Habs Stonewalled By Former Hab & Vezina Winner

WASHINGTON [CP] - Jose Theodore tried to downplay the importance of his shutout against his old Montreal Canadiens teammates.

Theodore, who spent parts of 10 seasons with Montreal before being traded to Colorado in March 2006, made 28 saves for the first shutout with Washington in the Capitals' 3-0 victory over the Canadiens on Friday night.

"I knew in the first period I was seeing the puck well," said Theodore, who has 26 career shutouts. "Even if I didn't see a lot of shots early, I knew I would need a good shot to beat me."

Theodore's second game against Montreal was a lot better than his first. He allowed eight goals in a loss to the Canadiens on Oct. 21, 2006, with Colorado.

Alex Ovechkin, Tomas Fleischmann and David Steckel scored to help the Capitals win their seventh straight at home - the longest streak since also winning seven in a row from Nov. 17-Dec. 16, 2000. Washington is 9-0-1 at home, and is 15-0-1 since March 9.

This season didn't start well for Theodore. He was pulled after allowing four goals in 30 minutes in the opening game in Atlanta and, after sitting in favour of Brent Johnson for four games this month, he's back in favour.

"He was fabulous," Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said. "For his confidence, for his mind-set, it was great to see for him for a confidence builder."

Fleischmann opened the scoring at 11:03 of the first period. In back of his own net, Montreal's Francis Bouillon tried to flip the puck down the ice, but Fleischmann intercepted it just in front of the net. He tapped the puck to Michael Nylander, who immediately returned it to Fleischmann, and the winger sent it past Jaroslav Halak for his ninth goal of the season. Fleischmann has five goals in his last eight games.

Ovechkin added his 13th goal of the season, and his fourth in the last two games at 3:42 in the third when he skated at Halak, who was making his first appearance in the last seven games, and shot it cleanly past him. Ovechkin has scored in 10 straight games. During those 10 games, he has 11 goals and 11 assists.

The shutout seemed more important to Ovechkin than his own streak.

"Before the game, (Theodore) didn't talk. He just concentrated on (the) game," Ovechkin said. "Today, he played well and deserved it. He deserved it."

Two minutes after Ovechkin's goal, Washington had a two-man advantage for 1:42, but couldn't score. About three minutes later, Steckel scored his fourth goal of the season.

Theodore was tested in the second period, with the Capitals clinging to a 1-0 lead. Neither team scored, but the Canadiens were clearly more aggressive - outshooting Washington 13-7 but failing to capitalize.

"The saves he made over a period of five minutes in the second period were pretty dazzling," Boudreau said.

Halak played well, his coach thought, but his teammates didn't.

"Jaro - that's where I'm embarrassed," Montreal coach Guy Carbonneau said. "We come up with that kind of game, and that kind of effort - and I'm really sad for him.'

Carbonneau was grudging in praise of the former Canadiens goalie.

"He was lucky at some times," Carbonneau said. "He made the saves when he had to. We didn't really test him."

The victory was Washington coach Bruce Boudreau's 50th since he took over the team on Thanksgiving Day 2007, tying him for sixth place among Capitals. He reached 50 wins in 84 games, the fastest to the mark in team history.

Motown Shocker: Habs Stun Defending Champs

This Montreal Canadiens team is weird.

When a team that gets embarassed by Toronto and defeated by other lowly teams such as Columbus and Long Island defeats a team so good as the defending champs in such dominating fashion, you have to wonder how it all makes sense.

The Habs defeated Detroit 3-1 last night, and did so in a defensive-minded effort.

Montreal's game plan was obvious from the get-go: stack bodies in the neutral zone, allow no one to forecheck deep, and force Detroit to dump the puck in and chase. The plan worked perfectly against a team that uses puck posession and speed to their advantage. The system forced the Wings to dump the puck in, and despite them chasing, they were rarely ever able to gain control of the puck long enough to set up a decent attempt on goal. The reason for that was Montreal was winning nearly all of their 1-on-1 battles, and then used transition play at key times to find the back of Detroit's net on three occasions.

Montreal got the lead early in the second, when a Maxim Lapierre pass attempt from below the goal line redirected in off captain Nicklas Lidstrom's skate.

Shortly after that, Tomas Plekanec scored on a shortened Montreal powerplay, completing a tic-tac-toe passing play with defenseman Andrei Markov. The goal was initially a result of an Alex Kovalev takeaway - he got the secondary assist.

