Varlamov's Golden Debut: Caps 2, Habs 1

As the song goes, "the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades." (It could have been referencing Don Cherry's jacket too.)

Simeon Varlamov proved that the present isn't so bad either as he stopped 32 Montreal shots in his NHL debut to key a HUGE 2-1 win by the Caps at Bell Centre. The Caps, coming off an impressive 5-1 victory over the Ottawa Senators last night at Verizon Center, played their hearts out against a struggling Canadiens team that had a spark in their step all night.

The red, white and blue (American version) were able to score first when Nick Backstrom poked in a shot on the power play at 10:19 of the first. But then the Habs put pressure on Varlamov and the Caps with 13 second-period shots and a four-minute power play. The home team did strike once -- off the stick of Patrice Brisebois during a four-on-four at 15:25 of the second -- but could have scored many more times if not for the Russian rookie's heroics.

The Caps also did a great job of not allowing the Habs to crash the net and keep them on the perimeter during seven power plays (all killed by the Caps). It was a textbook road win.

With the game winding down, Michael Nylander (possibly the least likely to serve as a net crasher), poked in a reboud while falling on his bum to provide the decisive margin. His line, along with that of Alex Ovechkin (who was on a mission all evening), keyed the Caps and gave them two huge points.

The Caps' win -- combined with losses by Atlanta, Tampa and Carolina (in OT) -- gives them an eight-point lead in the Southeast Division over the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes, with two more games played than the Cats and one more than the 'Canes.

There are still injury concerns -- Sergei Fedorov, Tyler Sloan and Backstrom all left early and there are still folks out for a while -- but the Caps continue to find ways to win and are putting together a darn special season. The Caps (18-10-3) are now 5-2 in December, 7-3 in their last 10, 13-4-3 against the Eastern Conference and 5-1-1 against the Northeast. They're still struggling on the road (6-9-2), but they've won two of their last three away from Verizon Center.

Next up is a Tuesday (7 p.m., Versus) rematch with the New York Islanders, who they beat 5-2 on Dec. 4, at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.