Heward Makes Caps History...Almost

Poor Jamie. For a brief moment he had etched his name into the Caps record books, scoring the fastest two goals by a defenseman in franchise history.

But alas, like a Caps win, it was not to be. Jamie's first goal was later credited to Brian Sutherby, and once again the Caps fell behind early and despite a stronger showing in the final 40 minutes were unable to recover for their 5th straight loss.

This was another one of those games where the Caps shot themselves in the foot early on, leading a parade to the penalty box and giving the league's second best power play a chance to shine. 6 penalties in the first period alone put Montreal up 3-0 after just twenty minutes. They even managed to cancel out Perezhogin's double minor for brutally elbowing Morrisonn by taking not one, not two, but three penalties.

After the horn mercifully sounded on the first period they seemed to settle down, though, getting two quick goals early in the second and bouncing back from a shorthanded Habs goal with a last minute goal by Semin. The third period was shaping up to be quite a battle, with Montreal's once gaping three goal lead cut down to one, but the Habs seemed to shut everything down and added an empty-netter to finish off the Caps.

*Sigh*. I'm starting to lose my passion for just recapping loss after horrible loss. Don't get me wrong, I'll still do it. I should take advantage of this time, because in less than two months I'll be without my Caps until September. It's just frustrating when the best thing I have to write about after a game is the fact that someone almost made history.

Basically the Caps didn't play particularly badly (first period aside) but there was very little spark to their game. Johnny had another strong game, and you can't really fault him for letting in any of the goals tonight. It's unfortunate that the Caps continue to be unable to give him a win.

The real story, however, remains the ongoing Ovechkin saga.

Ovechkin was virtually invisible for most of the night and continues to struggle - when Heward has three points and even Johnny gets an assist but Ovie fails to crack the scoreboard, something's wrong. I don't know if he's just too much in his head or he's getting frustrated with losing or he's trying to do too much or he's injured, but as a fan it's hard to watch. All players go through slumps, I know, and it's unrealistic to think that just because he's Ovechkin he is immune to such stretches. But this is a time when the Caps need him to step up, and for whatever reason it's not happening.

So another night, another road loss, another loss overall, another two points missed. I can only hope the Caps turn it on for the home crowd tomorrow night when the Sharks roll into town. It's half price tickets tomorrow, and I believe there are some other deals going on as well - so if you don't have plans, come on by the Phone Booth to see Ovechkin snap out of his funk against Joe Thornton and the Sharks!

Nicknames and all the babbling that no one reads will return for this weekend's home and home series against the Devils. However, I'm taking a brief hiatus on the Caps-Sharks for reasons to be revealed tomorrow.

(I'm so mysterious...)