Game 21 - Caps 4 (EN) Rangers 2

A good road win. They weathered (sort of) an amped up Ranger attack for the first five minutes then buckled down and ground out the win.

The big story coming in, of course, was the return of Ovechkin after a six game absence. One shot one goal (PP) and seven hits. Two shifts were memorable. His first shift of the second period he was a one man wrecking crew - he got in deep on the forecheck and tagged at least three different blue jerseys. In the third period he got on for the second half of a four on four, had two good opportunities and dominated the play.

The story going out was the gritty play of Matt Bradley. A fight with Aaron Voros left him bloodied but helped shift the momentum in first period and he looked like a natural goal-scorer when he gave the Caps the lead with 4 and a half minutes in the game - protecting the puck on a semi-breakaway and roofing the puck on Lundqvist.

For only the fifth time this year the Caps did not score first - what was not mentioned is that they are now 4-0-1 in those games.

I was surprised how the Rangers stopped playing after the first five minutes.  Up to that point they did a clinic on how to exploit the Capitals weaknesses. The defensemen were not strong on the puck, couldn't make outlet passes, and were manhandled in general. Erskine and Pothier were just plain ineffective. Get the puck deep and pressure the corners. Duh.

Mike Green is just not playing the type of defense I would like to see from the top unit.

Although they've done a good job of reducing penalties over the last couple of games the Pothier high-sticking call came at a really bad time and nearly cost them.

I wasn't real thrilled about Pothier's empty net goal either. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he mis-executed on an intended soft dump to center; but if that puck missed the net, the Caps would have had to kill off the final 17 seconds of the game with a unit that was clearly out of gas against six fresh attackers.

The good:
Two power play goals has them back near the top of the league in PP percentage.

The bad:
How in the name of all that is holy do you leave Marion Gaborik unattended in your crease two minutes into a hockey game? OV should be so lucky to benefit from that kind of neglect.

The ugly:
Quintin Laing taking a puck to the jaw off a slap shot. Add that to the ruptured spleen last season and the swine flu this season.