Six Is the Lonliest Number

Tonight was the sort of game where, if it weren't for the fact that the Caps went into it with a five-game losing streak, I would have chalked it up to bad luck and a hot goaltender in Rick DiPietro. As it is though, well, I'll let Bill Murray sum it up for you: "Dogs and cats, living together... Mass hysteria!" God, I love that movie.

To their credit, the Caps played pretty well. They were doing a good job of generating chances and there were stretches where they were completely in control of the game. Unfortunately, DiPietro kept coming up with big save after big save, and Olie didn't. Not that Olie didn't play well, but with the way the team is playing right now, its starting to look like the only thing that is going to pull them out of this tailspin is some sort of miracle performance from either him or Brent Johnson.

Or, you know, some semblance of a competent power play system. Once again, a lot of credit goes to Rick DiPietro, but when you get four full minutes of power play time (including two full minutes of five on three) you really need to make something happen, and the Caps didn't. They still look lost at times when trying to get the puck across the opposing blueline. For the life of me, I can't figure out how it is that they have now scored power play goals in something like six straight games.

The other interesting thing I noticed tonight was Brendan Witt's wearing number 32. I don't generally follow the Islanders or Brendan to any particular degree, and I wasn't aware of it until tonight. As soon as I saw it, I knew something was different (obviously, he wore 19 in DC) but the reasoning behind the change never occured to me. Thankfully, Joe B. and Craig were on top of it, pointing out what should have been obvious, informing us that Witt is wearing number 32 in honor of Dale Hunter. Now I've said a lot of things about Brendan Witt in the past, even the most polite of which are simply too vulgar to reprint here for fear that some young Caps fan somewhere might stumble across it. But I gained a whole new level of respect for him when I saw that.

Recaps From People That Matter:
-A View From the Cheap Seats
-Bleatings From a Caps Nut
-Japers' Rink
-On Frozen Blog
-Puckhead's Thoughts