Series Shifts To Pittsburg For game 3.

@





The Washington Capitals took advantage of home ice thus far in this series, winning both games at Verizon Center to take a 2-o series lead over the Pittsburgh Penguins in their Stanley Cup Playoff Eastern Conference semi final match up. Tonight, the series shifts up to the Igloo in steel town, amid a spate of activity from both clubs. From the Penguins side, the Penguins are now starting to complain more. This time about the Capitals tactics on face offs, setting picks and / or interfering with their players, and also about the curvature of Alex Ovechkin's stick. Concerns are being raised from multiple sources with the Penguins orgainsation.

On the Capitals side of things, the Caps are dealing with some injury issues. Apparently Eric Fehr did not skate this morning, and will not be in the line up for tonight's game. In his place will likely be NHL veteran and Caps center Michael Nylander, who has been a healthy scratch for the first two games of this series. John Erskine, who is nursing a lower body injury persumably from taking a hard shot to the leg in game one, will also likely sit out for the 2nd straghit game. Likely to be in his place will be either Karl Alzner, or Tyler Sloan, who made his first NHL playoff appearance in Monday nights game two victory, playing a great game and also picking up an assist on David Steckle's goal in the 2nd period.

The Caps beat writer, Tarik El-Bashir filed this video report covering both sides on his blog, Capitals Insider:


Thanks Tarik.

And so it continues tonight. The much hyped, epic battle of the NHL's two top superstars, Alex Ovechkin and Sydney Crosby once again takes center stage with the Capitals up by two games once again. As I am sure ALL Caps fans, both long time such as myself, and new alike, are now well aware of the Capitals playoff history Vs the Penguins. As I sated in this post, the Capitals have been up by two games on the Pens multiple times in the past, and just like the Rangers did when they were up 2-0 and 3-1 over the Caps last round, the Caps folded to lose the series. Tonight is an extremely important point in this series, and may just go a long way to show just how far the Caps have come, and just how different of a team these "new Caps" are compared to those great prennial playoff appearing, but also choking Caps teams of old. The Capitals must take some pages and some notes from the past, in order to look towards the future here. To win this game tonight would go along way in proving to themselves, and thier loyal fans, and the rest of the world that this Capitals team is not only as good as those of old, but is in fact better. It is my hope that after tonight, those old "choking dogs" ghosts that have plagued the Capitals for much of thier collective playoff career. From what I have seen thus far this playoff season, that little Journey song I was humming a while back, seems to be creaping into my thoughts more and more....


..."Don't stop, Believin"...

LET'S GO CAPS ! ! !

Apparently Crosby Has A Case Of The "Whine-FLU"

So browsing around the net today, in specifically Dan Steinberg's D.C. Sports Bog over at the Washington Post, it occurred to me that I left one item out from Monday nights game 2 at Verizon Center. After the Caps Alexander Ovechkin scored his third goal of the game to put the Capitals up 4-2, there was a delay of a few minutes as the fans went nuts, and hundreds of hats rained down onto the Verizon Center ice. During this delay, Sidney Crosby of the Penguins (pictured left, photo by Toni Sandys - Wash Post) decided to skate over to the officials to have a little chat. We all know all too well Crosby has been documented as being a bit on the whiney side, and has a reputaion as being a whiney player.Well, after the was askedby a reporter what exactly he was "discussing" with the officials during the dealay. As it turns out, he was complaing about the hats being thrown on the ice, and the ensuing delay in getting them all cleaned up. Regarding his discussion with the officials Crosby was reported as saying:

"People kept throwing hats. I was just asking if he could make an announcement to ask them to stop. I mean, the first wave came and then I think they were all pretty much picked up, and then more started coming. So for us, we just wanted to make sure we kept kind of moving and kept the game going, wanted to try to get back in it. So wasn't complaining about anything."

So once again, Crosby makes a statement that, not surprisingly, could easily be percieved as "Whining", and belive me, thats exactly how many saw it. But his reputation for such comments has been on going for a while now. There is more than likely a whole treasure trove of quotes from Crosby, which come across as fairly whiney in nature. Its no surpise that fans from other clubs, including us Caps fans have taken notice over the past couple seasons. The evidence can be found all around. Here are a few photos I took from Monday nights game of fans who have grown tired of it. Keep in mind, these photos were taken BEFORE his comments to the press that are quoted above were made.

Spotted on the Jumbo Tron during warm ups:














On the metro ride home after the game:



















The back side of the same shirt:




In case you cant tell what it is, its the back of the penguin thats on the front of this little guy's T-shirt.