In almost a continuation of the third period of last night’s game, bad positioning and generally bad luck are doing the Thrashers in early tonight. The Caps’ first goal was a redirect by Chris Mason off of his own stick into the net, but it was credited to Alexander Ovechkin for his 10th of the season. The second Caps goal was a redirect off of the foot of Brent Sopel on a Mike Green shot that Mason had no chance on.
A wonky power play goal by Tobias Enstrom got Atlanta back into the game and down by one. After breaking his stick, Enstrom went to the bench, grabbed a new one, and fired the puck from the point. It went off the boards, off the net, and into the goal. Five minutes later, though, Thrasher-killer Alexander Semin gets his 13th of the season. Bryan Little shot, but it was blocked – Ron Hainsey pressed in to get the puck but missed it, putting him out of position to stop the streaking Ovechkin. Little didn’t take out the passing lane between Ovechkin and Semin, and Semin fired it past Mason to make the score 3-1.
The second period needs to see some more responsible reading of the play, and the Thrashers need to work on positioning. Also, Chris Mason really needs to sharpen up a great deal, or else his GAA and SV% stats might get worse, which is no small feat right now.