"Can you imagine if the Nat's and O's merged to create one MEGATRON super team? They'd only be the third worst team in baseball. So it'd go Nats, O's, NatsOs, Royals."
Apparently most of our readers think the Caps are good enough to win the cup as is.
78 of 135 voters (57%) do not want GMGM to make a move before the March 3 trade deadline, which is fast approaching considering the February 12 - February 28 Olympic trade freeze.
While I agree that this team is good enough to win it all, I'd still much rather have the insurance of another big body on the blue line. Something tells me GMGM, after witnessing the team give up 4+ goals with unacceptable defensive efforts in three of the last four games, might be down for some tweaking.
Granted: ESPN.com polls are unscientific. Granted: the question is quite narrow. Granted: over 60% of voters chose a different matchup. Granted: A 1.3 overnight rating for NBC's Sunday afternoon Caps-Pens ridiculously awesome game is relatively small.
But still. Nearly 30,000 votes are in as of late Monday evening and the results are surprising, especially for ESPN readership.
Hooray for pluralities! Now, the voting map has few surprises:
But Arizona and Nevada!?!? Bettman, you see that? The gamblers want in!
If you were too buried in snow to see yesterday's Caps-Pens game, find a replay and watch the best win in DC sports in a while. Not only did the Caps beat their arch-rival, the Pens, but they did it in the biggest game of the NHL season thus far, and in incredibly dramatic fashion for their 14th straight win. I thought the Rags win was as good as it can get for a regular season game, and I'll admit that the Redskin playoff victory 4 years ago over Tampa got me more excited, but I'll put this game up with anything I've experienced; this is one we'll remember forever, just awesome.
What you may already know is that the Penguins were up 2-0 after the first period, thanks to a couple goals from Sidney Crosby, eventually held a 3 goal lead, but were then rocked by an Ovie hat trick that brought the game to 4-4 and sent the contest to overtime, where Ovie rang the pipe for the game winning assist to finish the 5-4 comeback victory.
What you may not know is that while the Caps were playing the Penguins, the 'lil Caps', aka the Hershey Bears, were playing the 'lil Pens', aka the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins; nothing crazy there, but get this: the 'lil Penguins' took a 2-0 lead after 1 period, eventually grew their lead to 3 goals, then succumbed to a Bears rally led by a Mathieu Perrault hat trick that brought the game to 4-4 and sent the game to OT, where Perrault had the assist on the game winning goal to cap the Bears 5-4 comeback victory. You can't make this stuff up. The Caps have now won 14 in a row (and 17 out of 18), with the NHL record of 17 looming. The Bears have won 10 in a row, and 22 of their last 23 dating back to December 12th. While this doesn't quite make up for game 7 last year, let alone the years of pain at the hands of the Penguins, this sure feels pretty amazing.
One thing this game did clear up for a few idiots in the rest of the world is that Alex Ovechkin is the best player in hockey, hands down. Sure Crosby captained a cup winning team last year and stepped up with 2 first period goals in this huge game, but Ovie took over the contest. Big players make big plays in big games, and Ovie rose to the occasion. Although the hat trick and game winning assist should be all the evidence you need, Crosby was virtually non-existent after the first period, whereas Ovie only seemed to get stronger as the game progressed.
This may not mean much if we implode in the playoffs, but for one sweet, sweet day, the Caps organization showed the entire Penguins organization who's their daddy.
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