Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Game 48 Recap: BRUINS 3 CAPS 2 OT WIN WHAT A GOAL BY THORNTON/SAVARD/KREJCI

Well, the home team continues to win in games between Washington and Boston. This was a pretty sweet game. Let's take a walk down memory lane...

One thing that happened this game was that the Bruins decided to take penalties to start each period. For example, 7 seconds into the first, and the Caps get a powerplay. Their powerplay is 6th in the league. It never converted (but may as well have in the first, see below)

Bruins almost kill it off, and Ovechkin gets stopped, but then he gives it to Mike Green, who rifles it in from the high slot at the last second of the powerplay.
0-1. It's only two minutes in. The Caps don't let up a whole bunch of goals these days, letting them get one early could be very bad.

Luckily, about 7 minutes later, Shawn Thornton corrals a puck that's about to go out of the zone. He skates it up and right as he's about to skate with it behind the goal, roofs it on the backhand. Theodore can't handle NHL Superstar Shawn Thornton.

1-1. Sick goal for a guy that deserves it. Loved the goal celebration, too. Arms down, just pumped. Huge goal.

Then in the last 30 seconds of play, washington gets it in and Fleishcschsmann creates traffic in front of the net by losing an edge. Nylander jams it in.
1-2. And that's the end of the first.

You're thinking, "Hey, this could be a high-scoring game." Foolish.

The second period had a first ten minutes, but it was all hooking calls and no scoring. Theodore was showing flashes of greatness, and the Bruins were held to nothing. Then when 14 minutes had passed, you wanted to make sure you were watching.

The Bruins are on the powerplay. They try the Chara-is-a-ninja move, but it doesn't work. The caps get the puck instead of Chara, and it looks like they'll dump it. But wait! What's that? A bird? A plane? NO! It's Patrice Bergeron, "the Lord of the Rink" according to the free posters they were handing out before the game. He makes a sick dive and not only knocks the puck off the caps stick, but also has time to get up before crashing into the boards and then makes a pretty sweet pass through the slot to Savard. Savard waits for Karl Alzner to spin himself around, and then uses him to screen Theodore and roof it. GOAL.

2-2. Tied up. While you were checking the caps website for who was #27 and got embarassed, Karl Alzner pops up and beseeches you to buy tickets to "Kids day" so you can get a tin lunchbox. Solid.

Then about 15 seconds later, Chara hits Ovechkin, and Ovechkin loses his balance and smashes into the boards with his head and shoulder. You're thinking a blend of "oh crap I hope the face of the league is ok," "maybe it would be ok if we didn't have to play against him for the rest of the game," and "I hope this doesn't last long, I've really gotta hit the men's room." 15 seconds after lying there, face down on the ice, (boston hasn't seen enough of that yet) he rolls over and rubs his eyes. A minute or two later, he gets up and skates off. Chara gets a penalty for hooking. It is the 4th hooking call of the period, and hooking was the only penalty called all period.

Here's the only video out so far:

At about 0:26, tell me that's a real hooking call. Caps fans will call it a dirty hit, Bruins fans will call it no penalty. It's part of why being a fan is fun. (Thanks to Puck Daddy for the video tip)

I blame the ref with the french name. It's not like officiating hockey is the hardest ref job or anything. Oh wait.

The rest of the second is relatively uneventful. Pucks are shot, but they do not go in.

The third period is all about shut-down hockey. Ovechkin came back. "Russian Machine never break." It is punctuated by Byron Bitz throwing down with Donald Brashear. The very same Brashear that Georges Laraque said was the best fighter in the league. Hockeyfights.com doesn't have enough votes to declare a winner yet, they also don't have a youtube video up yet. Which is the first time I've ever seen that happen. Fried Chicken's video will have to do:


There are a lot of great saves surrounding the fight for the rest of the period, and some penalties, but whatever. When I go to games, I don't leave my seat except during intermissions. I also have a few beverages. So at 5 minutes left in a tie game, I'm dying. But enough about that.

We're going to OVERTIME! Hopefully that won't be OvieTime!

48 Seconds into Overtime, Nicklas Backstrom gets called for hooking. Which is about the 800th hooking call in the game. The refs need to get more creative. Anyhow, the Bruins put out my favorite 4-on-3 line out there: Savard-Krejci up front, Chara-Wideman on D. They set up in the zone, Savard gets it to Krejci, and well...you know...

Oh wait, wrong clip. They figure, "lets try again." This time, Krejci tries to pass across the crease, but that crafty Caps Defenceman Shaone Morisonn is in the way. He breaks up the pass....right behind Theodore. GOAL!

3-2. I'm ready to credit Krejci with trying to make the Caps d look silly and bouncing it off him on purpose. I beg to differ, sir, that was not a "bad" bounce.

Game.

WIN!

Huge win at home with Bergeron, Ference, Lucic back.
But, the Bruins gave up a point. This is the 4th game in a row where they've given up at least 1 point.

Record: 35-8-5 (W 2)
Home: 18-3-2 (W 1)
L10: 6-3-1
January: 7-3-1
GO BRUINS!

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