Caps/Pens, 1/11/2012

That was a terrible, horrible, ugly game. That was so, so bad at so many points. With only brief, brilliant exceptions, the Caps had all the coordination and hockey-playing skill of plankton tonight.

But we won.

If you want to know the reason, it's very simple. I could write this recap in two sentences, but if you know anything about me and my unnecessary wordiness by now, you know that I won't. But if you only read two words of the whole recap, read these two: Tomas Vokoun.

Every other Capital on the team owes that man a steak dinner.

It's the first time the Pens have been shut out all season. It's the first time they've been shut out in 48 games. Everyone knows that the Pens are a fucked-up, fucked-over team held together with shoelaces and chewing gun right now, but it's always great to beat them, no matter what the circumstances, it'll never not be just a little bit more satisfying most regular season games, even when it's the equivalent of kicking the crutches out from under a guy with two broken legs.

More importantly, it was a hockey game and the Caps won it, and we love it when they do that.

Significant moments in bullet form today, because a normal recap of this would just be me repeating "No. Bad. Wrong. Help." over and over, and maybe you'd think we didn't win the game after all. We did. Remind all your Pens friends, but gently. They're having a hard month.


VARIOUS THINGS: 

• This game was on NBC, so you probably lost a few brain cells. Even though it's not Versus anymore, good to see that watching these broadcasts is still the fan equivalent of being concussed multiple times. 
• Speaking of, His Holiness Sidney Crosby was in the press box tonight, which I'm sure you didn't miss because there were ten million camera shots of him. If I cared deeply about Sidney Crosby's minutely changing facial expressions, this would have been so great to me. 
• Penguins had not gotten the memo that their season is a huge joke and provided some serious, if sloppy, offense for a lot of the game. We all appreciated the fight and feistiness--I don't respect the Penguins, per se, but I do have to admit that they've made things work with limited resources. Well, at least they have until now, cause the wheels are kinda coming off. 
• You could almost see the moment when Vokoun realized that he was on his own here, and just decided to shut the door. Apparently he's capable of beating an average-to-poor team all by himself. No other players need skate. 
• Hamrlik hit Dupuis awkwardly and sent him into the boards knee-first, and Malkin also disappeared into the dressing room for part of the night. Whoops. If the entire team is on IR do they automatically forfeit the season, I wonder?
• The single goal scored was from Chimera, because isn't it always Chimera this season? Still strange and wonderful to have them talk about him snapping his "goal-scoring draught", because Jason Chimera is a Scorer now. 
• Add that Ovechkin hit on Adams to the list of things to watch when you're in a bad mood. Crrrrrunch. 
• Kundratek mostly didn't fuck up at things! He seemed a beat behind every play, constantly, but he wasn't unbearable. Still probably not our best option at the moment. I wonder what this means for our our gaggle (flock? herd?) of defensemen. 

Two points. Tied in eighth place in the conference now, with three more home games coming down the pipe. It was the least cute game you have ever seen perhaps, ever, but it's a win, and it's momentum. How glad are we to see Tomas Vokoun finally, finally play like the guy we'll need him to be in April? He earned that shutout a hundred times over, so good on him.

Caps had better not be planning on playing like that again. We'll take the win--but get your asses in gear. You've got some shit to prove, and everyone is watching. Make it happen.

Let's go Caps.