From the perch on the Island: Capitals 5, NYI 4 (OT)

Brooks Laich told me post-game, after this affair on a snowy, sleety night on Long Island, made much more dramatic than necessary:

“You’re not always going to be able to win 5-1. You have to win when you don’t have your best. I don’t think that this was our best hockey game that we’ve played this year. In fact, I think it was one of our worst. It shows the character in here, that we can win when we’re not at our best. And Alex Ovechkin can win games off of the blade of his own stick.”

I think that about sums up a sloppy overall performance, that still resulted in two points.

The evening began auspiciously enough, with large and heavy snowflakes tickling the noses of midtown Manhattan pedestrians like me.

Picking up my rental car, I sped through the Midtown Tunnel at about an hour and a half before puck drop.

The Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum is approximately 27 miles from Manhattan, but most of that drive requires traversing the Long Island Expressway, a/k/a “the world’s longest parking lot.”  That softly fluttering snow?  Now not so idyllic, drawing motorists on an already congested thruway into a panicked gridlock, lurching forward at a tedious, teeth gnashing pace.

About half-way along that stretch of I-495, I passed an exit for Utopia Parkway.  I questioned the wisdom of making this journey.  As I sit here late at night typing away, I question no more.

I happen to like the Coliseum.  It’s an old-school barn of exposed concrete that feels cozy, intimate.  The crowd was seldom roused out of their chairs, compelled to raise their voices, until the final nine minutes of regulation.  But when they did, that old barn channeled and reverberated that sound.  Almost hauntingly, as if the memories of great victories long, long ago were stirred ever so slightly in the collective consciousness of the beleaguered Islanders faithful.

When I arrived at the arena, I was struck by the friendliness of the staff.  The gentleman who first greeted me and dispensed my credentials for the night asked me how often I followed the team on the road, and was genuinely intrigued to know more about this blogger from New York City that covers Les Capitals de Washington.

The press box itself apparently has changed little since its opening several decades ago.  It’s a striking study in retrofitting for the demands of modern media.

To my immediate right sat Ian Anderson, Capitals Team Services Manager, then GM George McPhee and, alongside him, Assistant GM Don Fishman.  Don and I chatted during an intermission about big firm law practice in D.C. versus in New York.  You know, exciting stuff like that.  Below me, and across an aisle, sat Tarik and Corey.

Press box seats were close together, almost like those in the arena below.  And felt very close to the action as well.  There was only one method of ingress and egress.  I spent a few moments just trying to locate a power outlet.  But this is a truly unique press area, at least of those I’ve experienced to date, and I very much appreciated the vintage environs.

Except for, perhaps, this reminder:

We should point out that the rink was cold.  I frequently rubbed my freezing hands together, then wrapped them around my steaming paper cup of joe.

Is this a role for ice girls on which we can all agree?

But watch out for salvos of tightly-wrapped tees:

A couple of thoughts on the game, in true “Dry Cut” spirit:

It took the on-ice crew here on the Island about five minutes into the warmups to get the Capitals’ end fitted with a goal cage.

Milan Jurcina fires two SOG, and one goes in.  Imagine that?  Also, he was credited with only 3 hits.  But I saw him dish out that many just in the OT session.

Mike Green does not look to be 100%.  Sure, he finished a +3, and skated 28:15, tops amongst all Capitals tonight.  But he got beat along the wall quite a few times, and made some curious efforts to move the puck out of his end.  His line for the night includes 5 giveaways.

Aside from that blade of Ovie’s stick, the fourth line of Brashear-Steckel-Gordon saved the game for the Caps on this night, I thought, and kept the puck deep on nearly every shift.

Otherwise, the top two lines, in particular, seemed to backpeddle all night.  And Alex Semin looks like another guy who’s not 100%.  Maybe, because of lingering back pain, he really is hesitant to shoot.  It certainly showed on the power play tonight, which incidentally did not score.

I asked Matt Bradley if his first period tussle with Isles’ forward Tim Jackman was any sort of payback for liberties the latter may have taken with Ovechkin during the December 4th meeting in D.C.  He denied any specific retributive motive:

“We got that quick goal, so I’m sure he’s trying to get his team going.  He kind of bumped me going off of the ice there, so I kind of knew that he might be looking for a fight.  I didn’t talk to him at all last game.  I think it was just a case of him wanting to get his team going.”

Diplomatic.  Well, whatever it was, it was another gutsy effort from Brads.

Brent Johnson was flashing some leather in this game, eh?  His performance reminded me a lot of the one authored by José Théodore in New Jersey on November 15th, in that the team left the goalie out to dry a number of times (Johnny faced 39 shots on this night), and he still kept the guys in the game.  The difference was that stick of #8 getting Johnny the W, whereas JT succumbed in a shootout.

Oh, and any Brendan Witt fans out there?  Check out his line for the night:

Finally, back to Brooks.  He was on ice in the final minute of regulation and took two overtime shifts, and I asked him whether Coach specifically looked to him to hold down a near-crumbling fort tonight:

“I take a lot of pride in being a player that, on nights like tonight, when maybe some guys aren’t going at their best, I’m not a guy that Coach has to worry about.  Not have him look down the bench and say ‘No, I can’t put him on the ice tonight.’  I call it being a consummate pro.  You get rewarded sometimes with opportunities.  Sometimes you get to play in overtime, or late in the game.  And I really cherish that role.”

Tonight, Laich finished up a +1 with a goal, and 4 shots, in 16:42 of work, and wasn’t on ice for any of the Isles’ goals.