[05-Nov-2015] So far, so... OK, I like what I'm seeing, but DAMN YOU, HENRIK LUNDQVIST!!!

That Henrik Lundqvist... not only is he one of the best goaltenders in the National Hockey League, not only does he seem to have the Caps' number... it's just not FAIR that he should have all that, and be drop-dead gorgeous too!

*cough*

OK,  no. This is not a puck bunny site, and while Lundqvist is undeniably good-looking, that is definitely NOT the point of this blog post.

34 saves on 36 shots.

That backhand pass from Nate Schmidt to Alex Ovechkin for the Caps' first goal was just sick. Lundqvist was caught with his hand in the air facing the wrong direction to even have half a prayer of stopping Ovi's bullet of a shot.

Marcus Johansson from Karl Alzner... put Lundqvist on his arsenic and old lace.

But beyond that... the puck luck simply was not there. The Force was with Lundqvist, and not the Caps.

The play-by-play listed shots:

1. Alex Ovechkin, backhand, 7'
2. Tom Wilson, snapshot, 12'
3. Brooks Orpik, slapshot, 44'
4. Nate Schmidt, wrist shot, 56'
5. Andre Burakovsky, shapshot, 21'
6. Marcus Johansson, wrist shot, 14'
7. Alex Ovechkin, slapshot, 16'
8. Matt Niskanen, snapshot, 62'
9. Alex Ovechkin, snapshot, 24'
10. TJ Oshie, tip-in, 10'
11. Nate Schmidt, backhand, 10'
12. Karl Alzner, wrist shot, 58'
13. Nicklas Backstrom, tip-in, 10'
14. John Carlson, snapshot, 48'
15. Matt Niskanen, slapshot, 51'
16. Brooks Orpik, backhand, 36'
17. Justin Williams, wrist shot, 23'
18. Alex Ovechkin, wrist shot, 15'
19. Matt Niskanen, slapshot, 59'
20. Justin Williams, wrist shot, 15'
21. Alex Ovechkin, wrist shot, 17'
22. Justin Williams, snapshot, 31'
23. John Carlson, wrist shot, 45'
24. Evgeny Kuznetsov, wrist shot, 12'
25. Justin Williams, wrist shot, 17'
26. TJ Oshie, tip-in, 9'
27. Alex Ovechkin, wrist shot, 12'
28. Andre Burakovsky, wrist shot, 13'
29. Jason Chimera, wrist shot, 9'
30. Nate Schmidt, backhand, 12'
31. Matt Niskanen, slapshot, 47'
32. Alex Ovechkin, slapshot, 99'

Ovechkin has the shortest range, at 7', and the longest, at 99, a Hail Mary type of shot that nobody probably expected to go in - and so were not disappointed when it didn't. Chimera, and Oshie had shots from 9' out, and Oshie, Backstrom, and Schmidt from 10'... when you think of 32 shots on goal, which means I undoubtedly missed some in the play-by-play, since I said above there were 36, and that King Henrik made 34 saves... well, let's say that most of them -  20 of the 32 I list above - were from under 20' out. That's not like we were just pecking at Lundqvist from the outside there... You figure 64' from  the blue line to the goal line... I'm looking at the dimensions of an NHL rink here... 20' from the faceoff dot to the goal line... a lot of these shots came from between the faceoff dot and the goal.

So I'm not going to complain that we weren't putting quality shots up on Lundqvist. I'll just say he's damned good at his job, and we'll solve him next time. We've done it before; we'll do it again. The only thing we need to do is not make mistakes that wind up in the back of the net.

The same goes tonight against the depleted Bruins team. Yes, they've lost Chris Kelly for the season, and that sucks for them. They are also without David Pastrnak and Dennis Seidenberg. But those missing players don't make David Krejci less dangerous, or Tuukka Rask a less stellar goaltender (assuming we get Rask tonight rather than Jonas Gustavvson...) Krejci, Brad Marchand, and Loui Ericsson are all still playing, and Krejci has more goals than Ovi right now...

I'm hoping that will change tonight.