Tom Poti, shutdown defenseman

Seeing how Ryan Malone was in the vicinity, maybe Poti was just trying to protect Uncle Varly from a piggyback ride.

Fantasy hockey update

The Alzner Beards completed the week 7-1-1 and have won in three of the last four weeks to get to the .500 level overall (30-30-3) and fourth place overall.

The good news has been my defensemen -- Mike Green, Kris Letang, Lubomir Visnovsky and Jack Johnson. Combined 14-51-65 (in something like 85 games). Green and Letang have also combined for 50 penalty minutes (the highlight being when Green danced with Brandon Dubinsky ... and I had Dubinsky in my starting lineup at the time).

In net, Kari Lehtonen actually has slightly better numbers than King Hank (2.61/.914 versus 2.64/.918) plus three more wins.

(Not anything to do with my team, but as I'm typing this, tweets news comes out that Flash has been traded.)

The bad news is that Chris Stewart, who leads my team in goals and PIMs, broke his hand in a fight over the weekend and is out four to six weeks. And my only IR spot is already taken by Zach Parise, so there will be some smoke and mirrors and roster juggling for awhile so hopefully I won't have to drop either Parise or Stewart. I'm also still trying to find some production at LW with Ryan Malone, David Booth and Ray Whitney in the lineup there.

Still, my fantasy baseball skills are doing OK so far.

Fort Varly

Photo by Clydeorama.

The Mike Green Express

On the way home from the Capitals-Hurricanes game last night, we got caught in stop-and-go stopped traffic on I95 north of The Beltway (seriously, at 10 p.m. on a Sunday night???!!) for about an hour (seriously???!!!!). The only bright spot was pulling up next to this:



Yes, The Mike Green Express. I thought he lived in the Arlington area ... no idea why he was heading toward Maryland.

The man with two girls names

Maybe Shelley and Sasha can have a contest.

Another clydeorama photo.

Leino taken down by a sniper

Later, more snipers -- including that one who plays defense -- took out the rest of the Flyers.

Photo by clydeorama.

You know it, I know it, the American people know it

Stay out of earshot of the opposing goalie if you're pretending not to know English (even if you've been in the country for most of the past eight years).

Make like a tree and Leaf

I have been waiting to post this one for awhile. A Toronto Maple Leafs fan did this video recap after the Leafs and Caps squared off Jan. 15, which was their last matchup during the '09-'10 season. Down Goes Brown whipping boy Everybody's favorite goalie you want to see in net against your team, Vesa Toskala, followed up a 4-0 shutout (no, seriously, he had a shutout) of the Philadelphia Flyers by allowing five goals in 15 shots against the Caps.

"This Toskala looked like he couldn't even stop anything."

"I don't think Vesa Toskala can handle NHL back-to-back games."

"... Alex Ovechkin scored, Brendan Fehr scored ..." ????

Unfortunately, Toskala won't be in net this time around -- he was traded to Calgary before the end of last season and didn't sign with anyone, not even a KHL team, during the offseason.