Just 50 seconds after that, Detroit coach Mike Babcock was forced to call a timeout as Chris Higgins took a nifty drop-pass from captain Saku Koivu and slid a backhander along the ice passed Ty Conklin.

Ryan O'Byrne, playing in his first game since the brutal own-goal incident Monday night, played a very solid game, apart from the fact that his giveaway led to Johan Franzen's shutout-breaking 10th of the season. Franzen showed dangler hands as he completely undressed O'Byrne before moving to his backhand to beat Price who was still on the wrong side of the net.

Josh Gorges had a spectacular outing, as has become the norm, especially in Komisarek's absence. Gorges blocked 2 shots (one of which required him to walk off the pain in the tunnel), dished out two hits, took a shot of his own and played for over 22:30.

Carey Price turned aside 32 shots for the win; Conklin stopped 25.

The win may have come at a price though, as Alex Tanguay left the game in the first period after being rocked by a hard, clean hit courtesy of Brad Stuart along the boards. He finished his shift but didn't return. Tom Kostopoulos filled his spot on the line alongside Koivu and Higgins, and he did a very good job at that, creating space and generating chances.

The Habs handed Detroit their first regulation loss of the month.

The Canadiens now prepare to face a surging Capitals squad in Washington, led by Alexander Ovechkin (fresh off a 3 goal 1 assist performance) and Jose Theodore.

Ovechkin, by the way, has really heated up in November: He has 10 goals and 21 points in his last nine games. Has has earned at least a point in all nine of those games, and has had three or more points four times.

Original Six Matchup: Habs vs. Wings @ the Joe

LIVE PREGAME SHOW ON THE TEAM990 STARTS AT 6:30 PM WITH MITCH MELNICK, THEN CONTINUES FROM 7-7:30 WITH MYSELF AND ROD FRANCIS. TUNE IN!


The Montreal Canadiens (11-5-4) visit an Original Six rival as they take on the Detroit Red Wings (14-2-4) at the renowned Joe Louis Arena.

Montreal will be in tough tonight, led in goal by Carey Price.

The Red Wings have won 7 of the last 8 home games vs. the Habs, and since 1994, are a sparkling 13-4-0.

To add to the Habs' woes, Detroit boasts a league-best 32.4% PP effeciency.

The only chink in their armor appears to be their penalty kill, which at 80.8% ranks 18th, one rank lower than Montreal's at 81.4%.

Ty Conklin will be between the pipes tonight, despite it being Chris Osgood's birthday. Conklin has been playing extremely well of late, boasting a 6-1-0 record. He has won his last three starts.

For Montreal, it appears Guillaume Latendresse wil sit out again. No word on any lineup changes.

Game can be seen on TSN(HD) and RDS(HD), faceoff time 7:30 pm.

Remember This? From March 9th - Backstrom Leads PENGUINS To Victory?

Caps forward Nicklas Backstrom, a possible leading candidate for the Calder trophy as the league's top rookie, scored a huge goal in a 2-2 game with 30 seconds left to give the Pittsburgh Penguins the lead en route to a 4-2 win in Washington.

If you think I made a mistake above, I don't blame you; by all means, it should be.

It isn't.

Sidney Crosby one-handed a desperation pass through the crease of Cristobal Huet, and the puck landed on young Backstrom's stick. Backstrom attempted to wrist the puck behind his net out of sheer panic, and wound up notching a goal that will not show up on the scoresheet...all it will do is leave him with a -1 on the play, and cost himself and his teammates a vital point in a sensational game that looked destined for overtime. Crosby was credited with the goal as he was the last Pens forward to touch the puck. Staal later added an empty netter set up by Malkin.

Immediately as Backstrom potted one past his own 'tender, Alex Ovechkin crumbled to the ice in a fetal position, with the reality of the situation sinking in immediately: a game which he and his teammates battled for to the bone had just been wasted away by a very bizarre own-goal.

Sidney Crosby was "mic'ed up" for the game on NBC/TSN, and they replayed the celebration footage, which allowed us to hear Crosby laughing and yelling to his teammates "He shot that in his own net!"

It certainly was something special to witness live. An identical event happened earlier in the year to Leafs d-man Bryan McCabe, who potted one home off of both posts past own-goalie Andrew Raycroft with 4 seconds remaining in an overtime session vs. the Buffalo Sabres.