Ladies and Gentlemen

Alexander Semin is back.

Lepisto Sent Down

Via Tarik, the Caps sent down Lepisto this morning, meaning a defenseman is coming back. Tarik thinks either Green or Poti will be returning (either one would be great), but its also possible that Sloan is ready to play and Collins played better than Lepisto during his call up (which is completely true). So we'll see.

Canes 3, Caps 1

It's hard to blame a loss on two people, but I am prepared to do that tonight by putting a good amount of the responsibility on two guys: Michael Leighton and Sami Lepisto. Leighton was nothing short of outstanding, stopping 38 of 39 shots. He stopped Ovie on a penalty shot and absolutely robbed him (and several other Caps) numerous times. Lepisto was statistically only bad in his plus/minues at -2, but he continues to be an absolute disaster behind the Caps net, and the go-ahead goal for Carolina was scored because he lost a key battle to Eric Staal and Sergei Samsanov.

My opinion? We need Mike Green and Alexander Semin now more than ever.

Some random thoughts:

• The Caps came out and played their hearts out the whole second period and most of the third period. They had allowed no shots by the halfway mark of the third and the two goals scored on Theo in the third period were shots 2 and 3 of the third frame (though the defense left him out to dry on all three goals).
• Ovechkin's pass to Backstrom was a thing of beauty. Backstrom's one-timer was as well.
• I can't remember the last time the Caps played a team's number one goalie at the start of the season besides last night in Toronto.
  
• Alzner, despite being minus 1, played a pretty solid game and made few mistakes. The same could be said for Collins.
• Ovechkin fired 11 shots on net. That's more than Carolina had in each period.
• I despise Eric Staal more with every additional game we play against him.
  
• The refs were on our side, for once, and the Caps got away with at least two calls that could have been easy penalties (especially on the 5 on 3).
  

So the boys get a bit of a break, two days off before facing the white-hot and Eastern Conference leading Bruins on Wednesday at Verizon. Please, please tell me that we get somebody back by then.

Huh?

I was kind of confused when I saw this on SI.com (2nd time I've been confused by something on that site in a week).



Checked back a minute later, and they'd changed it... kind of...



Weak.

Caps 2, Leafs 1

Great win in Toronto, and coupled with a Carolina OTL, we just opened up a 6 point gap in the standings with the 'Canes coming up tomorrow.

Some random thoughts on the game:

• Congrats to King Karl, with his first NHL goal, second assist, a +2 rating, and a 100% shooting percentage.
• Ovechkin had a typical off night, and an off night for him is a helluva lot of shots (7) with everything slightly off (and one easy shot banking off the post). No points for AO either.
• Flash, Backstrom, and Kozlov, the Caps besides Ovie who have been providing all the scoring, were all pointless. Nyls was the only Capital forward who recorded a point.
  
• Ovie led the team in ice time with 23:17, and Alzner led all defensemen with 23:06. I love what the kid has been doing, but the relatively gradual development is what made Mike Green who he is. Giving King Karl over 23 minutes of ice time on the top line isn't slow development, but we don't have a lot of options now.
• Fehr is hurt. If he can't go expect to see Mink or Bourque in Carolina tomorrow.
• Sha Mo was hitting everything that moved, and had one of his better games of the season.
  
• Sami Lepisto just plain sucked tonight.
• Johnny was quite good, stopping 19 out of 20 shots and looking confident and poised all game. The only goal he allowed was more of a good shot by Antropov than a mistake by BJ1 (and I think he was moving across too after a nifty drop pass from Stajan).
• I thought Helmer was pretty good. I don't even remember seeing Collins, and that's a good thing. Goose eggs across the board with one shot and 13 minutes of ice time.
• Keith Aucoin continues to impress.
• Finally, I wasn't angry at Milan Jurcina after the game. His goal was an absolute bomb, and finally proved all those scouting reports I've heard and never believed that he has a good slapshot.

So, back to back games result in a trip to Carolina tomorrow. Hopefully the boys get some sleep tonight, we've seen what back to back games have done to the Caps this year (1-3-1 on the tail end of back to back games so far).

Next Up From Hershey...

Eric Fehr is hurt.

2009 Mock Draft

It may be a bit early to start talking about this but Allan Muir has the 2009 mock draft over at SI.com, our favorite hockey media source besides ESPN. Muir has the Caps picking Swedish center Jacob Josefson (don't we have a couple of those already?). Josefon is a 2-way forward with an offensive upside, reminding me a bit of Brooks Laich. Anything can happen between now and summer though.

Or so I thought, until I looked at the standings and realized that the Lightning and Thrashers are the leagues two worst teams. And I really do not see either of those teams getting better this season, especially since they are likely to dump their best players at the trade deadline (the Ilya Kovalchuk rumors have already begun). So, assume that the bottom half of the NHL standings finish roughly the same, with the Thrashers in the cellar and the Lightning second to last. That would mean the John Tavares is essentially guarenteed a spot in the Southeast Division. If he's with the Lightning, then thats Stamkos and Tavares together. If he ends up with the Thrashers, and they end up keeping Kovie, then thats Ilya and Tavares together.

Both prospects are, I will admit, a bit unnerving. But neither team has much in the way of goaltending, so I'm not too worried.