Going Out With A Whimper

What a terrible way to end one of the most hyped series ever in the NHL.

What a depressing way to finish off an epic season.

Welcome to Caps hockey. Some things never seem to change. :(

Until September comes around again...

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Game 7 is in the books, and will be marked as one of those pieces of history that no one will forget any time soon.

Coming into tonight's game, no Rangers team in franchise history had lost a playoff series after being up by 3-1 in the series. On the same note, only one Capitals team in franchise history had won after being down 3-1.

In game seven situations, only once had the Capitals won, April 16, 1988, against the Philadelphia Flyers in overtime. That was the reason me and my lab partners named our fetal pig in AP Biology "Ron Hextall."

Simeon Varlamov had just turned 21 yesterday. Henrik Lundqvist, on the other hand, was coming off a game where he'd been pulled in the third period, for the second game in a row... for the first time ever in his career.

After two games where the Capitals really dominated the Rangers, many were saying that the Rangers were done, and Washington had momentum on their side. Someone forgot to tell New York that, as they came out hard from the start, stonewalling the Capitals attempts to penetrate deep into their zone, and Lundqvist really never was tested until more than halfway through the period. Varlamov, however, had to work hard to keep the home team in the game, after some poor turnovers in the neutral zone.

Then the unthinkable. Avery tossed the puck towards the net from the corner, and his teammate Nik Antropov was able to get it past Varlamov. Knowing that the team that had scored first had won every game so far in this series, seeing the light go on there was a downer.

The crowd was a bit subdued. I remarked to Gabe that Boudreau should call a time-out, as the team was not playing well, and maybe needed a quick rethinking session. Right about then, there was a stoppage in play, and the glass repair crew came out; a pane behind New York's net was evidently broken and needed replacement. Voila! Time-out!

Boudreau obviously took the time to talk to his players, and whatever he said made a difference. While it still wasn't at the level of game five or game three, things had changed for the better, culminating with Alexander Semin taking a pass from fellow young gun, Nicklas Backstrom. Semin's shot appeared to be a double-deflection, off two different Rangers' defensive sticks, and past Lundqvist. While it may not have been "pretty," it was still "pretty effective" at getting the score all tied up.

And 1-1 it remained through the second period, and deep into the third. The number of shots Varlamov faced was pretty low -- after 8 shots in the first, there were only 6 in the second and a miserly 1 in the third -- and the number taken by the Caps was shockingly low as well.

However, maybe Lundqvist suffers from Theodore syndrome, where if he's not "tested enough," he can't stop the easy shots. When Sergei Fedorov took the shot after a long pass from Professor Matt Bradley, and it went in, the somewhat subdued (though usual for a Tuesday night) crowd erupted. Everyone stood, started cheering, and this continued for the next (last) five minutes of the game, meaning for about twenty minutes real time.

The fury had been unleashed, and it was speaking Russian.

It is difficult to say what happened those final five game minutes. It was so loud, so frenetic, all I remember was a lot of keep-away with the puck, and one aborted attempt to dash to the bench by Lundqvist, who ended up trapped in the crease. Avery was taken down by Fedorov, and limped to the bench, and the constant cheering of "Let's Go Caps!" and "C-A-P-S, Caps, Caps, Caps" stopped momentarily to jeer the gnat as he limped off the ice. Then, it was over, and the team mobbed Varlamov so thoroughly that they took the net right off its moorings.

The Devils vs. Hurricanes game seven evidently had been just as -- if not more -- wild, with two Carolina goals coming in the final 90 seconds of the game, including Staal's game winner with just under 33 seconds remaining. The Carolina win means the Capitals will take on Pittsburgh in round 2, while the Bruins battle the Hurricanes.

I received several text messages as I was leaving the game, all basically saying the same thing about the Capitals winning or Fedorov scoring.

But there was one that was different. One that was.... ominous.

It read, simply, "Doobie doobie do."


I think there's going to be a rough road ahead. Saturday afternoon can't come soon enough.

Now or Never

"The Caps Need a Win in New York" is the top headline on the Capitals web page as I write this.

I guess Captain Obvious is the web developer of the day.

"We have to try something new. Maybe we have to go even more to the net. I mean more traffic, get rebounds and those kinds of things," was what Nicklas Backstrom had to say after the loss in game two.

I'm trying not to be sarcastic here, but it's been pretty evident that driving to the net and getting rebounds by being in the crease has been lacking in the first two playoff games, as well as most of the last part of the season. Even Brian Pothier sees it. "If we REALLY want to score, we've got to get to the net and bang in a rebound or two, that's really what it comes down to for us," he was quoted as saying in the DC Sports Bog.

The good thing at this point is that rallying from a 2-0 series deficit is something this Capitals team can do. This team has broken or tied so many franchise records this year, very little seems beyond them. They just need to follow through on what they know already they need to do.

Otherwise, let the mass hysteria begin.

They're Here!

Playoffs start today! The sucky thing about it is simply that I have to work tonight, and can't go. So, Pat is going with his friend Bryan, while I make sure I turn my phone off and cross my fingers and try not to go insane with anticipation.

