Penguins Vs Capitals 02/22/2009 Review

Alex Ovechkin scores on Marc-Andre Fleury with his first shot on goal.
Photo by Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP Photo.

Penguins 2 - Capitals 5

The Washington Capitals may have momentarily stumbled on Friday when they hosted the Colorado Avalanche, but they clearly frustrated the hell out of Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in yesterday's third straight victory over Pennsylvania's biggest crybabies.

The NBC Sports announcers presenting the game may have wrongfully called Crosby a "nice" guy, but they also finally and rightfully called Alex Ovechkin the "best player in the NHL by far". Sidney Crosby could be seen continuously spouting rubbish throughout the entire game toward Ovechkin and his mates on the ice and at the bench. Obviously, bad feelings were flowing both ways. Fortunately for us Caps fans, our guys usually don't also play dirty, like the whinny little windbag Crosby and some of his teammates. The referees sure seemed bent on making it look the other way round, but the outcome of the game should wash away most of those mistakes. Enough ranting! On with the important stuff.

Washington had the game sewn up about 21 minutes after the first puck drop. The Capitals got power play goals from Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin in the first period, with Maxime Talbot netting Pittsburgh's first tally between those strikes. The Pen's managed a power play goal of their own from Sergei Gonchar at 4:46 in the second period, but the game winner for the Caps was already scored by Sergei Fedorov just 56 seconds into the period.

Shaone Morrisonn and Brooks Laich gave Washington a couple of insurance goals later in the second period. The goal by Morrisonn was his 3rd of the season. Laich's goal, which he banked off starting Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury through a grapefruit sized gap between Fleury and the goal post, was his 14th. It also led to Pittsburgh switching to Mathieu Garon in net, but the damage had already been done.

All the Caps seemed to be ready for this match up. They played with energy the whole 60 minutes. Jose Theodore made 31 stops between the pipes. The power play worked well. The penalty kill may have been used a little more often than one would like, but things went right on that end as well.

I have to admit I did enjoy watching Ovechkin teasing Crosby. After Sid crosschecked him high in the back while in front of the Capitals' bench, bending him over the half wall near the end of the second period, Ovie kept his cool. He simply put his arm around Crosby's shoulders and passed along what I'm sure were compliments on Sid's fine, yet relatively unproductive play. After Crosby wrangled away from Ovechkin, they both headed to their benches. Ovie waved bye-bye and then added a flapping chicken gesture as time ran out on the period. Ahh yes, very entertaining game.

Ovechkin and Crosby chat near end of second period.
This video was obviously mixed by a Penguins fan.
"Alex Ovechkin Roughs Up / Taunts Sidney Crosby [Feb 22, 2009]"
I found the "Roughs Up" part of the title very funny.