The Caps had a meeting at noon and an optional skate at 12:30, and while us media types expected the practice to be lightly attended, almost everyone was out there. There is no morning skate tomorrow, and Bruce Boudreau said the guys wanted to get the soreness and fatigue out of their legs today.
The mood was considerably more upbeat that it was 12 or 13 hours ago. All of the players spoke about this team's ability to win with their backs against the wall and how they've been counted out at several points during the past few months.
There was also plenty of talk about the, um, uneven officiating after the first period. Both Matt Bradley and Alexander Semin ended up with stitches from wayward sticks, but there were no penalties called, and guys were pretty understandably upset about the goaltender interference call on Viktor Kozlov late in regulation.
Jeff Schultz practiced, but he deemed his availability to be "pretty unlikely" for tomorrow. He said there are certain positions, like crouching for a faceoff, are tough for him, but he was hopfeul about a potential Game 6.
