Wow.

Boudreau has got to stop playing Green into the ground.

How Green got the third star of the game tonight is beyond me... how he managed to finish the game on his feet is beyond me, too. Wow. Between all the injuries, and two nasty penalties in a row - Ovechkin and Erskine, within 30 seconds of each other - I'm surprised we made it to overtime.

The Ovechkin penalty was weak.

The Clark penalty? Oh yeah. He did it. He surely did do it.

Great example, Captain Clark. :-p

I'm tired.

I'm upset.

I think I'm going to call it a night.

Good for Beagle on his first NHL goal. Sorry we didn't win.

Brenda L. Allen-Moser, 43 of Terre Haute passed away on Nov. 18, 2009 at Royal Oaks Nursing Home. She was born Dec. 9, 1965 in Terre Haute to Conrad Allen and Marilyn Glasgow Allen. She was a graduate of Terre Haute North Vigo High School. Over the years, she has worked at Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Baskin Robbins. She enjoyed Gaming, music, and the S.C.A. She was a loving and caring wife and daughter and loved all of her family. She was preceded by her paternal grandparents, Conrad E. Allen Sr. and Bessie C. Graham Allen; her maternal grandparents, Lowell O. Glasgow and Laura F. Andrews Glasgow; her brother, Matthew Theodore Allen; her sister, Terry Lynn Allen; and several aunts and uncles. She is survived by her parents; her husband, Daniel Moser whom she married on June 14, 2003; two sisters, Chris Jeffers and husband Don of Terre Haute, and Lisa Allen and partner Thales Exoo of Chicago; two aunts, Carolyn Atkinson of Terre Haute, and Georgianna Bricker and husband Clarence of Terre Haute; one nephew, Donnie Jeffers; one great niece, Caleigh Hedden; several cousins; and her three cats that she loved, Shelly, Thorn, and Florida. Memorial services will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at Greiner Funeral Home, 2005 North 13th Street, Terre Haute, IN 47804 with Visitation from 11 a.m. till service time on Saturday. Cremation is scheduled. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Shriners Hospitals for Children of St. Louis, or to Zorah Shrine Transportation located at 420 N. 7th St. Terre Haute, IN 47807. Donation envelopes will be available at Greiner Funeral Home.

Obituary, Terre Haute Tribune-Star

-------------

In the days following her second amputation, Brenda's health did not improve. Her dialysis site became infected, and her immune system was not strong enough to withstand the insertion of a second peritoneal tube. In accordance with her wishes, her family elected to discontinue her dialysis and diabetes medication, and Brenda passed away early Wednesday morning.

She will be missed.

Holy COW.

I feel bad for Theodore... poor guy! I hope he's OK. He looked 'off' tonight, and not just because he let in three goals on five shots. :-(

Varlamov? Wow. Holy cow, he had a great night. He plays very well when coming in as relief, in general, and tonight was no exception.

Fleischmann? Six points in as many games. Nicely done! Keep up the goals, Flash!

Semin? Welcome back! Glad to see it!

Green? *wince* Not too bad, but not great either?

Perreault? :-) Mini-AU! #8.5 had a good night, even if he didn't post any numbers.

Captain my Captain, Clark? That shootout goal is why you still wear the big C! Keep it up!

The referees... I think that "boarding" call on Jurcina may be explained by one thing: Gary Bettman was in the house tonight.

And they missed a couple of BIG hooks and interference calls, too. Wow, did they ever.

But a big mark in the W column puts the Caps alone on top of the Eastern Conference.

Take THAT, NHL!

Take THAT!

The Capitals came back from a 3-2 deficit to win 7-3 tonight, and I gotta say... WOW. I am suitably impressed. This is without either Alex Ovechkin -or- Mike Green in the lineup!

I'll post more details on the game later; right now, I am three or four games behind in posting photos, and I need to catch up, but I say it again: WOW. That was some hockey!

Bren came through the surgery well, and they did NOT have to take the hip, just the leg to mid-thigh, so that is excellent news on that front. Thank you all for your continued thoughts and prayers. She's "crazy out of it" right now, according to her sister, but that is most likely to be expected, but things did go better than expected, and that is a tremendous relief.

