Thank the good hockey gods we have a back to back so we don't need to focus on the myriad of reasons Vancouver came up short last night in MSG.
Then again the Caps (though their fans may elect to say otherwise) aren't a quiet stroll around the Lincoln Memorial either. 6-1-3 in their last 10 and learning to win with a stingy defense isn't a bad way to alleviate their ugly losing streak earlier in the year and where the hell their goal scoring went. Nevertheless Ovechkin is on pace for a pathetic 89 points, Semin is their best player at GFON/60 and Backstrom is the only person keeping one of my NM Fantasy teams out of the toilet. I would add a comment about the Caps goaltending but I yield the floor to the good senator from the state of BTN for more.
On the other end of the ice, here's some ugly for you. We've enjoyed the streak for so long we turned a happy blind eye to the bottom six looking more like last year's bottom six (no no, that's mean. I'm sorry guys). The Twins and the KesLORD can't score them all. Some timely goals from the pluggers (or you gentlemen on the blueline) would be welcome relief. If not the Sedins will have to content with Hannan (remember him?!) and Green. Juicy Hammer gets the Ovechkin/Backstom duo. Anyone else looking forward to what Bieksa will bring to shutting down their aces?
I leave the final word with one Brooks Laich:
"That doesn't matter to us...We did it last year. We ran away with it . . . and it got us nowhere. They're scoring, great. Whatever. Have fun with it, but for us it's just a big game. It's a good challenge against a team that has points, I think in 17 in a row or something like that."
Yeah, SOMETHING like that. I hope the Canucks score from a deflection off Laich's orbital bone. Sounds fun to me.
Go Canucks.