[28-Jan-2016] D'oh!

The only constructive thing I can think of to say about last night's 4-3 OT loss to the Flyers is this: the Caps did battle back to a tie game twice, and all reports (we left at the end of the 1st frame, owing to the presence of too many Flyers' fans and a history of bad experiences when there are too many orange-clad faithful in one place and the Flyers are winning the game) indicate that the Caps dominated the Flyers through the first part of the third frame. In fact, the penalty disparity (5-2 advantage Flyers) and the alternative version of Kuznetsof (Kuzya Klutzy!) had a lot to do with the loss, as two of the Flyers' goals were direct results of Kuzya's mistakes.

Let us hope that the young Russian's trip to the All-Star game in place of Captain Chaos Ovechkin, who is nursing a lower-body injury, will be a good thing for him, and allow him to readjust the screws in his head so that he doesn't thread a perfect pass to the other team, or knock our goalie's stick out of his hand in overtime again. :) 

In all seriousness... I'm not bothered by this loss. It's one game, amid a ton of other games, and the Caps retain their commanding lead of the NHL (74 points to 70 for #2 Chicago), and their games in hand (6) also do not change. 

This one was a rare stinker of a first frame; next game will be better, and we should have all the pieces-parts back together again by then (with the exception of our broken Jay Beagle, who is still nursing a hand/wrist injury that required surgical repair, and is not expected to return for a few more weeks.) Ovi can rest and get healthy; Carlson, who actually did play and contribute last night, can continue healing; and hopefully we'll get Brooks Orpik back, too. 

That'll be good.