Caps v Panthers (Feb 17)

Big game tonight for the Caps.  They managed to come alive in the third and stop themselves from falling 6 points behind the division leading Panthers.  As season gets closer to the end every game matters if the Caps want to find themselves in the playoffs.  Tonight was an important part of that, but it was only the first step.  Back to it tomorrow against Tampa.  Here is how the CSN crew did after a long break:

3rd Star (1 pt):

Locker comes in third tonight.  He handled his normal color commentary duties tonight as well as the intermission interviews.  He does a nice job setting up the significance of the game in the first period by stressing the importance of getting of to a good start on this extended road trip.  He first interview of the night was with Jay Beagle.  At that point there really wasn’t much Locker could have asked him and as a result the interview seemed a bit lazy on his part.  In the second period, Locker gives some love to D-Wides by pointing out just how many minutes he eats up for the team each night.  The major highlight for Locker in the second was him getting upset at the washed out Knuble call in the dwindling seconds of the period.  His second intermission interview was with a very sad looking Alzner.  In the third, Locker did a really nice job explaining what happens when a ref has to leave the game and how it effects the officiating crew and how they call the game.  It was pretty interesting and a nice bit of insight from Locker. 

2nd Star (2 pts):

Alan May. May had a relatively quiet night (by his standards), but was still solid. Listed his Keys to the Game as play tough on the puck all 60 minutes, get traffic in front of the net, and win the special teams battle. Well, the Caps’ effort tonight was solid throughout, as they outshot the Panthers by a fairly wide margin and looked dangerous, with only some stellar netminding from Theo (and a shitty call by Eric Furlatt) keeping the Caps off the board in the first two periods. The effort paid off as they finally broke through in the third. As far as traffic in front of the net, well, Knuble scored one, but the aforementioned Eric Furlatt decided it shouldn’t count. Well, we can’t fault May for the ref being a fucking idiot, so we’ll give him points for that one. And the Caps did win the special teams battle, albeit with only one goal, so May gets credit for that too. Also made me laugh early on when Ovechkin and Wideman’s spat during practice yesterday was brought up. Without missing a beat, May said, “Hockey’s not for babies,” and moved on.

1st Star (3 pts):

Joe B takes tonight’s top honor tonight.  He started the game letting us know that the PP has been less than stellar on the road.  His first period highlights were rounded out as he fed us a cool fact about Voko being a 9th round pick.  That is crazy.  The second period was filled with big calls but unfortunately they were all save-calls because of Jose’s outstanding play.  In the final seconds of the period a Knuble goal that would have tied the contest was washed out and Locker was outraged.  Joe B was also upset with the call but kept a level head and calmly explained to us the letter of the rule that was used to make the call.  In the third period the Caps got a chance to go on the PP and Joe B said he had a good feeling about it.  A few minutes later Ovie knocked one home and the Caps didn’t look back.  Coming out and saying he thought the team would score on the PP, especially after his earlier comments about the Cap’s road PP woes, was pretty impressive and helped to solidify Joe B in the top spot.    

Last Star (-1 pt):

Chris Miller. I was rather surprised to see Miller in on the Caps on a night on which the Wizards also played, since I’ve always though of him as more of a basketball guy. After tonight, that belief has been reinforced. Miller wasn’t bad in his first intermission coverage, but he was pretty lifeless. Not a lot of energy, and was pretty obviously reading the details of the Hal Gil trade and highlights of the NSH/DET off a teleprompter. He was significantly more vibrant when talking about Jeremy Lin and other basketball highlight so in the postgame show, but we don’t give out points for basketball highlights, now do we. Miller gets last star for just being meh, and clearly not caring a whole lot about hockey.

That's all we got for you tonight.  Thanks for reading! 

PS if you haven't already vote on our poll we have running on the right side of the blog!

Caps v Sabres (Dec 30th)

Tonight was a game against Buffalo, a team that has been struggling this season except when they play the Caps.  Buffalo has jumped all over the Caps early each time but tonight was a different story.  The Caps scored early and went on to a 3-1 win over the Sabres.  Good game, good win.  Here is your 3 CSN stars from the night.

