Mathieu Perreault scored his first NHL goal at 2:21 of the third period, in his third NHL game. Perreault has three points (one goal, two assists) in his first three games since being called up from Hershey on Nov. 3.
» Quintin Laing scored his second goal of the season at 3:01 of the third period, surpassing his career high for goals in a single season.
» Washington has scored first in 14 of 17 games this year, including each of the last six. The Capitals have outscored their opponents 20-6 in the first period and have scored at least one goal in the first period in 14 of their 17 games. The Capitals have 20 first-period goals, and entered the contest second in the NHL behind Calgary (21) in that category.
» Brooks Laich scored a power-play goal at 6:17 of the second period and added an assist on Mike Knuble’s first period goal for his sixth multiple-point game of the season. He is tied for second on the team with Alexander Semin in multiple-point games behind Alex Ovechkin (eight). Laich recorded his fourth consecutive game with a point, tying his career-long point streak. He leads the team with six points (three goals, three assists) in the month of November.
» Chris Clark registered an assist on Brooks Laich’s second-period goal for his third consecutive game with an assist, matching the longest streak of his career. Clark has 17 points (11 goals, six assists) in 22 career games against Florida, the most points he has against any opponent in the NHL, and has assists in four of the last five games overall.
