The Pittsburgh Penguins finally made it to Washington after flying into Newark, NJ and bussing down I95 on Saturday evening as the blizzard of 2010 subsided.

I actually missed the first period and a half because I was digging my car loose of the endless amounts of snow dropped on the east coast. One of my colleagues and I joked the other day that we both enjoyed last week’s snow and would do the same with this storm. It’s safe to so that I’ve changed my mind and I’m sure she has too.

Onto game coverage, I got back inside and the score was 2-0 Pittsburgh midway through the second period. Sidney Crosby struck twice, once on the power play, to put the Pens up two. As much as I can’t stand Crosby, he’s an outstanding player and needs to be defended at all times.

The Caps struck for their first tally of the afternoon when Alexander Ovechkin snapped a shot past Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Ovie’s shot broke apart the in-goal camera causing a slight delay as the Caps ice crew had to skate out and pick up the parts.

Jordan Stahl pulled a Crosby and netted two straight goals to put the Pens up 4-1. An awful Tom Poti turnover left the Pens a clear path to the net leading to Stahl’s second tally. Shortly thereafter, Caps forward Eric Fehr crashed the net and snuck one past Fleury to make it 4-2 after two periods of play.

At this point, news reaches me that the defense has been swiss-cheese like all game and the deficit really isn’t Caps goalie Jose Theodore’s fault. After all, it is hard to score when the Caps only managed 4 shots on goal in the second period while Pittsburgh fired 15 shots.

Alex Ovechkin tally’s a hat trick scoring twice during the third period to bring the Caps even with the Pens at 4. Pittsburgh goalie Fleury is let down by his defense on several occasions which allowed the Caps back into the contest. Caps defenseman Jeff Schultz picks up a poor penalty late in the third period putting the Pens on the power play towards the end of this barnburner. Schultz’s penalty was the only one called in the third period, although there could have and should have been several calls made against both teams that went un-noticed by the officials.

Jose Theodore ended up with 31 saves in the contest as Mike Knuble ensured a shootout wouldn’t be necessary as he tapped in an Ovechkin slap shot rebound giving the Caps their first lead of the day, when it counted most. Knuble’s power play score secured the Caps a 5-4 victory over the Pens, enabling the Caps 14 game winning streak to continue. The streak ties the team for third all time in consecutive team victories. The record stands at 17 straight wins set by the Pittsburgh Penguins back in1993.

Footnotes:

-Jordan Stahl, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin all scored two straight goals at some point in the game; Ovie added a hat trick goal.

-The Pens were 1 of 6 on the power play while the Caps were 1 out of 4 on the extra man advantage.

-Props are certainly in order for the floor crew at Verizon Center for managing the blizzard and getting the arena converted from the Georgetown game for today’s noon start in unmentionable conditions.

While many events were cancelled around the DC Metro area due to the blizzard of 2010 [SNOWPOCALYPSE, Snogasm, SN-OMG, Snobody move, SNO SNO SNOTORIOUS, etc.], there were two events that went on as scheduled at the Verizon Center.

On Saturday, the Villanova Wildcats navigated the storm and made it to the Nations Capital and probably wish they hadn’t as the Georgetown Hoyas rebounded after a bad loss at home to South Florida with a 103-90 victory over Nova.

Austin Freeman and Jason Clark, two-thirds of the WCAC connection, combined for 49 of the Hoyas 103 total points; Chris Wright had an off day in Georgetown’s win. The loss was Villanova’s first in Big East conference play this year. Scottie Reynolds poured in 24 points on a slow day for him. Nova drops to 20-2 overall; the Hoyas are 17-6.

Gary Williams usually doesn't get a lot of credit for his recruiting. In fact, thats the thing that most people will point out as his biggest weakness. 

He doesn't bring in the big time players. He can't get any of the top players in the area.

And while those statements do have some truth to them, Gary should get all the credit in the world for the job hes done with freshman center Jordan Williams.

Jordan was a 4 star recruit at best on all the major recruiting sites. He was ranked the 85th best player by Rivals.com and the 96th best on Scout.com.

Certainly not a huge get by most recruiting standards.

But with the way JW has been playing of late, and really all season long, there aren't more than 3-4 freshman post players that I would take over him. Not right now, and not for the future.

On the season, Jordan averages over 8 ppg and over 8 rpg. Hes not a huge offensive threat (yet) by any means, but hes doing exactly what the Terps need him to do: rebound, and score when given the opportunity down low.

And if you look at his production in ACC play this year, it only gets better.

Last night against Florida State, who has arguably the best pure post player in the ACC in Solomon Alabi, Jordan shined.

He finished with 14 points and 6 rebounds going up against a 7 footer in Alabi. He was dunking the ball in traffic and ran the court extremely well.

A week ago against Clemson, who has either the number 1 or 2 post player in the ACC in Trevor Booker, Williams had his best game of the season: 13 points and 13 rebounds.

Overall JW is one of the main reasons why Maryland sits at 5-2 thus far in the ACC season.

Hes playing better than any freshman in the ACC outside of Derrick Favors, and the ACC has some very highly ranked freshman recruits. 

John Henson, Mason Plumlee, and Milton Jennings come to mind, all were Mcdonalds All Americans. And Jordan averages more points and rebounds than all of them.

Jordan Williams appears to be a year or two away from greatness and there is no doubt in my mind that he will be a 1st team All ACC player by his junior season.

He seems like the type of kid that will stay around for at least 3 years and hopefully 4, and for the first time in a while, Maryland fans can rest easy when thinking about their inside game.

