If there was any doubt

that our defense still needs an upgrade, there should be none after last night. Morrison and Eminger took two bad penalties late in the second, which gave Boston the 5 on 3 advantage that allowed them to tie the game up. This despite the overall solid play of the Caps, who jumped out to a 3-0 lead on a natural hat trick from Captain Clark. The Capitals played a solid overall game, and had a chance to win in overtime, but Alexander Semin's backhand over a sprawling Tim Thomas rang off the far post. In the end, the Caps were again undone by the shootout, and fell to the Bruins 4-3.

Speaking of sprawling, Tim Thomas must be the most frustrating goaltender in the world to play in front of. He looks absolutely terrible in the crease, frequently relying on sheer athletecism to make up for awful positioning and technique. If you're looking for a reason the Bruins have been unable to find consistency this season, look no further than Thomas.

Olie Kolzig looked stellar is his return. Kolzig had no chance to stop either power play tallies and came up big in overtime, stopping a series of close range lasers from Zdeno Chara. He also gave every Caps player and fan a heart attack when he wend down in pain after taking a shot off the knee with less than three seconds to go in overtime.

Once again, the Capitals came up small in the shootout, despite one of the sickest one on one moves the Russian Machine has put on a goaltender in some time. For the life of me, I can't understand why Captain Clark didn't take one of the three shots for the Caps. The guy clearly had the hot hand, what with the natural hat trick and all.

Overall, a solid effort soiled by the Caps inability to hold a lead.

The Capitals currently sit in 27th place, but are only 2 points up of 29th place Phoenix. They face a well rested Toronto team that sits just outside the 8th spot in the East. Game time is 7 PM at the V.