Junior's Reading And Viewing List: April 3 - 4, 2010

Last Update - April 7, 2010 at 11:32 PM EDT

This Junior's 'Reading And Viewing List' covers the weekend that just passed. These snippets with title links are for April 3 through April 4, 2010.


April 4, 2010

Caps claim first Presidents' Trophy
By Tarik El-Bashir at Capitals Insider

Southeast Division? Check.

Eastern Conference? Check.

Presidents' Trophy? Check.

The Caps clinched their first No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs -- and home ice through the Stanley Cup finals -- thanks to the Sharks' 5-4 OT loss in Colorado tonight.

Now, there's only one thing left for Alex Ovechkin and Co. to win.

A Face Made for Hockey
By The Peerless at The Peerless Prognosticator

Anton Gustafsson dressed tonight for the Hershey Bears in his AHL debut. We must say, his official picture at the AHL web site makes no mistake -- this is a hockey player...

Game 7
By The Peerless at The Peerless Prognosticator

We are a month removed from the trading deadline, a day on which (according to TSN.ca) there were 31 trades involving 55 players and 35 draft picks. Teams move assets around in hopes of finding a spark, of finding the right mix for the home stretch, of finding that last piece of the puzzle. Other teams do so looking to the future – collecting draft picks or prospects in hopes that a year or two from now they will again be competitive, that they will be a contender...

Franchise Record 51st Win
By Joe Beninati - Capitals Play-by-Play
at Comcast SportsNet - Washington, DC

That's two straight one-goal games that required a lot of fortitude from the Caps, and they proved once again they could do it. The Blue Jackets are far from world beaters, but they are a tenacious team that always battles hard against Washington.

Before I get into the terrific offensive start, I wanted to acknowledge what I thought was an exceptional effort on defense from Mike Green. Jose Theodore was our Caps player of the game on the telecast, but that honor easily could have been Green's. He made several critical stops on Blue Jackets' sniper Rick Nash...


April 3, 2010

Postgame Notebook: Capitals 3, Blue Jackets 2
By Mike Vogel - Senior Writer at WashingtonCaps.com

And Then There Were Four – Washington jumped out to an early 3-0 lead over the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Saturday, and for a while, it looked like the Caps might be in for a rare laugher. In the end, the Capitals needed some stellar play from goaltender Jose Theodore to hold on for a 3-2 win in their penultimate road game of the regular season...

Washington Capitals at Columbus Blue Jackets Game Highlights
Posted at Comcast SportsNet - Washington, DC

Right click on video to choose full screen option.

Washington Capitals Players After Road Win
Over Columbus Blue Jackets
Posted on Caps365 at WashingtonCaps.com

Coach Bruce Boudreau After Road Win
Over Columbus Blue Jackets
Posted on Caps365 at WashingtonCaps.com

Caps Close Out Slate vs. West
By Mike Vogel - Senior Writer at WashingtonCaps.com

Needing one win in its final two road games to set a franchise standard for road victories in a season, Washington heads to Columbus on Saturday for its penultimate road tilt of the season. The game is also the last of the Capitals’ 18 games against Western Conference opponents this season. The Caps are 9-5-3 against Western foes thus far this season...

Script Frenzy 2010: Day One
By Kameron at I May Have Been Born Yesterday
But I Stayed Up All Night

Yesterday was the first day of Script Frenzy when writers devote a month to an original 100-page script for a movie, television program, stage play or anything else. Why? Strictly for the hell of it, mainly; it's good practice and writing to a deadline can spur creativity...

Capitals 2008-2009 Regular Season Schedule

For the Washington Capitals, the 2008-2009 regular season starts in Atlanta on Friday October 10th. They will raise the 2007-2008 Southeast Division Championship banner before their home opener the following night, when they play against Cristobal Huet's new team, the Chicago Blackhawks. This season's 82 game schedule has every team facing each other at least once.

Each team will play their division rivals six times and the other teams in their conference four times each. Washington will have two games each against Columbus, Los Angeles and Nashville. They face the rest of the Western Conference teams at least once.

Most of the games versus Western Conference teams will occur in the first half of the season, which means the Capitals will see a lot of their Eastern Conference foes in the second half. Washington will play 22 of their 41 home games during weekends. Click here for the full schedule.

