Well last night left a bitter taste of disappointment tapered by the mild salve of a Bettman point. So why not relive it some more!

Last night's game: Our post-mortem at LHH | Good recap from the Caps partisan perspective at Japers' Rink. | Newsday recaps with quotes | CSN Wash paints the setting with Jeff Halpern winning that faceoff against Frans Nielsen | Wash. Times | Wash. Post | Hornick's Skinny of stats | Checking Line | IPB

Also interesting: CSN Wash on the dynamic in the Caps room during recent scratches of Roman Hamrlik and Mike Knuble.

The Capitals loss combined with another poor showing in Toronto (they lost to the Panthers) has Maple Leafs fans writing obituaries. Very concise obituaries.

Elsewhere, the Bruins were shutout by Robin Lehner and the Senators 1-0. Quoth SCOC: "New additions Brian Rolston and Matt Mottau, who came over from the Islanders in a trade on Monday, didn't do much."

I'm in greedy eval mode: It's good the Isles made a push this winter, especially given the hole they dug in the first quarter, but in the final 20 games I want to see probes and experiments like the line mix used yesterday. Part of knowing what's needed is knowing what you have.

Speaking of what they have: John Tavares is tied for 10th overall in points ... with Jordan Eberle and James Neal. P.A. Parenteau is tied for 15th in points, with Martin St. Louis, Pavel Datsyuk ... and Jason Pomminville.

Jack Capuano Post-Game

Thought Jack Capuano's assessment was fair: Liked Evgeni Nabokov's game, but noted the Caps had control in the first period and missed chances throughout, and the Isles got better at "containing" after the Caps came out hard. Or hahd.

I know some fans are expecting Jack Capuano to throw chairs around -- every loss, it seems, should be cause for tirades for some -- but that's just not how it works. Certainly not when the team showed up. (Now the Ottawa no-show two weeks ago, that's another story. But it was dealt with as well.) There were positives and negatives to last night's performance, which is how they ended up tied after 60 minutes, painful as the journey's end was.