The trip to Atlanta last week was fun. I snuck down to the glass during warmups to get a few photos, only because our seats were on the opposite end of the ice.

Boyd Gordon and Donald Brashear were still out, so the hard-working Keith Aucoin was centering the fourth line (he was just sent back down on Monday since everyone, except Brent Johnson, has been cleared to play).

The game itself wasn't all that great. The lackluster play kinda scared me, to tell the truth, because the only reason the Capitals won is simply because of Simeon Varlamov's heroics in net. He did get the team's "hard-hat" award for his play, but it was terrible to see several odd-man rushes after certain defensemen decided to step up on a play, and then leave their partner out to dry when the inevitable breakdown occured.

Does Erskine look asleep there, or what? Maybe that was part of the problem? Though, to be fair, he wasn't one of the biggest issues last week.

The shoddy performances against non-playoff bound teams during the final week of the regular season has me fearful of what will happen tonight. Hopefully the abysmal game on Saturday will rile the team up a bit and have them wanting to come back from a terrible 7-4 loss to the Panthers. Several stories have been written already about how Theodore will need to step up in order to preserve the team's playoff hopes, but it's not just him; it's the entire defensive corps that needs to rethink its purpose. Don't get me wrong -- it's great that Mike Green contributed 30+ goals to the team this season. But 30+ goals does not a Norris Trophy winner make. The defensive side of his game still needs a lot of work, much like Jeff Schultz needs to work on being more than a moveable pylon out there. Putting the two of them on a line together last week was horrifying, as Schultz was left as the lone defender more than once when Green jumped into the play and a pass was intercepted.

Keys to the game are most likely to be :
*minimizing defensive breakdowns leading to odd-man rushes.
*not letting the Rangers camp in the crease. Make anyone who tries pay the price. Lift his stick, push him around, just do something. As badly as Theodore handles rebounds, letting someone sit in the crease is just asking for trouble.
*have a designated camper on each line. Brooks Laich is the poster child for this. Eric Fehr does it well on occasion. Backstrom is starting to do it a little more. But someone needs to be there for the juicy rebounds, and just to get in Lundqvist's face.

The playoffs aren't the only thing that's here. My AST struts have cleared customs! The coilovers will be on their way here soon, and that means the ESP WRX build will commence.

The car is scheduled for surgery starting May 4th, at IAG Performance. Whee!

Will Lightning Strike Tonight?

The Capitals are in the playoffs for the second year in a row, so they don't have to exhaust themselves night after night for the rest of the regular season just to earn that position like last year.

However, the Southeast Division title is still up in the air, and the playoff matchups -- including home ice advantage -- are still to be determined. How Washington plays their few remaining games will likely determine how far they make it through the playoffs this year.

Tuesday night's game against the Maple Leafs showed there has been a bit of a slowdown in the determination that was so prevalent from November 2007 through the beginning of this season. Cutesy, easily intercepted, passing plays have taken the place of grinding and mucking. And the Capitals are paying the price on the scoreboard, even as they aren't getting very beat up in body.

No one wants to go into the playoffs battered and bruised to the point of exhaustion, and that may have been a part of the reason why the Capitals didn't make it past a hard-fought first round series with the Flyers last year. However, playing with less than 100% grit and determination is a bad precedent that may be difficult to break out of come mid-April, and likely will result in a faster ejection from the playoffs than seven games with several overtimes.

The Capitals face Tampa Bay tonight, for the first time since "The Celebration." Tampa has nothing to prove, nothing to fight for tonight, except maybe for pride after Ovechkin's poorly thought-out idea. They are 28th in the league, solidly ahead of the Islanders, but still 14th in the conference. If they fight too hard, they will lose out in the draft lottery, which at this point may be their best hope at dragging themselves out of the rut they are in. However, if they've already dealt away this year's pick, maybe they truly have nothing worth defending, and instead can bank on trying to ruin Washington's chance of winning the division.

The Capitals have done poorly against teams that have nothing to prove this year. Most people refer to it as "playing down to their opponents," but it's more than just the Capitals screwing up; it's a no-lose situation for the opponent, so they just play. If they lose, they are losing to a tougher opponent and it was to be expected. If they win, they beat a tougher opponent, and they did awesome.

The Capitals, on the other hand, more and more aren't playing hockey, they are just playing around. Too many passes. Too many moves that are clearly attempts at highlight reels. No physical presences in the crease.

In the final minute of the game against Toronto on Tuesday night, Brooks Laich crashed the crease, and was relentless against the loose puck. He scored, to tie the game (and to set Gerber off resulting in a three-game suspension, but that's another story).

Crashing the crease and unsettling the goaltender has always been a core part of gritty Capitals hockey, and was the bread and butter for players like Dale Hunter. There's nothing wrong with pretty goals like Semin and Nylander obviously always want to score, but it's going to be guys who play with grit and determination like Brooks Laich and Eric Fehr who will carry this team through the playoffs. Obviously, relying on Ovechkin and Semin alone isn't getting the job done.