Capitals Poised To Steal The Eastern Conference From Flyers

The first-place Philadelphia Flyers lost in a shootout to the second-place Washington Capitals last night.  Philly took a late in the 3rd in what appeared to be an early ending to the game, but Washington's Marcus Johansson knotted the game up with only 3:19 to go, and Alexander Semin won the game in the shootout.

Washington's Mike Knuble scores in the 1st period of play

But what happened?  Philadelphia's goaltending was practically non-existent for the first period, with Nicklas Backstrom's early goal appearing to have been scored by accident. In fact, Washington took only seven shots on goal in the first period, but scored two goals.  And with the third unanswered goal, Sergei Bobrovski's save percentage for the game was .667%.  His save percentage for the season is .914%.  Both of the Flyers goalies played terrible.  And by the way, Washington was without star winger Alexander Ovechkin for this game.

Philidelphia's Claude Giroux's attempt to tie after Alexander Semin's goal

With this win, Washington will clinch the Southeast Division, and if the Flyers lose Thursday night and the Caps win Friday night, there'll be a new leader in the Eastern Conference.

Alexander Semin's game-winning shootout goal for Washington

An aerial-view of the same goal

Mario Lemieux Needs To Put A Stop To Matt Cooke

As a Washington Capitals fan, I am ashamed to say that I ever cheered on a team with this goon on the roster.  Any player that has the balls to throw an elbow right in the referee's crease where he know's he's being watched has something wrong with him.  Mario Lemieux, owner of the Pittsburgh Penguins, has recently taken a stand against headshots in the NHL.  But you can't blame him, his team's most expensive asset was taken out for the season from a cheap shot to the head.  However, if he wants anyone to take notice of his complaints, he'll need to scrap this punk from his roster.  Matt Cooke is everything wrong with hockey.

Headshots and Hockey: An Understood Risk

Injuries have been a problem for the NHL as long as the league has been around.  Anyone who watches NHL games regularly has seen something horrible happen on the ice.  In a game that has always resisted change, it's not easy to prevent horrible injuries.  Let's face it, the last time someone played without a helmet was only in 1997.

In January, the NHL brass gave us there new favorite buzz-word, "headshot."  Now, in March, you can't read a hockey website without hearing it. Late in the 2nd period of the Winter Classic, Pittsburgh's Sydney Crosby looked up ice just in time to say hello to Washington's David Steckel.  Did it look dirty? Sure.  Did Steckel do it on purpose? Possibly.  Is it something we've never seen before? No.  In fact, it looked pretty similar to Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke's season-ending hit on Boston's Marc Savard a year earlier.  Savard is still suffering from sever Post-Concussion Syndrome that has sidelined him for the rest of the 2010-2011 season.  Watch the video below:

Matt Cooke is the last of a dying breed, the hockey enforcer.  So what should the NHL do?  They should get rid of Matt Cooke.

Final Scores 3-13-11

Blackhawks (37-24-8) @ Capitals (40-20-10)

Washington 4 - Chicago 3 OT

Without Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom, Michal Neuvirth, and Semyon Varlamov, Washington still managed to pull through against the Stanley Cup winning Chicago squad.  Chicago tied the game 3 - 3 with a powerplay goal with 39 seconds remaining in regulation, but with 1:09 left in OT, Marcus Johanssen passed to Mike Knuble down low, who put the puck passed Chicago goalie Corey Crawford.  The Capitals extend there win streak to 8 games.

Oilers (23-38-9) @ Penguins (40-22-8)

Pittsburgh 5 - Edmonton 1

Saturday in Montreal, Marc-Andre Fleury was pulled early in the 2nd Period in what Penguins GM called, "...a horrible game...".  But today, back home in the CONSOL Energy Center, Fleury bounced back to almost shut-out the visiting Oilers. Pittsburgh's Chris Kunitz scored the first and last goals of the game, Ryan Jones scored the only goal for Edmonton, and Matt Cooke recorded his 300th NHL point when he assisted Jordan Staal in the 2nd Period.

Kings (39-25-5) @ Stars (37-24-8)

Los Angeles 3 - Dallas 2

The people of Dallas saw an exciting match between two evenly matched teams that came down to the last few seconds.  Los Angeles' Drew Dougherty recorded the first score of the game with a powerplay goal 3 minutes into the 1st period.  The Kings scored again 14 minutes into the 2nd period but Dallas' Brad Richards scored his teams 1st goal with 2 minutes left in the 2nd period.  With 1 minute left in the game, Dallas was searching for a saving grace and they found it in Jamie Langenbrunner who knotted it up 43 seconds left, but Los Angeles quickly took the lead with only 21 seconds left to win the game.

Senators (25-35-9) @ Sabres (34-27-8)

Buffalo 6 - Ottawa 4

In there return from a seven-game road-trip,  Buffalo ousted Ottawa 6 - 4 with a pair of goals by Tyler Ennis.  The two teams went goal-for-goal in the 1st 20 minutes, but Buffalo ran away with the game in the 2nd Period.  Ottawa tried to come back, but Buffalo scored twice for Ottawa's only 2nd Period goal. The Senators late effort with a goal in the last minute of regulation wasn't enough to surpass the Sabres.