Nice article in Post on Colin Cloherty, Gonzaga 2005 and Brown 2009.  He is on Colts active roster for Super Bowl; may or may no suit up on Sunday:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2010/02/gonzaga_alum_colin_cloherty_wi.html

All year long I've been hearing about how great and dominate the knights of Ballou are and to my surprise I was robbed for my money as well as my desire to see these guys play.I had the privlege I thought,to be able to record their game against the Warriors of H.D.Woodson on tuesday Feb.2nd and I was disappointed.I was prepared to see some of the most talked about student athletes in the area.They were not bad ,but they were not great either.In my opinion H.D. was equivalent to a J.V. team in size but their heart and will to want to win was incredible.I would say that Ballou played to the level of their competition but,if they did maybe they would have impressed me as much as the warriors did.To the warriors basketball team if you guys had made your lay-ups you guys could've and should've won.

Last night was one of the best displays of school spirit I have ever seen from a school.  Must have been 400 Zag students at the Gonzaga Dematha game.  They consistently go above and beyond to show support for their team.  Only slight negative was taunting DM fans at end.  Great job.

Here are some footnotes /fun facts to get you warmed up:

- The Caps potential enforcer, LW Jason Chimera, leads the team in penalty minutes with 75.

- Caps goalie Jose Theodore has played in 29 games this year and has yet to post a shutout.

- LW Alexander Ovechkin leads the team in points (73) - 34 goals & 39 assists.

- Center Stephen Weiss leads the Panthers with 19 goals.

- Entering tonight’s contest, the Caps are 11-2-0 in the month of January; Florida is 7-3-2.

- Alexander Semin leads the Caps with 4 game winning goals.

- The Caps are 1 for 1 in shootout appearances this year.

-The NHL will cease operations during the Olympic break [http://www.vancouver2010.com/]in February. During the Winter Olympiad, the Caps will be represented at the games by Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin & Semyon Varlamov [Russia], Nicklas Backstrom [Sweden] & Thomas Fleischmann [Czech Republic].

-Several members of the Washington Nationals are in attendance, they signed autographs pre-game for Caps season ticket holders. The Nats second annual fan-fest takes place this Sunday, January 31st from 11 am- 4 pm at Nationals Park.

-Tonight’s game was the 40^th straight home sellout for the Caps.

In response to the following: http://www.dcsportsfan.com/Forums/posts.aspx?tid=9110

Jim Leary is an idiot. A big one.

Didn’t anyone learn a lesson when Prep and Landon decided to leave the IAC five years ago to join the MIAA? Doesn’t anyone remember Landon backing out at the last second? Look at the IAC now? It’s a joke. A complete joke. And so is WCAC Commissioner Leary, Washington Post Reporter Josh Barr and anyone who believes the merger will happen.

First off, let’s look at the people interviewed in this story.

Jim Leary either likes his name in lights or has no idea how to run a conference. When the going gets tough, you don’t just throw in the towel and break up what is considered to be the best high school conference in the country. You make some changes. Limit roster sizes, allow schools with smaller programs to get better players. Do something to balance out the league. Just look at the NFL if you need a little guidance.

When was the last time you had any desire to drive to Baltimore to watch a football game. If that were the case, we would all be Ravens fans. Keep the league in D.C.

Before Leary ever decided to have lunch with someone from the MIAA, he should have consulted with every president in the league. Who is this guy to change what has been a great Washington, D.C. tradition for many years.

Leary needs to go, not the WCAC.

Secondly, Washington Post reporter Josh Barr decided to interview outgoing Paul VI athletic director Pete Menke, who has about as much say in the matter as I do. Actually, I probably have more say than Menke. Interview Billy Emerson for God’s sake, at least he’ll be around next year.

Barr also interviewed O’Connell AD Darrell Snyder, who is probably the next AD to go in the WCAC. When was the last time Bishop O’Connell won anything worth talking about? If you’re going to talk to anyone at O’Connell, talk to the football coach.

Why didn’t Barr interview Bob Milloy, Bill McGregor, Bryce Bevill or Joe Patterson? Why didn’t he interview any of the athletic directors that matter? Paul VI doesn’t even have a football coach right now!

A DeMatha administrator, who was “granted” anonymity in order to speak candidly, said “It has a chance, it would be a great thing. We've definitely been driving this. It seems ridiculous that we play Good Counsel every year for the championship. The league becomes a league of haves and have-nots. . . . It's really not healthy for the same teams to be playing each other every year."

Is this guy serious? Why don’t you start telling us what you tell 8^th graders to get them to come to your school? How do you manage to beat out every other football program year in and year out? Some of the area’s best football players spend most of their high school careers on the bench while a handful of studs get in the game.

The only person with some actual pull is McNamara principal Marco Clark, who could be just as much into sports as he is at running the school. He’s a good principal, but he should let McNamara AD Tony Johnson make the decision here. Clark said the following:

"The local region today is not as far as it once was, even our conference goes from Olney to Fairfax to St. Mary's County," Clark said. "We'd love to explore either inviting some other schools to be part of our conference or even the possibility of pairing up with another conference just to add the possibility of more competition."

With concerns of PVI, O’Connell and Ireton leaving, Clark continued:

"For years there always has been a concern they might" leave, Clark said. "My personal concern is if schools feel an inability to compete athletically, they may begin withdrawing from the conference and then we don't have a league. I'd like to make it more enticing for St. Mary's Ryken and Bishop Ireton [which currently compete as football independents] to join the conference, but I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. I'd like to focus on some solutions that would keep us together and provide us with more and new opportunities."

Maybe Clark should focus on that last paragraph. There is no way the elite teams will all leave the WCAC. Maybe DeMatha and Good Counsel, but can you picture Gonzaga and St. John’s not playing because they have to play Loyola or Mt. St. Joe’s the last game of the season. What a joke.

Fire Jim Leary, keep the WCAC as it is, and let’s start building a better and more competitive league.