3rd Star (1 pt):

The third star is going to Joe B tonight.  He had a typical performance that you come to except from him.  There were a few stand out moments that pushed him into a scoring spot.  First, his game intro was all about blood.  It was filled with blood and medical puns.  In a night where Joe B clearly had violence on the brain the Caps did not disappoint.  There were a ton of scrums during the game and a few fights erupted early on, so clearly Joe B was onto something.  Joe B goes on to let us know that Green could be back next week, which was good news.  He gets in a nice burn about some fans stupid looking mohawk and also invades Locker's telestrating room.  This may be a CSN first, so needless to say when I saw Joe B jumping up and down behind Locker during the telestration I was pretty excited.  Finally, in the postgame Joe B threatens to "punchout" Alan May over a comment May made about his glasses.  Points for bravery Joe, but that is a fight your not going to win.  

2nd Star (2 pts):

Rob Carlin.  Kind of a surprise here considering Carlin started off the night poorly.  He tried to make fun of Alan May for the millionth time and was shut down.  When will he learn.  After that slight blunder during the pregame the best thing about Carlin was his candy cane tie.  However, he really got his act together during the postgame.  He is really excited about the Cap's victory and it doesn't seem fake or forced.  He points out the importance of the fast start and sets up May to talk about the importance of the early goal nicely.  Carlin also makes sure Voko gets his due as he points out that without his stellar performance in net the Caps would not of been able to pull out the win.  Carlin ran through the game highlights tagteam style with May and they had a nice pacing and back and forth with each other.  Even when they brought Joe B and Locker into the discussion Carlin was able to hold his own and didn't make himself look like an idiot.  Every time I see him I like Carlin more and it really seems like he is learning more and more about the sport of hockey. 

1st Star (3 pts):

Alan May.  A return to form tonight for the great Alan May.  Started out with a discussion about concussions in the NHL this season.  His suggestion to cut back on them was to allow heavy hitting in little kid hockey to prepare them for the pros.  Classic May answer.  Rob Carlin tries to make a joke about May still suffering from a few concussions and May tells him to spot talking.  Carlin quickly shuts up.  May breaks down what hasn't been working with the offense and wants the Caps to keep the puck off the boards and use their speed.  Doesn't seem to like this new dump and chase style and I gotta agree with him.  Alan then gives a shout out to Semin and his recent hot streak.  All of the broadcasters would make reference to Semin's recent upswing in production but May was doing it before it was cool.  Total hipster.  In the post game May has a lot of good things to say about the Caps performance.  He runs through the highlights with Carlin without missing a beat.  My favorite part of his work tonight was when he proposed a race between Chimer and Johansson to see who was the fastest Cap.  This is an awesome idea and something I want to see happen.  Nice work tonight Alan.  

Other Participants (0 pts):
Jill Sorenson: Did a brief rink side spot about the team looking for revenge.

Al Koken: Bites of the Nites and interviews.  Nothing spectacular.

Locker: Lost some points for coming up with "Tic-Tac-double big Toe" when describing the Backstrom goal.

Chris Miller:  Was pretty okay tonight.  Lost all chance of scoring a point by being paired off with Jenkins though.

Chuck Gormely: I know, I know.  But he talked about Kuznetsov tonight and  that made me think for a second.  Do I think he knows anything about Kuznetsov? No.  Does he have the personality of cardboard? Yes.  I believe he is now under the "Sarah Palin" effect.  He has set the bar so low that when he does throw up all over himself I consider it a win.  He did have some help from Jenkins though...

Last Star (-1pt):

Michael Jenkins.  Jenkins what are you doing?  It was a home game which means I have already have written Chuck Gormely into this spot.  But you had to go and fuck that up didn't you.  Just to keep things interesting.  Maybe just to keep me on my toes.  Jenkins handled the first intermission tonight and he didn't do much.  He had no highlights to present, mentioned Kuznetsov (something Chuck had already covered), and then talked a bit about Tebow.  Wow, nice job Jenkins but I guess I should be happy you weren't creepy.  Jenkins is back from the immediate post game and he doesn't do any highlights once again.  All he does is "check in" with team USA at the junior world championships.  However, at this point it has already been well established that team USA was eliminated so Jenkins just comes off as a jackass.  I am also quite certain he doesn't know a thing about hockey.  Later when he was in studio with Miller, Miller refers to them as "team extreme".  This must of made Jenkins think he was part of some cool buddy cop style team cause he suddenly felt motivated to run through some highlights.  He crashed and burned cause he likes to try and sound excited and knowledgeable but came off as fake and stupid.  On a night where he was mostly just dead weight, his late performance really cemented Jenkins into the last spot.  Chuck should take you out to dinner this week as a thank you.      

Points to Date for Participants:
Locker: 10
May: 9
Joe B: 7
Carlin: 5
Smokin: 3
Jill: 3
Miller: 0
Jenkins: -2
Gormely: -3

Check out the complete standings in the top right!

