You bet your bottom dollar I’m worried about the Caps. In the last 3 games, we have allowed 13 goals and have been outscored 9-1 in the 1st period. The fact that we are o-1-2 in those 3 games speaks to our heart and fight as a team, which is something I’m not worried about.
I am worried however about our defense and goaltending. Last night, our forwards and defensemen were getting caught pinching in the offensive zone – Ovie and Morrison quickly come to mind – while other times, we were vacating the offensive zone before the puck had actually been cleared. On top of that, we were not getting back and covering the passing lanes on defense (see Steckel on Ottawa’s 3rd goal). The PK was bad and the PP was average.
A lot of things to worry about.
Add to all this that in my opinion, the 1st and 4th goals were a little soft, and you have cause for all out panic. As good as Theo has looked coming into the Calgary game, he has looked very, VERY shaky the last 2 games and it wouldn’t surprise me, if we manage to beat Atlanta on Thursday and Varly plays well, to see #40 get another start over the weekend against Columbus.
Mike Green played an excellent game and Semin is absolutely on fire. I think the Caps really miss Brooks Laich, a player who always brings a lot of energy and one who could provide the spark needed in the 1st periods of these games. Matthieu Perreault was all over the ice last night and is going to make Boudreau think hard about what to do when Brendan Morrison comes back, but like with Aucoin last year, I see Boudreau sending Perreault back down to Hershey. That being said, I think Perreault is playing great and it’s hard to argue against him staying up with the team.
The players in their post-game interviews seemed concerned and I’m beginning to get worried about the pressure that they may be feeling as the playoffs approach. Truth is, since returning from the Olympic break, this team has known that it would win the Eastern Conference regular season and has not had to play that hard for anything. We have gotten up to play the Penguins, Rangers and Sabres but that’s about it. With two games left each against Atlanta and Boston, it’s almost like the Caps will decide who they will play in the 1st round.
So get ready, Thursday could be a 1st round playoff preview and we’ll see, as we wait out couple of anxious days until the Atlanta game whether we can regain what we have lost and what seems so hard to get back. Ovie, our captain, it’s time to lead our team out of these doldrums.
Double vision: The Wizards could have beaten Houston last night. I watched the 4th quarter of this game and was left scratching my head about two things: 1) I don’t think Saunders should have taken McGee out of the game when he did. It’s true that McGee had one bad sequence in the 4th quarter where he was called for travelling and fell asleep on defense, but until that point, he was dominating the game on both ends of the floor. 2) Blatche is not under-paid as of right now. True, he had 31 points, but with the game on the line, the Wizards repeatedly put the ball in his hands and he was not able to lead the team to victory. He either settled for bad shots, made risky passes which turned into turnovers or was unable to find the open man out of double teams. He is showing that he is a gifted offensive scorer who can put the ball in the basket almost every night, but until he starts leading the team down the stretch to victories, he is just a nice offensive player, not a great basketball player.
We will most definitely lose tonight against New Orleans.
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