Halfway through the game with his team down 3-1, Adam Oates, Washington's coach, pulled goalie Braden Holtby, to stem the Ranger tide. It kinda worked because the Rangers only scored one more goal. The move by Oates was good, only thing he pulled the wrong player. The guy he should have pulled was his Captain, Alex Ovechkin. He was brilliant, for the Rangers.
Ovechkin got 22:26, got 4 shots, 2 hits and was a minus 3. He hung around the blue lines looking for breakout passes. He made a lazy pass at Derek Stepan through the neutral zone on a play where Stepan, (6), scored the tying goal. He then committed two penalties, credited with one, which led to two goals, Boyle's first and Callahan's 8th, off a beautiful redirect on a Rick Nash laser. Richards closed out the scoring with his 4th. If the Caps are smart, and I find it hard to believe anyone in Washington is smart, they will put him on the market at trading time.
The win was a good comeback for the Rangers following the last games third period debacle. Marty Biron played a good game making 29 saves, giving Henrik a needed rest. The team played well, but remember the Caps are one of the NHL's bottom feeders and are in a dogfight for 12th place. But at this time of the year and halfway through the schedule, every two points are huge and this is a good start to the roadtrip. Next stop. Another bottom feeder, Buffalo.
Will this man be impeached in Washington and removed from office?
LOL I tweeted during the game that Ovie was the Rangers MVP of the afternoon hands down! Ha Ha. And I also agree that Oates should have benched him, which doesn't work well on Alex so he's damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. In all seriousness, what is wrong with Ovechkin? He seems like he's really unhappy. Maybe he should ask for a trade. Try a fresh start in another NHL city and if that doesn't work for him then go play in Russia because I honestly believe that's where he really wants to be. If he can get out of his contract, that is. Not sure when its up.
Anyway, back to our team. I thought Pundit's boy Stepan was great again yesterday. He's making some strong plays out there and he was the only Ranger playing well when everyone else forgot the start time. I thought it was fitting that he got the lucky first goal that changed the tide of the game. He created that good luck with his hard work and his thought process of putting the puck toward the net regardless (because you never know) is exactly the way our offense should be thinking. If they had that mind set all the time, their numbers would be a hell of a lot better. Brian Boyle tweeted last night: "Hey monkey...get off me!!!" - Hope that it stays off and this is a break for him. Biron is the best backup in the league. He is always ready, steady and calm. He gives Henrik a true break. We can always count on him. I was hoping Biron was going to get one of the back to backs or the Buffalo game because the Caps have been playing better as of late, but Marty did great as always. Just as I said on my last post that I want to see the Rangers improve in the middle frame they score 2 in the second period and one on the PP too. Nice. Speaking of which, I see my 1st PP unit is staying in tact. Now lets see if he can leave it alone. Brad has a couple of goals now since he's back and we all know he's the coaches favorite and Gaby is.... well, not his favorite, so lets see how long before he ruins it. I said to Jeanine yesterday that Gaby is making a good case for himself for staying on PP unit 1 and its just mind boggling to me that I even have to say that. Speaking of the teachers favorite pets, did anyone actually miss Bickel other than disagreeable? Nah, didn't think so. So, another two points, still in 8th but improving and now onto Buffalo where Callahan shines. Maybe a hat trick for the captain?