Nine Lives...and other stuff

The Peerless thought this nine-lives thing applied only to the domesticated variety of the species.

And will someone please tell Craig Anderson he is not Roberto Luongo?

Florida seems to have another life (please let it be their ninth) after beating Pittsburgh, 5-2, last night to close to within two points of the Caps. Washington still has two games in hand on the Panthers, but with the Cats on a three game winning streak, the margin is uncomfortably close.

And then there is Tampa Bay…the Lightning’s season is over – has been for a while now. But with the possibility of the Lightning giving the Caps a hand in Washington’s battle with Philadelphia for eighth place, the Flyers ended an eight-game losing streak at home to the Lightning with a 3-2 win. The insult was the Flyers scoring the game-winner with less than two minutes remaining in a 2-2 game, not to mention the Lightning registering a measly two shots on goal in the third period, neither of them from a forward. The Lightning are now the leaders in the ping pong ball standings.

Carolina continued their surprising late push. Their 3-2 win against Minnesota last night made them 9-2-1 in their last dozen games and gave the Hurricanes a five-point lead over Washington for the Southeast Division lead. Washington has two-games in hand.

And speaking of getting hot at the right time, the New York Rangers pulled seven points ahead of Washington with a 4-1 win over the Islanders. The Rangers haven’t lost a game in regulation in a month (February 7^th, 4-1 to Anaheim). They are 8-0-3 over that span. Sean Avery might be dedicating the remainder of his season to Jaromir Jagr, but it was Avery with two goals last night – Jagr was held pointless.

And from the “what the #@%& happened to Ottawa file?,” the Senators dropped a 2-0 decision out on the coast to the Los Angeles Kings late last night in what might be the most foul insult of their 8-15-3 record since beating Detroit, 3-2, last January 12^th. The Senators have been shutout four times in those 26 games and are now tied for fifth in most times shutout. By the way, the shutout came at the hands of Erik Ersberg (he in the picture on the left) – his first NHL victory in his third NHL game.

Even though the Caps didn’t play, it was quite a night.