Home From Western Canada. Bring on Buffalo.

The Caps finally made it home  from their latest three game road swing that took them through the Northwest division.  All in all I would call this trip a success.  It is tough to name two rinks harder to play in than GM Place in Vancouver and Rexall Place in Edmonton.  Throw in the Pepsi Center and you have yourself one difficult task.  The Caps finished this trip with a 2-1 record.  Here are some of the good aspects of this latest road trip, as well as some areas for concern.

Pros
–Kyle Wilson made his NHL debut against the Colorado Avalanche. Kyle registered his first NHL point on his first NHL shift. Wilson supplied an assist on Tomas Fleischmann’s goal less than two minutes into the game. Kyle Wilson later registered another assisting. He was awarded the third star of the game award. Kyle is just another great example of how GMGM has built this team from the ground up. Wilson joins Mattieu Perreault, Kieth Aucoin, Alex Giroux, and other who have left the Hersey Bears and contributed immediately for the big club.

–Jose Theodore stopped 27 of 28 shots in his first visit back to Denver since leaving the Avalanche in 2007. Surely Theo used this as a little extra motivation. The Avalanche didn’t exactly throw the book at Theo, but Theo made the saves when he had to.

–Fleischmann continued to show why he has been arguably the Caps best player over the past few weeks. Since returning from a blood clot, which shelved Flash for the first month of the season, Flash has registered 14 goals in 25 games and is on pace for a career high 39 goals. This would be a career high. Flash scored twice against the Avs and netted the game winner against the Oilers on Saturday night. Flash now has 4 multi-goal games this season and is averaging almost a point per game. Is there a more productive third-line player in the NHL?

–The Caps again proved they can score and win without Alex Ovechkin leading way. Both Alex Semin and Nick Backstrom picked up goals against the Avs as well as six other players who registered multi-point games against the Avalanche.

–The Caps once again proved they are never out of game. After two lackadaisical periods against the Oilers, the Caps found themselves trailing by two goals entering the third period. The Caps were a completely different team entering the team. After a yelling from Boudreau, the Caps scored four unanswered goals in the third. Ovechkin, who was corralled for most of the game, scored two goals and assisted on a third to rally the Caps to a win in Edmonton. It was the Caps first win in Edmonton since 1996. Ovechkin was 10 years old.

Cons
–Mike Green took a brutal hit from behind courtesy of David Koci. The NHL did not suspend Koci for the hit despite Koci appearing to have lined up Green from a good 15 feet away. Bruce Boudreau was livid after the game, and rightfully so. Over Koci’s last two games he has played a total of 5 minutes. For Koci to come on to the ice losing 5-0 and deliver a hit like that is reprehensible. Perhaps if it was a one or two goal game I could understand. The game was completely out of reach. In Don Cherry’s latest rant, Cherry put the onus on Green saying Green should’ve been aware of who was on the ice. He added that Green was lazy playing the puck and shouldn’t have put himself the position he was in. And people question whether or not Cherry promotes on-ice violence. Now we know why. Green left the game with a gash over his eye. Green returned Friday against the Canucks and is no worse for wear.  This prompted talk of whether or not the Caps need to go shopping for an “enforcer” type player.  It is clear that opposing teams will target the Caps’ skilled forwards down the stretch and in the playoffs.  It is worth noting that John Erksine did go after Koci after the hit on Green.  Erskine and Bradley have been playing the role of “enforcer” this year, however I would go on record as saying that neither is instilling fear in the eyes of opposing players.  However, I admire their courage as the role of enforcer is no easy task.

–The Caps power play has taken a few nights off. The Caps went 0-4 against the Canucks and Oilers this past weekend. Failing on a 5-3 against Edmonton didn’t help either. The Caps seem out of sync and individualistic. Trouble entering the zone and gaining control in the offensive zone seem to be a major issue right now. Generating more shots should be on the docket this week in practice as the Caps have two days off until their next game against Buffalo, Wednesday night.

Next up are the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night.  Thankfully the Caps will have a few days off to recuperate from their long road trip.  It will also be good to play some games back home as the Caps have played 14 of their last 17 games on the road.  I will be blogging Wednesday’s tilt against the Sabres live.  I’ll have the link setup prior to game time on Wednesday so if you want to talk Caps/Sabres, please feel free to log on.