Caps Postgame – 4-3 win vs. Carolina (overtime)

All in all, a satisfying win. The Caps penalty kill was better, seemingly more aggressive. They stopped 4-of-5 Carolina chances. Jose Theodore made 28 saves, including two fine stops on Hurricanes forward Ray Whitney and a penalty-shot save on Brandon Sutter. He has now saved 81 of the last 85 shots against. Can’t complain about that at all.

Washington’s power play was back on track, too. Mike Green scored twice with the man-advantage by deciding to do something he rarely has problems with: shoot the puck. But Green said after the game he’s been less aggressive lately. Against Dallas on Monday he kept forcing pucks to Alex Ovechkin on the left wing and the Stars would simply jump Ovechkin and force him to give it back or shoot off someone’s legs. 

Green did it again on Wednesday. During a first-period power play he had a shooting lane and instead dished to Ovechkin, who had to take the pass close to the blueline and fire a low-percentage shot at goalie Manny Legace. From that moment on Green said he was done forcing things. It was time to shoot again. He did. Twice. Two power-play goals later the Caps had a 3-2 lead. He has 17 goals overall, leading all NHL blueliners. Green also has points in 11 of his last 12 games played (five goals, 11 assists) and an NHL-best (for defensemen) nine power-play goals. Of course, high-risk, high-reward for Green, as always. His turnover in the second period led directly to a Carolina goal by Tuomo Ruutu.

“[Green] had two goals and a beautiful assist – but the assist was to the other team,” cracked Caps coach Bruce Boudreau. “His idea was right, but he was just being too casual and trying to finesse the puck in there. Everything that is passed has to be a hard pass. It has to be. It’s the only way it works.”

Caps Notes

» Washington improved to 45-13-9 with 99 standings points. It is now 15 points up on Pittsburgh in the Eastern Conference – with an extra game played – and six up on both San Jose and Chicago in the Western Conference. The Sharks have played two fewer games and the Blackhawks one. Can probably start talking about the President’s Trophy now – even if it means little in the long run. Still nothing wrong with having home-ice advantage in a building where you’re 26-3-4. 

» And, of course, the Caps are also one point away from clinching the Southeast Division title – their third in a row. That’s according to the team’s official twitter feed. That happens on Thursday if the Atlanta Thrashers lose to the Columbus Blue Jackets. That would mean the Thrashers could only finish with 98 points. An overtime loss means Atlanta could hit 99. But the Caps would would win the tiebreaker with a 4-0 record against Atlanta and two games left. If the Thrashers don’t want to cooperate then a win or overtime/shootout loss with Tampa Bay at home on Friday would do the trick.

» Lost in the shuffle: Nicklas Backstrom had an assist and with 80 points (26 goals, 54 assists) he becomes the fourth Caps player to do that in consecutive seasons. Joins Alex Ovechkin, Mike Gartner and Dennis Maruk. One more assist and Backstrom joins Wayne Gretzky and Peter Stastny as the only NHL players to top 55 assists in each of their first three years in the league. That price tag just keeps on rising.

» With two assists, Ovechkin extended his NHL points lead to six over Vancouver’s Henrik Sedin. He has 94 overall now – tied with Sidney Crosby in goals (44) and sixth in assists (50). Ovechkin is five assists shy of setting a new career high in that category. 

» The overtime game-winner by Fleischmann was his fourth game-winning goal of the season and second career in overtime. He has tied his career high with 19 goals.

» Washington is 8-9 in overtime and has not lost at home in regulation since Dec. 28 against Carolina (15-0-1). It is now 15-2 against Southeast Division opponents.

» Alexander Semin scored his 31st goal of the season at 2:24 of the first period. He has three goals in three games against the Hurricanes this year and 22 in his career in 27 games against them.

» Theodore has stopped all three penalty shots he’s faced this season and eight of 10 in his career.

» Hard hat on this night goes to one Brooks Laich. Winger dropped down to the third line – though Bruce Boudreau wouldn’t want me to write it that way – and had an assist, five shots, a block, a hit, a takeaway and 3:23 of ice time on the PK. Also had 3:14 PP time. Nice night for No. 21 even if he only produced one point.

Notable Quotable

Capitals center Eric Belanger on a better night for the penalty-kill unit.

“The power play was very effective tonight and our [penalty kill] I felt was a lot better. We gave up a goal, but they made a good play and things are going to happen. We just need to make an adjustment. But I felt that our penalty kill was the best since I came over here [in last Wednesday’s trade with Minnesota].”

Belanger on his game-winning assist

“I took the rebound from [Eric] Staal on the side of the net and I had a defenseman coming up with me and we had [Fleischmann] coming off the bench. So I was just trying to be patient and buy him time to come up and make it a 3-on-2 and he opened up and he made a great shot.”

Carolina defenseman Brian Pothier, traded by the Caps just last week, on his return to Verizon Center.

“It’s obviously an emotional moment for me.  I’ve been here for a long time.  The family is still here. They’re in school. We’re invested in the community and we spend our summers here.  We love it here.  To come back, it was really weird.  It was awkward playing against the guys.  A couple times I felt myself wanting to tap a guy on the shin pads who had the red jersey instead of the white tonight.  It was a little strange, but you get used to it pretty quick.”

Hurricanes forward Brandon Sutter on his team’s overall play

“We got better as the game went on.  I think towards the end of the first [period] we started to get our game back, then the second we came out a lot better.  I think at the end of the day we can be pretty happy with our performance….[The Caps] obviously have some tremendous talent. They’re probably the most dominant offensive team in the league and if we keep them within a goal, I think we’re right there.”