Capitals Vs Blue Jackets 02/05/2008 Review

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Capitals 4 - Blue Jackets 3 OT

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Hello secondary scoring! We've missed you. Alexander Ovechkin got some help while leading the Washington Capitals to an overtime win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. Over the past five games it's pretty much been left up to Alex to take care of the scoring. But, the whole Cap's team came out all fired up. They played a very physical game and got some shots on goal from defenceman as well as forwards. It was also the long awaited return of right winger Eric Fehr who hadn't played at the NHL level since February 21, 2007. Hopefully, the 10 AHL games he has played for the Hershey Bears recently, was enough to get him on his way to being ready.

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The Blue Jackets were giving the Capitals a hard time from the start, but Washington wasn't backing down. All the Cap's were fighting for puck possession and scoring chances. Before the first period was half way over, it was obvious these two teams were getting on each others nerves. The Jackets' defenceman and Captain Adam Foote was all over Ovechkin, getting called for roughing after pushing Ovie from behind, following a close range shot. Right after that, Ole-Kristian Tollefsen was nicked for hooking Nicklas Backstrom. But, the excellent penalty killing of the Blue Jackets and their super quick goalie Pascal Leclaire, kept Washington off the scoreboard during the 1:42 of 5 on 3. Just before the Cap's PP time ran out, Rick Nash picked off a pass from Backstrom and sped up the ice. He easily potted the short handed goal. Less than a minute later, Jason Chimera tipped in a rebound, giving Columbus a two goal lead.

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The second period started with over a minute left of a Blue Jacket's 5 on 3 PP. But, the Capitals weren't going to be outdone, and they successfully killed off the penalty time. Brent Johnson made some wonderful saves, and defenceman Tom Poti was helping out at the net as well. Poti made a crucial save on a wide open net, while Johnny was still down after keeping out the previous shot. Throughout the second period, the Cap's got plenty of scoring chances. They spent a good bit of time in the offensive zone. With about seven minutes left in the period, both Ovechkin and Backstrom raised their arms to celebrate a Backstrom goal. But, video review would have it waived off. Less than a minute later, Alex Ovechkin got his 44th goal of the season. Typical Ovie play, coming down the left side, using the defender (Foote) as a screen while sending the puck past the goalie. Soon after, Leclaire left the game due to a minor neck injury suffered during a collision with Washington's Quintin Laing. He was replaced by netminder Fredrik Norrena. With less than two minutes left in the period, Alexander Semin took a Viktor Kozlov pass, and sent the puck into the net from the doorstep. All tied up at the end of two. .

About four minutes into the third period, referee Bill McCreary joined the Blue Jackets defence and put a moving pic on Washington's Shaone Morrisonn. That unfortunate blunder directly led to an uncontested Rick Nash goal. There was some more rough stuff. But, alas no beat down on anybody from Donald Brashear, during his 900th career game. During this period, Tomas Fleischmann's stick seemed to repell the puck. He missed a decent pass, and fanned on a shot, too. But, Johnson was still making the big saves in the Cap's end. At 13:07, Tom Poti's 45 game scoreless draught finally ended. We all saw it go in and quickly bounce back out, but it took another 14 seconds before the ref's stopped play and the clock. Video review confirmed it soon after, and the elapsed time was put back on the clock. The third period also ended with the game tied..

Johnny kept making the saves for the Cap's in OT. At 2:28, Ovechkin sent in a snapshot five hole wrister for the game winner. It was his second goal of the game and 45th of the season. Alex scored two goals the last time he and the Capitals played in Columbus. That was of course also his first NHL game. Two more points for the Capitals.

Ovie got some secondary scoring help from Semin and Poti. Johnson was brilliant in net. The Cap's got some excellent defensive work from Tom Poti, Milan Jurcina, Shaone Morrisonn, etc. I certainly wouldn't say Washington dominated this game. But, it was exciting. The boys put in a gritty, respectable, full game effort and came out on top. They'll need to continue playing at this level if they want to get to the end of the regular season with a playoff spot.

All Photos - AP / Paul Vernon