Please continue to remember her in your thoughts and prayers, though... this is still going to be tremendously rough on her, and she's going to need all the support and the like she can get.

...please spare a thought, a prayer, for my pretty much lifelong friend, Brenda?

She's in the hospital tonight, as she has been, on and off, since mid-August.

And tomorrow, the doctors will amputate her left leg at the hip.

It's been just over two weeks since they took the right leg mid-thigh.

It's all complications of diabetes, and kidney failure.

...

I can't clear my mind to sleep...

To my other diabetic friends: please take care of yourselves? Please?

I swear, it was the gawdawful pink sweaters that caused the three fights in the first frame! The sweaters wouldn't have been all that bad, if the socks didn't match!!!

Don't get me wrong - if I'd had $600-700 to spare, I would probably have gone for Flash's game-worn sweater, pink or no pink! Breast cancer research is a great cause. But grown men should not have to try and play hockey all pretty in pink! And these weren't as horrid as the Valentine's Day ones last season...





In motion, though, the sweaters and socks looked like a fight between Pepto Bismal, bubble gum, denizens of a clown car, and cotton candy. It was rather eye-boggling, to say the least!

Jose Theodore kicked ASS last night!

The rest of the team didn't do so badly, either.

The scoring all came from the top line, but I'm not complaining. Ovechkin (2), Backstrom (1), and Semin (1) combined to bring us another two points in the W column, and Jose Theodore...

Wow. Theo stopped 41 of 43 shots, for a save percentage of .953! Un-frikkin'-BELIEVABLE! One of those stops was a penalty shot awarded (justly, it turns out, from a friend who had access to the replays) to Darroll Powe. The 13' wrister bounced harmlessly off Theodore's shin pads and out of harm's way, and from that moment, there was no stopping the Caps!

Photos are here - camera issues and a late arrival (bad positioning, thank you net) prevented getting as many as I usually do.

Beast Report ( Behind the cut tag )

After the Hershey Bears game on Saturday, I reported that there was a dangerous traffic light on PA 322 at Mushroom Hill Road. It's a blind traffic light - you can't see it until you crest the hill when eastbound on PA 322 - and it is the frequent scene of accidents (like the one I mentioned in my Bears game report).

On Monday, as I said I would, I wrote to PennDOT. PennDOT got back to me and directed me to the municipality. So, I wrote to the municipality. They said that basically there's nothing wrong with the light according to the records they keep. I countered with, "oh no? You go look yourself, then tell me that light's safe!"

We'll see what happens next.

The day started off nicely enough.

We left to drive up to Hershey at around noon, and decided, since we had the time, to divert to Basignani Winery. We did, eventually, find the elusive place, but when we got there, we saw no evidence that it was open, so we got back on the road.

Almost immediately, it started raining.

Those of you who make the drive to Hershey on a regular basis will be well familiar with the traffic light located at the top of a hill near a Wal Mart on PA 322. This traffic light often causes near-pile-ups, because you can't see it until you're over the crest of the hill, and by then, it's frequently too late to do anything but react.

( A Terrifying Moment on PA 322... )

On Monday, I will be writing a letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation about that traffic light. I don't know how many times I've been in a close call there... but this one was the worst. To look back, expecting to have seen a rear-ending, and instead to see a van on its roof... that's something that PennDOT could avoid by putting up a warning sign, and it needs to be done.

Consider this my public service announcement of the day. BE CAREFUL ON 322! There is a traffic light that you cannot see at Mushroom Hill Road. It is VERY dangerous, especially when the road conditions are wet.

After a few more stops, we made our way to the arena. On arrival at Giant Center, we learned that last night was Breast Cancer Awareness Night, and that the Bears would be skating in pink and black sweaters and socks.

( My guess is that had something to do with the three fights in the first frame... )

That game should not have been as close as it was.

The absence of Alexander Semin (illness) was keenly felt on the ice tonight, both on the power play and the penalty kill units. Still, an amazing fluke goal by Jeff Schultz (assisted by Semyon Varlamov of all people!) at 10:20 in the 2nd frame put the Caps ahead 3-2, and then they scored twice more! The second goal came at 11:34, and the third, a scant 14 seconds later at 11:48 off the stick of Captain Clark. That goal would prove to be the game winner.

