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The Preds hit the ice and immediately made me proud, and feeling good about my premonition that they just might win. The Caps had not been playing up to their ability so far this season and the Preds had been playing well beyond theirs, which continued through the first two periods. The Preds OWNED the ice, and they OWNED the Caps.
Even though they typically lose, the Preds always seem to do a better job than other teams at shutting Ovechkin down. This is obviously a key to any team playing them and Nashville takes that job seriously. So seriously that they sometimes forget the scoring threats posed by multiple other players on the team. Tonight they seemed to be aware that all Caps are scoring threats and had a pure puck possession game going in their favor. At the end of the first period the Preds had more than twice as many shots on goal as the Caps and one goal on the scoreboard. Ovechkin had been held to zero shots on goal.
For most of the night Weber was assigned to covering Ovechkin, and that was a good call. Weber seemed able to maintain good coverage without any contact. They are equivalent in size and skill (although at different positions), if not speed. But, no defenseman in the league can keep up with Ovie when he decides to turn the burners on. When he's gone, he's gone. It also made for Captain on Captain competition, two young Captains and Olympians and league stars going head to head. That's the kind of thing I like to see! I also noticed that it seems Weber has been freed from his role as offensive leader for the team this year, since there are more capable scorers than in the past tow seasons. This has really amped up his defensive play and, I think, helped the D-core overall.
The second period played out much like the first, with the exception of one hit that proved critical. Backstrom, whom I normally like the other 81 games of the year, boarded my favorite player Marcel Goc. Goc suffered a hand injury and left the game. This didn't make me very happy, but as replays clearly showed Goc was not playing the puck at the time, which was hard to determine at the time of the incident since the puck was in the vicinity and a total of four players, including Backstrom and Goc, were in the corner fighting for possession. Given the fact that Goc was not playing the puck when he was illegally hit it should have been a game misconduct penalty on Backstrom. In the third period Backstrom scored the game-tying goal, but had that call been made correctly in the second period, Backstrom shouldn't have been on the ice. I don't blame the officials for missing the call because it was hard to see at the time. However, the league must review this hit and issue supplementary discipline--but they won't because Backstrom is a star player and Goc is not. That's just how the supplementary discipline system works in the NHL, unfortunately. Stars go unpunished (except for those already "marked" as troublemakers like Ovechkin) and the little guys (like Tootoo) get handed more than their fare share. Thank Colin Campbell for his amazing leadership in that area.
At the end of the second period the Preds still had more than twice as many shots on goal as the Caps, and the Caps were clearly frustrated and unable to figure out how to crack the Preds game plan. One of the interesting side effects of playing Eastern Conference teams only once per season is that it can be hard to figure out how to play your opponent if they have your number right out of the gate. Had the Preds stuck with what was working they could have pulled out an easy win, but in the locker room during the second intermission the Old Preds returned to the arena and Bruce Boudreau obviously chewed some ass.
The third period was a total mess for the Preds. Unable to control the puck and get anything going the Caps raced back to catch up in shots on goal. Poor Lindback was doing the best he could with his defense faltering, and the Caps tied up the game to take it to overtime. Now, honestly, I'm glad there was an outcome in OT, even if it was the Caps winning because I didn't want Lindback to have to face the Caps in a shootout. That would have been frustrating and embarrassing and a totally needless assault on his confidence. With Renne still out indefinitely we need Lindback to remain mentally strong.
Ovie scored the OT GWG, which makes me less sad that the Preds lost. Even though I generally abide by the rule that I will celebrate Ovechkin scoring, even against us, even a game winner against us...I just couldn't feel happy about this outcome. And that made me sad. I look forward to the Preds-Caps game every year because it is the one game I can be happy about no matter who wins, but the Caps winning tonight made me really sad. Nashville deserved to win this game. They came out strong and really had the Caps on lockdown. Then something when wrong. Like it always used to. I hope it was a one-time fluke and we aren't back to the give-it-up-in-the-third Preds of last year. They sat back and tried to play defense against a team that never lets off the offense. Bad decision. Clearly bad decision. I had thought the Preds were capable of winning, and they almost proved that to be true.
Now, back to our regularly scheduled season, already in progress, where I can root for both teams. Independently of one another and with no hard feelings, remorse or regret. The Preds take on a pathetic Calgary Flames on Tuesday so I fully expect a "W" out of that one. My next game will be Thursday night, when the Pansy Ass Pittsburgh Penguins come to Smashville. Should be lots of fun for me because not much in my life is more fun that cussing Sidney Crosby for three hours solid.
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