But while the players round into regular season form in the usual ways, there are other role players who look like they're just about there. Donald Brashear and Pierre-Luc Letourneau-Leblond (PL3, for short) introduced themselves to one another last night. Brashear is, of course, well known among Caps fans. PL3 is a newcomer, but his coach, Brent Sutter says of him, "He's a battler. He's certainly willing. When he stays within the dimensions of his game, he's a pretty effective player. But I've said that since Day One – the first day – that we were happy with him. We're happy with what he brings here." We're guessing that the "dimensions of his game" are rather limited. PL3 might be a battler, but he appears to have gotten the worse of this matchup...
The thing is, though, after this fight, the Devils scored two goals to cut the Caps' lead from 3-0 to 3-2 (the second goal featured an assist by Fedor Fedorov, Sergei's younger brother). It was almost a case of losing the battle and winning the war, from the Devils' point of view.
(images: Bill Kostroun/AP, Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
