THURSDAY POSTGAME

The Caps buckled down defensively, Olie was steller, and they let their stars do their thing for an absolute HUGE (and necessary) win over a tough team in a tough building. It was the first time since 2003 that the Caps won in Buffalo.

The game was necessary because Atlanta put up another crap performance and was taken out by the Canes 6-3. So the Caps still are at 1 game in hand with 3 pts behind and are actually only 2 points behind the 8th spot.

Some thoughts...

• Have the goal flood gates opened up for Backstrom?

• I honestly expected a quiet night for Ovechkin...my God I want to see this man in the playoffs.

• The Steckel-Cooke-Bradley line was all around good. They got the puck in, checked hard, skated fast, and almost potted a couple of goals.

• It's hard to not give Ovy the 1st star but Olie Kolzig showed us why he believes he is still a #1 goalie.

• When Olie went down with the possibility of being injured (and Huet DTD)  I wanted to write George McPhee in for the Nobel Peace Prize.

• Really Refs? Really?

• I have no idea why Locker thought Ovy hooked on that second goal. It looked to me that he was simply shifting his weight.

• We did get pretty lucky on that "No Goal"...but so did Buffalo on Tuesday in Philly...Lindy Ruff thought the GWG in Philly was funny..but he's probably not laughing right now.

• Pretty classy of the Buffalo fans to heckle Olie right after they applauded him for getting up. I guess unemployment will make people do crazy things.

• That's our first line for a reason folks.

• Onto Boston. Will Bruce show this video on how to deal with the Bruins? Will Crazy Fists be one of my Keys to the Game?
  

NOTE: As per Tarik "Checking line center David Steckel suffered a broken right index finger in the third period tonight when he was struck by a shot. He is going to miss two to three weeks, according to the team."

My prediction for the lines now.

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Kozlov
Semin-Fedorov-Fehr
Cooke-Laich-Bradley
Brashear-Gordon-Flash *

* Unless Laing can play the right side.

When Clark comes back (pretty soon) he should take the RW 2nd line position and Fehr drops back to the 4th line RW. Laich would stay Center on the third line.