Caps v. Wings (Mar 19)

And we're back (mostly)! Tonight was... Well, it was awesome. Caps jumped on the Wings early and often, scoring three goals in the first period (the most they've scored in a first since November of 2010 against some team called the Thrashers). Ovechkin Scored twice. It was, in short, the kind of game we all thought the Caps would be playing this whole season, and it came against a team that is perennially among the league's best. In short, where the hell has this been all season.

It's a good thing the Caps gave a memorable performance, because the CSN crew tonight was largely forgettable. Not bad, just not good either.


Third Star (1 pt):





Jill Sorenson. Honestly, third star was kind of a toss-up tonight. Aside from the above two finishers, everybody else had relatively forgettable performances. I’ll give this to Jill because A) she doesn’t cover hockey all that often and still did an adaquate job of the highlights (even if she stumbled on the socre of the Bolts/Sabers game), and B), she showed us more fight highlights in the second intermission, and I always love me some fight highlights.


Second Star (2 pts):





Alan May. Said during pregame that the Caps needed to take the puck low into the offensive zone and behind the net to draw the D down low and open up space in front of the net. Well, Ovechkin’s first goal came as a result of Johansson carrying the puck deep and passing to Ovechkin for a one-timer in the slot. the second Caps goal was Chimera carrying the puck deep and throwing it to Knuble for a one-timer in the slot. Ovie’s PPG came as a result of three Caps putting pressure on the front of the net. And Aucoin’s goal came from Semin moving the puck out of the corner and to Aucoin in the slot. What can we say, the Caps win when they follow Alan’s advice.


First Star (3 pts):





Julie Donaldson. Julie had first intermission duties did a solid job with the Bolts/Sabres highlights before moving on to the fun stuff: A fisticuff-filled first frame from the Devils and Rangers. Made sure to show a nice close-up of Carter’s bloodied face and the bloodstain on the ice. Good ol’ Julie, always making sure to show us the good stuff. We appreciate that.


Last Star (-1 pts):





Craig Laughlin. Just like nothing really stood out at third star, nothing really stood out as the worst performance either (such is the dilemma when Chuck isn’t around...). Gonna give it to Locker. Not because he was bad, perse, but because during his second intermission interview with Ovechkin, I honestly couldn’t understand a word either of them were saying.


So that's that. Caps take a strong win out of Detroit; hopefully they can carry tonight's performance into Philadelphia, because they'll need it to beat a strong Flyers team. See you then.