Ok, this was horrible. The Capitals came out in the beginning of the second period and for 8-10 minutes played hard and got a goal for their efforts on a very nice hustle play by Tom Poti. Then, the “stank in the Tank” began again. The third period started the same way and the Capitals were rewarded with a very nice tic-tac-toe power play goal by Flash. I guess another positive to take from this is Brashear’s beating of Jody Shelley. How cool was that? Shelley was bleeding all over Brash’s sweater! Why do people fight Brashear? Idiots. I would like to have known what Brashear said to the ref’s to get a 10 minute misconduct though. Ok…….that’s it. No more good to tell. On to the bad stuff.
After the goals, the Caps played poorly at best. Morrison had a night to forget and seemed to be very upset about it. He scored on his own goal (by accident of course), but he also had several turnovers. Ovie had a terrible blueline pass and had to hook the San Jose player (Marleau? I can’t remember who it was now) in order to prevent a goal. I believe it should have been a penalty shot, but no matter. San Jose scored anyway. Ovie also didn’t backcheck and let Setoguchi score. Ovie, you have to play both ends dude! How many times have I written that this season? I don’t think Johnnie saw a puck all night so I can’t really blame him except for Grier’s goal. That was pitiful. Vlasic’s goal should NEVER happen. How do you score from 40 feet? Easy. Have the goalie looking around four guys. The Caps defenseman have to knock that puck down. Backstrom was not his usual self and showed his frustration by punching Rob Blake in the head. Nicklas, you are lucky he didn’t kick your butt for that. Three goals were given up on the first 5 shots, I believe, and the first shot went in AGAIN! Sergei Federov left with an ankle injury after the first period. It is the same injury as before. We will have to see what the damage is. I guess this will delay the Nylander trade, which I don’t know if that is a good idea. What is the latest on that? I am so disgusted with this team right now. Let’s face it. When the Caps are good, they are great. But, when they are average they are BAD.
The Capitals need Clark to do something, Kozlov to do something, and Nylander to do something. The Caps cannot rely on Semin, Ovie, Flash, and Backstrom to carry this team all year. If Nylander can be traded for better defenseman or a goalie I would be thrilled. Boyd Gordon can be the third or fourth line center all year long. He hustles, hits, and plays hard every night. I would really like to have Matt Cooke back. Whatever. Now, a promising start to this road trip with the Anaheim game has turned real ugly at San Jose and LA. The Caps need to play a tough Minnesota team on Monday. Cross your fingers. This one could be painful, but at least we won’t have to stay up to 1:30 to see it.
Thoughts?
