Caps Finish Homestand 4-1

Capitals 5, Panthers 3

....so close to free wings.

For about fifty minutes of this game the Capitals were dominant and for about ten they were terrible. That ten minute stretch looked like it had the potential to bury the Caps but at the end of the night the boys in red, white and blue held on to improve to 4-1 on their homestand, behind strong efforts from Viktor Kozlov, Mike Green and Nicklas Backstrom, who assisted on four of the Capitals five goals.

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Aside of securing eight of ten possible points the Capitals reached another important milestone last night, reaching .500. That's right Caps fans, with the win the Capitals pulled to 21-21-4 and are at .500 for the first time since October 24th.

I don't really have that much more to say about this game, so I'll close with a playoff race update - the Caps are three points out of the division leader and have played three fewer games and only four points out of the eight seed in the Conference.

DMG's 3 Stars (1) Nicklas Backstrom - 4 assists
(2) Viktor Kozlov - 2 goals
(3) Alexander Ovechkin - 1 goal, 1 assist

Quotable

"We've officially reached mediocrity"

-Bruce Boudreau

"Right now we're .500. But for us, it's just a beginning."

-Alexander Ovechkin

Quick Hits

• The Panther ice the puck like they have a collective contract clause that pays them each time they do it.
• It amused me when Craig Laughlin referred to "Iron Mike" Keenen as Mike "Iron" Keenen.
• Speaking of Laughlin, does anyone else think it's kind of adorable how he thinks every goal hits the water bottle?
• Jeff Schultz is become more physical - he was credited with three hits and did a nice job getting in the face of the Panthers player who made too much contract with Brent Johnson.
• Alexander Ovechkin was not credited with any hits.

Photos: AP