Since expansion now means that Anaheim only gets to play them once this season, I'd better get my jabs in now!
Fedorov's two goals lead Mighty Ducks past Capitals
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Stay seated for a while, Jiggy. Gerb's too hot to bench.
Martin Gerber, in his third straight start in place of Jean-Sebastien Giguere, made 23 saves as the Anaheim Mighty Ducks beat the slumping Washington Capitals 4-2 Wednesday night.
"Jiggy is the guy, but Gerb's on a roll," coach Mike Babcock said. "And when Jiggy is on a roll, he plays."
Sergei Fedorov scored twice as the Mighty Ducks improved to 3-1-1 with Gerber in goal, and the coach indicated Gerber will start again Saturday against the New York Islanders.
"I just assume when a guy plays and he wins, you've got to play him," Babcock said.
The Capitals are doing anything but winning. They lost their sixth straight and are winless in eight games since an opening-day victory. The losing streak is their longest since they dropped the final six games of the 1998-99 season.
"We've got too much talent out there for it to keep going the way it is," right wing Mike Grier said. "Right now, we're just finding ways to lose."
Jason Krog and Steve Rucchin also scored for the Ducks.
Fedorov got his second and third goals of the season, including the go-ahead score that screened goaltender Olaf Kolzig nearly stopped between his body and left arm. He slowed the puck just enough for it to trickle slowly into the net, putting the Capitals at a seemingly insurmountable 2-1 deficit.
"It's one of those pucks that had eyes again, like we've seen too many times," Washington coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Those things are happening to us. When you're a fragile team and you're not winning, that's enough to take the wind out of your sails.
"We need to be more resilient as a team. That's sort of the makeup we have. When we get behind, we don't seem to have the resiliency to get back into it."
The Capitals had their share of bad bounces, but they had themselves to blame for much of their misery. Krog's goal came because he was left open when two Capitals defensemen covered teammate Andy McDonald on a two-on-two break. Rucchin's score came after a couple of bumbling attempts to clear the puck near the blue line.
The Capitals, playing their first home game since Oct. 11, were booed off the ice at the end of a game that left them with an NHL-low three standings points. They were 1-for-7 on the power play, blowing one chance with a careless two-line pass when Jaromir Jagr had half of the ice to himself.
Meanwhile, the Ducks scored their third power-play goal in two games. They got a pair in Tuesday night's 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers, then got another on Fedorov's shot from the left circle in the first period on their only man-advantage chance of the night.
Stephen Peat tied it for the Capitals later in the first period, but the Ducks grabbed a 4-1 lead before Dainius Zubrus' power-play goal in the game's final minutes.
