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Caps Are Shaken and Stirred
Brooks Laich, back, celebrates after scoring his second goal of the game with teammate Tomas Fleischmann, who assisted on both of Laich's goals.
(Pablo Martinez Monsivais - AP)
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McPhee also picked up playmaking center Sergei Fedorov from Columbus for prospect Theo Ruth and checking-line winger Matt Cooke from Vancouver for struggling forward Matt Pettinger. A fourth trade made yesterday involved prospects.
Although none of the new players was available to play last night, the Capitals seemed to receive a spark from the news. In particular Kolzig, the team's starter since the 1997-98 season. He is expected to be challenged by Huet for the starting role, but as he proved last night, he doesn't plan on relinquishing it.
"I told him, 'Hey, you just want to start a goaltending controversy, don't you?' " Boudreau joked, referring to Kolzig.
The only goal Kolzig surrendered was a fluky bounce off the shorts of Branko Radivojevic at 13 minutes 10 seconds of the second period, which cut the Capitals' lead to 2-1. But it wasn't nearly enough to prevent the Wild's fourth consecutive loss in its first trip to Washington since 2001.
"Olie did his thing tonight," Laich said. "He kept us in there early."
Laich put the Capitals ahead 1-0 only 2:41 into the game, taking a long pass from Tomas Fleischmann (two assists) before beating Backstrom (22 saves) between the pads. It turned out to be the start of a special night for Laich.
"It's nice to have a night like I did tonight," he said. "We needed to get back to our winning ways. These are points we can't give away. I just checked the score and Carolina won again tonight. We didn't make up any ground, but we didn't lose any."
Capitals Notes: Forward Viktor Kozlov did not play because of the flu. Defenseman Sami Lepisto was returned to the minor league Hershey Bears. . . . Defenseman Jeff Schultz returned to the lineup after missing two games with a strained left knee. . . . Defenseman John Erskine was a healthy scratch.
