By Katie Brown (@callyourbluff)
The excitement was permeable, hanging thick in the air. Saturday was the day. It felt like Christmas in February for Capitals fans everywhere.
Who cares that Christmas happened almost two months ago. The Captain was making his triumphant return after a three-game Shanaban suspension. No more chilling in the press box with Olie the Goalie Coach, no – it was showtime.
Typical Montreal was the scene, and that sound you all heard was Rene Bourque exhaling after hearing Joel Rechlicz had been reassigned to Hershey.
Fluky goals of late haven’t been going the way of the Capitals on the scoreboard, but that luck took a shine for the good guys on a Dennis Wideman faceoff knucklepuck that made it to the twine side of the net for his tenth of the year, assisted by Brooks Laich. Aside from a few gnarly hip checks doled out by Dmitri Orlov, who was also the recipient of a puck to the face, the first period was largely uneventful. 1-0, Caps,
The second period had the distinction of hosting a Troy Brouwer penalty shot, which was denied by Budaj, followed by Rene Bourque penalty on Troy Brouwer, and a couple of really boring power plays that resulted in nothing. The Habs PP is so bad, it made the Caps PP look kind of decent, aside from the whole not scoring thing. In short, Troy Brouwer was a penalty magnet, and everyone’s power play sucks.
Workhorse Matt Hendricks has been on a roll lately, scoring his third goal of the season, a nifty snapper on a wide-open net, Brooks Laich again picking up the primary assist and Alexander Semin bringing up the rear with a secondary assist. 2-0, Caps.
The Capitals got another chance at a penalty shot after Alex Semin was hooked on a breakaway by Tomas Kaberle. Semin took full advantage and blasted a filthy rocket past Budaj to make it 3-0 at 11:57 in the 3rd. No one fought Rene Bourque. Sad face.
Vokoun and the Caps held on to pull out a repeat 3-0 shutout in Montreal. Neuvirth led the Caps to a 3-0 shut out in Montreal on January 18. Deja vu – in all the good ways, of course. Ovi may not have made a mark on the scoreboard, but it may have a had a little to do with the team’s performance as a whole. Glad to have you back, dude.
Vokoun was arguably the Caps best asset on the ice Saturday, coming up big when it counts, making crucial saves and looking more like the goalie we know he is. Keep on being all that you can be, Vokezilla.
Notes: In other news, Scott Gomez didn’t score – again. Sunday will mark 365 days of no rain scoring for Gomez. You almost feel bad for him. Almost. Caps newbie Keith Aucoin finished the day with 1 shot on goal and 7:57 of ice time, :42 of that on the power play.
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Photo courtesy of NHL.com.
