Oh, What a Night

Two of the three "NHL" trades pulled off by George McPhee at the deadline paid immediate dividends for the Caps last night in their 4-0 win against New Jersey. Cristobal Huet stopped 18 shots and basically cruised to an easy shutout in his first game as a member of the Washington Capitals. Sergei Fedorov had the secondary assist on a power play goal that proved to be the game winner. It was a beautiful passing play all around that led to Mike Green's 17th goal of the season. Federov also dominated in the faceoff circle all night and gave the power play a huge boost last night.

The Caps played an all around solid game last night. Despite being the road team and not being able to techincally get the matchups they wanted, the Caps outplayed the Devils in all facets of the game. The defense for the most part kept everything to the perimeter and did not allow very many quality scoring chances. Huet made a few good saves but most importantly made all the routine saves and controlled the rebounds all night. This was a team win. It is certainly the first time in a long time that one can say that the Caps goaltending was better than the oppositions. However, most of the credit has to go to the team as a whole.

Matt Cooke will make his debut tonight for the Caps. Evidently he will play on the second line with Federov and Alexander Semin. It should be fun to watch his energy and forechecking prowess mix with the skill of Federov and Semin. Bruce Boudreau has also decided to start Olie Kolzig in net tonight. I like this decision and hope that Kolzig answers the bell. This represents another opportunity for Kolzig to emphatically state that he deserves to remain in the mix as a number one goalie.

I must admit that I found the comments from Kolzig's agent, Art Breeze, to be humorous. If you did not see them, an excerpt from Capitals Insider follows. "I have no idea why the Capitals chose to do what they did," Breeze said by phone. "You will have to ask that of Capitals ownership and management. The temptation to comment further is overwhelming. I am constrained, however, from additional comments by my client's professionalism. I sincerely wish I weren't. Olie clearly has been, and certainly continues to be, the heart and soul of the Washington Capitals," he added. "Almost single-handedly he has carried that franchise on his broad shoulders for many years. And he has many more years playing at the highest possible level ahead of him."

I realize it is his job to stand up and fight for his client but he really needs to look at the situation objectively. Kolzig has played below average this year and the team simply needed something more from the goaltending position. Maybe his agent has not watched him play very much this year.

Anyways, the Caps victory last night put them within three points of Carolina for the Southeast Division lead with two games in hand. They simply need to play better than Carolina down the stretch to get into the playoffs. Last night was a great way to start off the final push for a postseason berth. Let's hope the excitement and leadership from the trades continue to translate to improved play where it really matters on the ice against Toronto tonight.