Keeping things in perspective: Divide the season into 10 8-game blocks (plus two "bonus" games); score 10 points per block for 100 points and a trip to the playoffs.
8th 8: 5-3-0, 10 pts. Three home-game losses (Avalanche, Flyers, Panthers) as trade deadline looms.
7th 8: 5-1-2, 12 pts. Mike Green sets NHL consecutive-games goal record for defensemen.
6th 8: 4-4-0, 8 pts. Three-game losing streak broken by big wins over Pittsburgh, Boston.
5th 8: 7-1-0, 14 pts. Six-game win streak, seven of last eight, 13 of last 15 -- fastest start in team history. Fifty-five points total at the halfway point of the blocks.
4th 8: 6-2-0, 12 pts. Injured stars return, sparking a four-game winning streak.
3rd 8: 3-4-1, 7 pts. Grueling road trip produces enough injured Caps players to form an All-Star team.
2nd 8: 6-1-1, 13 pts. Semin sizzling, Ovechkin-Backstrom getting hotter, and two, count 'em, two No. 1 goalies ... got our 10, plus 3 for the "bank."
1st 8: 4-3-1, 9 pts. Injury-scrambled lines and a Backstrom-Ovechkin "dead zone" ... coming up 1 point short isn't too bad an effort.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Got any video of Don Cherry goals?
Alex Ovechkin celebrates his goals.
He celebrates his teammates' goals, too.
Other than blowing a now-occasional kiss to his brother in the heavens, most of what he does isn't premeditated. It's a spontaneous release of joy: a crash into the glass, a sliding deep-knee-bend, a leap into a teammate's arms.
Important goals prompt explosive celebrations, as powerful, and as quick, as a bomb blast.
Workmanlike goals yield a skate back to the bench.
He doesn't celebrate in front of the goalie he just scored on or the defender he just beat.
I've never seen him pull his jersey over his head and skate around the rink, or pull a Sharpie out of his skates and sign an autograph, or do a choreographed boogie with his linemates, or skate back to the bench and don a cape that says "Hall of Fame." (Yes, soccer and football players, I'm calling you out.)
If Don Cherry is saying that every player, even Ovechkin, needs to be mindful of sportsmanship when they celebrate a goal, I agree with him.
If Don Cherry is saying that players need to act like they're in a pew instead of on a pond, then he's wrong.
TillyCapsFan for CK
He celebrates his teammates' goals, too.
Other than blowing a now-occasional kiss to his brother in the heavens, most of what he does isn't premeditated. It's a spontaneous release of joy: a crash into the glass, a sliding deep-knee-bend, a leap into a teammate's arms.
Important goals prompt explosive celebrations, as powerful, and as quick, as a bomb blast.
Workmanlike goals yield a skate back to the bench.
He doesn't celebrate in front of the goalie he just scored on or the defender he just beat.
I've never seen him pull his jersey over his head and skate around the rink, or pull a Sharpie out of his skates and sign an autograph, or do a choreographed boogie with his linemates, or skate back to the bench and don a cape that says "Hall of Fame." (Yes, soccer and football players, I'm calling you out.)
If Don Cherry is saying that every player, even Ovechkin, needs to be mindful of sportsmanship when they celebrate a goal, I agree with him.
If Don Cherry is saying that players need to act like they're in a pew instead of on a pond, then he's wrong.
TillyCapsFan for CK
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