Caps v. Jets (Feb 9)

So tonight had all the makings of a good Caps win: The Caps came out, outshot the Jets, and basically dominated every aspect of the game for the first two periods. The second period ended 0-0 thanks to some studly work by both Tomas Vokoun and Ondrej Pavelec, but in the third, the Caps finally broke through in a big way. The first goal came courtesy of the Captain, who's finally starting to look like he's regaining his old form, burying a back-door no-angle shot on the power play. The second came as a result of a beautiful missile of a pass from Ovie (who would also add a shootout tally to cap off his awesome night) to Semin, who tapped it in, also on the PP. And at this point, everything looks golden. Of course, Joe B and Locker couldn't sit and enjoy the success; they had to call out the Jets offense. Repeatedly. And guess what, their insistence on jinxing us proved to be the Caps' undoing as the Jets managed to win the game in a shootout.

Tonight was just one of those nights where we simply didn’t have enough last stars to go around. So, because we’re cool like that, we decided we’d flip everything around tonight and give out three anti-stars for being terrible and one gold star to theone performer who was on top of his game tonight.



Only Star (3 pts):
The Jenkins. On a night where Gormley did what he does best (and then some) and a new guy was all around uninspiring and sucked Jenkins managed to slip into a scoring spot. Yes he did have some issues during his intermission highlights but those seemed to be more on the technical staff at CSN. Hell, at least Jenkins showed some NHL highlights unlike his partner. He also wore red, unlike his partner. Sure he messed up, but he was able to laugh at himself and that helped to make it less awkward. He ended this intermission break with a “Come on Caps” so that was awesome and the first time I have heard him do something like that. He had a really, really nice post game spot that made me do a double take to see who was speaking. It was downright good. Jenkins did enough tonight to be better than the hopelessly lost Gormely and the newbie. He also didn’t jinx us like some other people. For that Jenkins, we salute you. Keep up the excellent work.



Last Star (-1 pt):
Greg Toland. He was a new guy. He wore a blue tie (Jet’s color) instead of red. He talked about boxing. He talked about Tiger Woods. He talked about the Wizards. He talked about the winter classic being in Michigan. No highlights. No Capitals to speak of. All of that was bad enough but what really ensured he would land here and the last spot...he messed up saying the word “part”. Its four letters. Four letters and he couldn’t manage it. Lucky for him there were some other, much worse performances from the CSN crew tonight so his night will probably be largely overlooked.



Worse Star (-2 -1 pts):
Chuck Gormley. So Chuck came on for his usual spot tonight and said he talked to Mike Knuble and got his reaction to potentially being traded. Our editor was skeptical, so in the interest of journalistic integrity (yes, apparently we do have that here at AotI. Who knew?), I decided I’d take a look at Gormley’s blog and see (and yes, I apologizing for giving it hits). Well, turns out Gormley did apparently talk to Knuble, but there’s no evidence in the article that he actually discussed the possibility of being traded with Knuble. Instead, he discussed Backstrom’s Super Bowl party, his concussion, and how Knuble thought it was wise of the team to protect its investment by being cautious with Backstrom. At the very end, there’s a passing mention of what effect Backstrom and Green’s absence may have on McPhee’s deadline moves, but nothing of real substance and nothing about Knuble personally being traded. That, Mr. Gormley, is false advertising, and that is just not cool.

EDIT: So, apparently I wasn't thorough enough in my digging last night; the article I mentioned does not, in fact, appear to be the article to which Gormley was referring. I've since been linked to the correct article, which is mostly about Knuble's healthy scratch and struggles this season. However, at the end of the article, there is a single sentence, which contains the quote Gormley mentioned in his TV spot .So, in the spirit of that whole journalistic integrity thing (because apparently it has to work both ways), I'll be giving Gormley a point back. Because while he was just as boring and robotic as always, at least he didn't lie to us.




Worstest Stars (-3 pts):
This one is a package deal tonight. Joe B and Craig Laughlin both finish dead last for doing their damnedest to jinx the Caps, and eventually succeeding. Joe B started the snowball in the second intermission, saying that Vokoun was “doing it again, for 100+ minutes now.” I could perhaps have overlooked that one, but they really ramped it up during the third period. Joe pointed out that the Jets powerplay was 0-17 lately, and Locker took it a step further by saying that the Jets basically couldn’t score a PPG on the road. Later in the period, Joe B pointed out that WPG was having offensive struggles, only scoring 7 goals in their last 7 games. So guess what happened? The Jets scored two goals. In twelve seconds. One of which was on the power play. And then won the game in a shootout. Way to be, Joe and Craig... Everything you mentioned them being bad at, they managed to do. Good game. NOPOINTSFORYOU!