Washington Capitals at New York Islanders.

Okay, it is of my own admission that this was a weird game for both teams. The Capitals being outshot in the first and second periods, the Capitals playing 60 minutes worth of hockey as opposed to 50 minutes and the Islanders collapsing in the third.

Well, aside from the Isle's collapse in the third, the game was weird. I went to this game last night, and I have to admit there were points where I felt like the Caps were letting the Islanders get ahead of them, they were being beat to almost every loose puck, and Jose's five hole was probably large enough to drive a truck through. Dwayne Roloson, on his own accord, wasn't much better, he let in a few softies, and this talk of wide open legs and softies is frankly making me sick, so we'll move forward from there.

Ovechkin probably took 75% less shots in this game than he did in any game last year. I know in the off season he said he was tweaking parts of his game to make him a better player, apparently he's been asking Nicky B. for some passing tips. Mike Green looks like he's finally coming around for this season, he registered a few points last night. Brooks Laich proved once again why he could be the key to the Capitals' success this year, he registered an assist and the game winning goal in overtime.

There was a lot of messy play, I don't know if it was because the ice probably wasn't in the best condition because of it being almost 80 degrees out yesterday or what. There were tons of mishandling of the puck, and a lot of just overall miscues by both teams. It's almost bad to say this, but both teams looked relatively even, but that was the case all last season too. The general consensus at the Coliseum is people want the Isles to stop the aggressive forecheck and worry more about playing in their own defensive zone in the third, I lean towards that opinion myself, actually.

It did get frisky at some points, but I think roughing was as far as any of it went. No huge OMG hits last night, for that you'd have to turn to the Flyers Panthers game, which Mike Richards absolutely annihilated David Booth with what was in my opinion, a clean hit.

Speaking of the Flyers, the Capitals host the Flyers on Tuesday, a reprise of what was a classic game they played in the second week of the season, which the Flyers downed the Caps in OT. The Isles' next opponent is the Montreal Canadiens, who blew them out on Thursday, the game is also at the Bell Centre, the Isles hope this trip will be a little more friendly than when they played there this past Thursday.

Some other non-game related news, Trent Hunter said he's coming along well and expects to be back in action for the Islanders soon, he's currently out with a strained pectoral muscle, which he always seems to be battling some sort of strain.