At Tuesday night's game, Gavin Dunaway of , who was watching the game with Mike "Goodtyme" Garrity of , suggested we write a story about, "how satisfying it is to watch your team completely drubbing another team." That was pretty much the theme of the evening, as the Washington Capitals took a lead fifteen seconds into play, built it up to 4-0, and easily held on to .
During breaks in the action, the big screen in the center of the arena highlighted Caps players by giving fans three facts to remember about them (sort of a short version of ). Dunaway remarked, after a clip on Brooks Laich, that everyone on the Caps plays guitar, and he asked what the connection is between hockey and guitar. While we're sure that the formal similarities between guitars and hockey sticks would imply similar insecurities to most strict psychoanalysts, DCist is proud to cover both hockey and , and we're in no position to criticize anyone with both interests.
Wednesday morning, DC101's Elliot interviewed Paul, the bassist from and a hockey-loving musician (the two met at a recent caps game). Furthering our psychoanalytic curiosity into the minds of people who like hockey and music, the interview focused on Paul's outfit, which featured fishnets, pieces from and strategic duct tape. have also exhibited .
After the jump, actual hockey coverage.
Meanwhile, the Capitals, whose game soundtrack nods to modern rock with clips of Marilyn Manson, Rage Against the Machine and Blur, are reviving this season on the all-around heroics of Lawrence Nycholat. The seventh year pro and brand-new NHLer, whose Hartford Wolfpack teams used to frustrate Glen Hanlon's Portland Pirates, has melded seamlessly with former Portland Defenseman Steve Eminger to become the Caps' solid second pair on defense.
For two straight games, the pair has been relied upon to help kill crucial penalties in the final two minutes, which is impressive given that each one earned his promotion to the NHL for his offensive skills. With six points in nine games, Nycholat hasn't disappointed on offense, but what's more impressive is that he's led the Capitals in minutes played for three straight games, and played solid defense through all of them.
The Caps are also helped by the return of Matt Bradley from surgery.
Bradley's solid physical play on a line with Boyd Gordon and pianist Donald Brashear gives the team a second legitimate checking line to back up the impressive combination of guitarist Laich, swingman Ben Clymer and center Brian Sutherby.
These two units combined for three goals Tuesday night, all of which bounced in off of different parts of goalie Robert Esche's back, with two of them also hitting his catching glove on the way in. On Brashear's goal, Esche deflected a routine shot up over his right shoulder, and hustled back to catch it behind his back after it bouced out off the crossbar and held on.
Unfortunately for the goalie, his momentum skating backwards to make the catch was too much, and he carried the puck deep over the goal line in his closed glove. The goal, Brashear's first as a Capital, took so long to come back from the replay judges that the fans forgot they had given Brash a standing ovation and gave him another.
The scoring help from the bottom two lines took some of the pressure off of Alex Ovechkin, who cruised through his welcome night off with two goals, including the game-winner, and an assist on an amazing goal by Alex Semin.
Ovechkin moved himself back to first in the league in goals, and helped Semin climb back to fourteenth. Ovechkin also pushed his way up to second in points, and into a three way tie for the most in the league, with six.
Ovechkin and Nycholat have each been elected by their fans to the starting lineups of two different all star teams.
at the NHL's All Star game, while Nycholat would have to be reassigned to Hershey of the AHL to join Alexander Giroux on the Canadian team's starting six. If the Caps want to send Nycholat back without placing him on waivers, they will have to send him to the AHL before he plays his tenth NHL game, which would be tonight in Tampa, where the Caps hope to exted their three game winning streak against second-leading goal scorer Martin St. Louis and his Lightning Bolts, who trail the Capitals by one point.
Sending Nycholat back to the AHL to play in his third consecutive all-star game would be a mostly nice gesture, and it could allow the Caps to audition another of their excellent minor league defensemen, such as the towering Sasha Pokulok, or the gritty, defensive-minded Dean Arsene for possible roles on next season's Caps, while Bryan Muir and John Erskine continue healing. However, Hershey's general manager Doug Yingst has said he to get Nycholat back for the honor. Tomas Fleishchmann has been selected to the AHL's All Star team, which will feature everyone not born in Canada.
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