It feels good to be back in the swing of things.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the Caps played a back to back and I am suppose to go out for New Years tomorrow.  I am trying to get someone to cover the game for me, but if I can't I apologize for missing another night.  Maybe I'll throw a post up about my New Years adventures instead. 

Thanks for reading,
@dru90 (Twitter)

Caps v Devils (Dec 23rd)

Happy Holidays everyone.  Tonight the Caps traveled up to New Jersey to face the Devils in their last game before the mini-holiday break.  It was ugly through the first two periods, but those who managed to stick it through got to witness a pretty exciting Caps comeback and shootout.  Unfortunately, they didn't pull off the shootout victory but they showed some real heart in 3rd period and overtime.  Here are you stars from the CSN crew:

Third Star (1 pt):

Jill Sorenson was back tonight and it seems she has taken our comments about showing some emotion and energy to heart.  She ran through the highlights from around the league without stumbling, as usual, but she actually sounded interested and engaged in what she was doing.  He voice changed pitches several times and it really felt like she was interacting with the audience rather than dictating to them. She didn’t even wear all black tonight, though there was no red or green in her outfit.  Why you no like Christmas Jill?  Actually there was a lack of red and green with all of the crew tonight so I guess maybe it was a company mandate or something.  Why you no like Christmas CSN?  It was a solid night for Jill and a step in the right direction for her to become a serious contender. 

Second Star (2 pts):

On a night where Joe B had a great performance you know that Craig Laughlin can’t be far behind.  Not to be outdone by Joe B’s intro, Locker got into the rhyming action with his “wishlist” for the game, “I want 8 and 28 to be great”.  During the first period Locker was all about the biscuit.  He hasn’t been using that term as much in the past few weeks but tonight he made up for it.  Maybe he had KFC for dinner?  He had a nice first intermission interview with Alzner about plus-minus versus points.  Alzner said he cares about the plus-minus but Locker set him straight by saying its all about the points.  In the second intermission, Locker did some telestrating.  He only had 4 “hold-it-here’s” so that wasn’t to terrible.  He was the tag-team partner with Joe B, and managed to keep the game watchable throughout the first two periods.  It was a good overall performance for Locker tonight and he has gotten himself a little bit of separation in the standings.

First Star (3 pts):

Joe Beninati.  Whoever writes Joe B’s game intro monologues is a genius.  Since we don’t know who writes them, credit has got to go to Joe B himself.  Tonight’s was a variation on The Night Before Christmas and was quite impressive.  Joe was also rocking a light purple tie, and he pulled it off quite nicely.  As the game got underway Joe B was forced to watch the poor excuse for a team that was the Caps through the first two periods.  You could tell how sad he was as he talked about how low scoring the team is.  Clearly, he misses fire wagon hockey from the days of old.  As the game limped forward Joe B had some great back and forth with Locker that kept the game watchable.  It’s a good thing they did.  In the third period Joe B noted that the Caps looked like a different team.  He made a pseudo-pun/prediction by saying the “Laich is a likely candidate” to get the scoring started.  Lo and behold, in the following minute Laich buried the puck in the net to get the Cap’s comeback started.  As the game went into overtime, you could tell Joe B was into it because he broke out his favorite term, “flamethrower”.  A final interesting note from Joe B’s performance tonight, he loved saying “Err-bomb”.  Very similar to the way he liked saying “Hammmerlick” last season.  Guess we should look for Alexander Urbom to join the Caps next season. 

Other Participants:

Alan May:  Was a hair shy of getting the third star tonight.  Good work from him as always.

Al Koken: Seems way more comforatble with May than Carlin does.

Last Star (0 pts instead of -1, Christmas gift):

Chris Miller. On a night dominated by Joe B and Locker but without any standout bad performances, Chris Miller gets the last star by process of elimination. Came out to do the first period highlights and did a passable job, though he seemed a half-step behind the action on the screen with his calls. We’re willing to mostly chalk that up to rust and give him a pass. However, we will NOT give him a pass for saying we should root for Pittsburgh to beat Winnipeg at the beginning of the postgame show. I don’t care how many points we or another team may have; rooting for Pittsburgh in December is never okay.

Point totals for Participants:
Locker: 10
May: 6
 Joe B: 6 
Smokin: 3
Jill Sorenson: 3
Miller: 0

Happy Holidays.  Next game is Monday. Twitter @Dru90.