Wow. This was a bad ending to a good effort. The Caps proved again that they are not a good road team and this was one they needed to get with Boston, Montreal, and Ottawa coming to town. This could be the start of a four game losing streak. Once again, I am going to get on Backstrom. His bad, errant, misinformed, stupid, moronic backpass in the Cap’s zone led to Ray Whitney’s first goal. Additionally, he did not backcheck and Lepisto was stuck fending off two guys behind the net. Of course, he fell down and Backstrom stood there looking at the pretty lights while Johnnie was hung out to dry. Backstrom is a good passer. There is no argument on that, however he does not play defense. He gave up two goals today because of it.
When is Ovie going to score one on one? I don’t believe I have seen him score on a penalty shot which amazes me. He is 0 for 5 on them in reguation. He is less than 20% in OT. That is startling. You can tell it upsets him, but I don’t see any improvement. I am not sure if he is working on it in practice. I would think he would be.
The Caps have some good young defenseman. It is easy to see why Hershey is so good. I guess I wonder what happens to the forwards in the transition. Fehr, Giroux, Laich, Steckel were all goal scorers in the AHL and none of that has translated to the NHL. Hopefully, the Caps will get some guys back for Wednesday night against Boston. They are going to need shooters to get the puck by Thomas. He is playing really well this year. We’ll see how they do.
Thoughts?
