Caps Vs. Blue Jackets

Game #42. Who better to start the second half of the season than a perennial doormat of the Western Conference, the Columbus Blue Jackets? Sure they have been playing a bit over .500 hockey the last two weeks. But, it looks like their leading scorer will be out of the line-up after a "lower body" injury sustained in their last game against Detroit. Surely his 39 points will be missed by the Blue Jackets.

So who else can score for them? Center Derrick Brassard has 25 points but will be out as well. Kristian Huselius then? Nope. His 25 points will be gone too. That leaves RJ Umberger and his 20 points as the leading scorer for the Jackets. Helping the "offensive" output will be Jason Cihmera, Frederik Modin, and Mike Commodore, each with 18 points on the season. Thanks Peerless for putting me on to this.

All looks well in Caps land as the injury bug moves on to another team. Hold on a minute though. There's more to this match-up it seems. Columbus has one hot goalie playing for them right now. Steve Mason has shown he is more than up to defending the goal this season. A GAA of 1.82 and a save percentage approaching 94% (.934) is nothing to overlook. That and he already blanked the Caps on their home ice back in November, 3-0.

So maybe this is a bit of a trap game then. The Caps have a nasty habbit of playing to the level of their opposition. This isn't the time for that. They have recently taken over the number two position in the Eastern Conference with 57 points. The Bruins won their game against the Sens last night so it will be important to keep pace.

Tarik, over at Capitals Insider, has reported that the Caps are getting healthy agian. Federov and Fleishcmann should be reporting for duty tonight. It even appears rookie D-man Karl Alzner will be hanging around another game or two. Let's see how GMGM works out the cap situation as the guys get healthy. Thanks again for the updates, Tarik.

So, what do the Caps have going for them. Ovechkin has been showing why he is a perennial All-star lately. He didn't register a point against the Flyers, although his presence was felt in other ways. Lets hope he gets another points streak going tonight. It has taken Theodore half a season but he is beginning to show a glimpse of his seemingly forgotten Allstar capabilities. He was the #1 star of the Flyers game for stopping 33 of 34 shots in regulation and all three shots in the skills competition. We can't forget about Green and Backstrom either. Both have been playing well of late and surely will be a bit fired up for their All-star snubs. Oh, and if that's not enough, it's Gabby's birthday. What better way to celebrate the man who helped engineer the resurgance last year then to win a home game against a team they SHOULD beat.

Given the Jacket's lack of offensive output I expect they will struggle to get a goal. It most likely will take a major miscue on the Caps' end to lead to a tally. However they do have Mr. Mason between the pipes, so that may limit the Caps scoring as well. But Washington does have the Russian Machine and a few non All-stars looking to prove a point.


Final Score: Capitals 4 - Blue Jackets 1


Image: Ovechkin from last years All-star Game from Icethetics