The cement in Alexander Ovechkin’s skates apparently got transfered to Jaroslav Halak. Ovie’s played with some get up and go so far, but hasn’t had any of the edge of your seat pep that he usually has. Regardless of if he’s standing still sometimes, such as when Kevin Shattenkirk gave him a big hit into the boards, Ovie’s been there when he needed to be. Minimal coverage on Ovie and David Backes losing Niklas Backstrom in the shuffle led to the first goal of the game, with a pass straight across the Blues end that Backstrom was able to fire over Halak’s blocker side pads. Had Halak pushed off to move laterally, he would have been able to block the puck, but oddly enough he remained upright and kind of shuffled over.

Luckily Vokoun is exactly as quick as Halak, and T. J. Oshie is observant as to where to go near the net – he tied it up with this beauty of a tap in from a bounce off the crossbar:

The Blues need to tighten up a bit more this period and be observant, but really they need to exploit the Caps’ amazingly surprising lack of speed. Dale Hunter probably isn’t a happy camper so far.