( More behind the cut tag... )

Wow.

Even though it didn't count as an official Hat Trick for Alex Ovechkin, hats flew tonight when he scored the game winning goal in the shootout. Mine was among them. What the hell, the hats go to charity. :-) But I couldn't watch Ovechkin shoot; I had my hands over my eyes, but when the horn went off, I screamed as loudly as everyone else in the stands. And yeah, I flung my hat. Oops. Somehow, I'm not upset. :-)

( More behind the cut-tag... )

And that was MUCH better!

Goals went to Semin (Backstrom, Green); Ovechkin (Knuble, BMo); Ovechkin (Knuble, BMo); and Bradley (Jurcina).

( More behind the cut tag... )

The Caps have GOT to stay out of the Z#^@&*!%$! box!!!

They do that, they win.

<grumble>

<unrelated side note>

CAT! QUIT MAKING MY PRINTER PRINT TEST PAGES!!!

OK, that was bad.

Theodore let in two soft goals that he damnwell should have had.

At least Nicky finally got a couple of goals, but... 4-3.

Damn.

Here they are...

My favorite:

Tomorrow, the Capitals travel to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers.

Chris Pronger and Kimmo Timonen are the star defensemen set to mind Ovechkin... and even the Flyers' beat writer says:

I love this...

"Stopping Ovechkin is like going a day without hearing media reports (ugh) about Jon and Kate.

Virtually impossible."

I seriously - SERIOUSLY - hope the team is ready for this. Pronger notwithstanding, I don't like going up against Philadelphia. They play dirty, and their fans are no better.

I'm glad I'll be watching from the safety of someplace else.

The Hershey Bears, carried by an Andrew Gordon hat trick, defeated the Norfolk Admirals 3-1 to win their home opener last night. Since I can't be in two places at once, here's the quick version of the recap.

Alexandre Giroux assisted on all three goals, and Keith Aucoin on two of them, making the Giroux-Aucoin-Gordon (GAG?) line the best Bears on the ice.

Braden Holtby made 23 stops on 24 shots to an opening save percentage of .958.

B-E-A-R-S! BEARS! BEARS! BEARS! WOOOOOOOOO!!!

The Capitals dominated - OWNED - the ice for the first 40 minutes of last night's home opener against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The game was, once again, bidding fair to be a route. At the beginning of the third frame, the Caps were up 6-1.

The final score was still in the W column, at 6-4, but between a loss of defensive responsibility that had been so very evident in the first two thirds of the game, and Varlamov's loss of focus, the Leafs were able to close the gap considerably, and had the Caps not played all-out when the Leafs pulled their goaltender in the last couple of minutes of the game, the numbers might have told a different story this morning.

This morning, the Caps still sit on top of the league, with a 2-0 record, 10 GF, 5 GA.

This morning, Ovechkin still has the most goals (tied with several others, including Brooks Laich, at 3). His +/- is the best in the league at +4 (tied with Dubinsky and Erik Johnson).

This morning, Nicky Backstrom stands alone with 5 assists, best in the league.

This morning, in two games, the Caps have spent 21 minutes in the box.

Jay McKee of the Penguins, at 19 PIMs, has almost beaten that single-handedly. The Penguins as a team have more than double the Caps' penalty total, at 45 minutes in two games.

( Highlights and more behind the cut tag... )

Last night's season-opening matchup between the Washington Capitals and the Boston Bruins looked like it was going to be controlled by the Bruins at first. Then, at 17:00 in the first frame, the Bruins made a critical mistake. Six men came out onto the ice, and, unlike a game involving the Flightless Birds, the referees (who were #8 Dave Jackson and #40 Steve Kozari) called them on it. Fifteen seconds later, Nicklas Backstrom took a beautiful pass from Alex Ovechkin, which he fed to Brooks Laich, and Laich put that beautiful feed right past the Bruins' netminder, Tim Thomas, who was guarding against Ovechkin on the other side of the net to make the score 1-0 Capitals.

It was all Caps from there.

Mostly. But I'll get to that later.

( Highlights and more behind the cut tag... )