Do Not Sleep On Ovechkin and Capitals

Alexander Ovechkin tallied 5 points (a goal and 4 assists) Wednesday night as the Washington Capitals defeated the Anaheim Ducks 6-4. Many people in the league have talked about: how well the Bruins are playing in front of Tim Thomas, the Penguins are off to their best start since 1995, San Jose rolling, Marian Hossa gelling with another great Detroit Red Wings team, Minnesota’s fantastic defense, and of course year 100 pour Les Canadiens de Montreal—but do not sleep on the Washington Capitals. The defending Southeast Division champions are once again leading a fairly mediocre pack of teams with a quarter of the season gone. Most will focus on Ovechkin but the Capitals have a more complete team surrounding their superstar this year. Alexander Semin is racking up the points thus far and although the defense is nothing to write home about they absolutely do an adequate job in front of the goaltending duel of Brent Johnson and Jose Theodore who have preformed more than admirably through the first 18 games of the season. Washington will be a very scary team come playoff time because they can score enough to beat anyone on any given night, have a great home ice advantage where they have yet to lose a game in regulation, and now have a team with a full tank of playoff experience. Although I think the Caps need more of a physical presence to be a championship contender (sorry but Donald Brashear cannot do it all himself) they can certainly make a lot of noise nonetheless come April.