Best. Rule. Ever.

With 1:19 left in what looked like a sure Thrashers win, J.P. Vigier hoisted the puck up over the glass, earning himself one of those newfangled delay of game penalties that the NHL stupidly brilliantly added to the rulebook after the lockout. After that, it was all Alex Ovechkin proving yet again why he is the best player in the NHL. Give me a clutch goal to tie the game followed by an overtime winner over a stat-padding one goal three assist night in a blowout win anytime. Since ESPNews seemed to be very much in a "Let's compare Crosby and Ovechkin since they both had big games tonight", I'd like to point out that for the month of December, their stat lines look like this: Ovechkin - 6 Games, 5-8-13, 2.16 PPG, 1 GWG; Crosby - 8 Games, 6-13-19, 2.375 PPG, 0 GWG. Their teams have records of 4-1-1 and 4-3-1 respectively.

I won't spend too much time recapping the actual game. You probably saw it, and if not all the links you need are below. The only thing I have to add is my rant about Dainius Zubrus and his inability to convert quality scoring chances. By my count, there were at least three instances in last night's game where the puck ended up on his stick with a wide open net staring him in the face and I don't think he got a shot off on any of them.. If he converts just one of those chances, the Caps have a good chance of walking out of Atlanta without even giving them a point. (Yes, I am aware Zubie had two important assists. I don't care.)

I will, however, recap "Caps Bloggers Unite! (Beta Test Version)". Blogs in attendance included myself, A View From The Cheap Seats, The Bench Minor, DCSportsChick and 1/2 Asian Man. My goal was to manage to scrape together four people including myself, so I'm glad to say that the evening was an unmitigated success. Especially since, as it turns out, these people are just as much fun in person as they are on their respective blogs, if not more so. Heck, even ESPNZone didn't totally suck. Sure the service was lousy and we had to deal with the Wizards game being up on the main screen (apparently, people didn't realize that they could walk four blocks to Verizon Center and take in the game live). But they did have the decency to show two other hockey games, Islanders-Penguins and Maple Leafs-Hurricanes, both of which had standings implications for the Caps. And they didn't kick me out for throwing my hat. Twice.

So I can say with some confidence that the next version of "Caps Bloggers Unite!" will be even more fun, and you should mark your calendar now for January 16th and stay tuned here for more details.

Recaps From People That Matter:
-A View From The Cheap Seats
-Capital Punishment
-On Frozen Blog
-Puckhead's Thoughts