One last time

Reposted from March 26, 2007, during a season in which the Capitals finished with 28 Wins and 70 points and did not qualify for the playoffs. How far we've come. Just win this one boys.

Just win this one

It's been quite a year for Caps fans, from the peaks of the opening third of the season to the valley of the post-all star losing streaks and the abominable road performances. But as a Caps fan who believes in the rebuiling process, and sees light on the horizon, I only want one more thing this year.

If the Capitals go out and beat the Penguins tomorrow night, I'll be perfectly happy with the season.

So go out there and do it for all the fans that have had to endure the busloads of bandwagon-hopping Penguins fans that were dumped in front of the Capital Center for all those years. Do it for the great Capitals teams of the early 90s that were stopped in the playoffs by Crybaby Lemiux and his gambling degenerate sidekick Jaromir. Do it for the Caps fans that have had to endure year after year after year of hearing Penguins chants and cheers for opposing team goals. Do it to erase the memory of that ugly third period collapse earlier in the season (the Deuce is still convinced Bettman made a call from the league office and told the officials to make the game more... even for TV purposes.)

But most importantly, do it for yourselves. This is a young Pittsburgh team. They're going to be competitive in this conference for the next few years. The Capitals need to get it in their heads that they can beat this team. Because we're going to be seeing a lot of them in the playoffs in the years to come.

So come on, Capitals. Get it done. For the fans. For the team. For yourselves.

Beat the @#$*! Penguins!

Big ratings and a programming surprise

Per the Capitals, yesterday's critical win against the Lightning drew the largest rating for a hockey game in Comcast Sportsnet history (a 2.7 rating). While this is great news, scoreboard watchers will be just as interested in this note buried in the last couple of lines of the release:

"The network will also carry the Philadelphia Flyers regular season finale against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday at 3 p.m., as the game most likely will have an effect on Washington’s playoff hopes."

Kudos to CSN for giving Caps fans a way to follow their team's fortunes by airing this out-of-market matchup.

And for those of you that get NHL Center Ice you might want to tune into tonight's game between the Bruins and Senators, which also has major implications for the Caps. How big, you ask? If the game ends in regulation (meaning no points for the loser), the Caps are guaranteed a playoff spot if they beat Florida Saturday. That, as they say, is frikkin HUGE.

Two quotes say it all

"Well, there go the playoffs."
- the Deuce after watching the Penguins defeat the Caps at home yet again to effectively end the Caps playoff chances.

"(Expletive) the Penguins and (expletive) you."
- Original 6 to a group of obnoxious Penguins supporters outside the Verizon Center after the game.

Hey, we're not called 3 Grumpy Caps fans for nothing.

The battle of the red, white and blue

Tonight, the Caps travel north of the border to take on the Montreal Canadiens. The teams have split the season series so far, with Mike Green tallying the winner in a 5-4 win and Guillaume "Mr. 3 syllable" Latendresse netting the winner for Montreal in the second. Both teams come into the game scorching hot, winning 7 of their last 10.

To win this game, the Caps need to play to the Canadiens weaknesses, the most glaring of which is lack of physical players. Aside from Mike "I eat people for fun" Komisarek, there is not a Canadiens defenseman who Caps players need to fear in the offensive zone. Likewise, only 2 of Montreal's forwards are listed at 6'2" or taller. More importantly, none of them play like they're even that big. In order to keep the Canadiens 3 Ks (Koivu, Kovalev, and Kostitsyn) off the boards, the Caps need to play a rough and tumble physical game to keep them off balance.

For a blueprint, they should look to Pittsburgh's 2-0 victory over the Habs before the all-star break. Without Secondary Sid (and playing with a shortened bench), the Pens played a puck possesion game in the offensive zone, using their size advantage to keep the smaller Canadiens players at bay. The Habs skill could not get into a rythm on offense because they could not disposess Pittsburgh's forwards, and the end result was a win for the Penguins. In particular, enforcer Georges Laroque could have held the puck all night, and he's got about half the skillset of Caps tough guy Donald Brashear.

If the Caps can reproduce that kind of physical effort, they should be able to rely on their snipers to get at least a couple pucks past the rejuvinated Cristobel "I'm French, not French Canadien" Huet and escape with a win. If not, viewers may be in for a more enjoyable run and gun game, but the prospects of a Caps win drop to about 50-50.

Where have we been? Part 1

So nice of you to ask. Some of you may have noticed that this site wasn't updated much this past week or weekend. There's a good reason why. A few months ago, Original 6 and the Deuce came up with a plan for a hockey guys weekend out. And they were thinking big (or, more accurately, FAR). How far? NORTHERN QUEBEC far.

Now why would any right minded individual make such a trek IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WINTER? They wouldn't, of course. But if you read this blog, you know that you're not dealing with right minded individuals.

Original 6 had gotten it into his head that he wanted to see explosive Caps prospect Francois Bouchard of the Drakkar du Baie-Comeau in person. He floated the idea to the Deuce and I, who were all for it.

Until we looked at a map.


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How far is it from DC to Baie-Comeau? Really, really far. Almost 1000 miles into the great white north. Despite our desire, it was clear that young Francois would have to make due playing out his QMJHL career without us to cheer him on.

Undeterred by our initial roadblock, the Deuce and Original 6 continued to plan for a hockey centered getaway. While their plan to visit one of the one of the most remote outposts in Quebec was thwarted, they instead turned their attention to one of the closest (and certainly the most cosmopolitan). Instead of Baie-Comeau, we would journey to the province's cultural and economic center: Montreal. After scanning the schedules of both le Canadien and our own work and personal plans, a weekend was chosen, and the plan began to take shape.

Since Albany was only a few hours drive from Montreal, we would fly into Albany on Friday the 18th of January to see the Albany River Rats take on the Capitals own Hershey Bears. From there we would drive to Montreal, where we could heartily boo the Pittsburgh Penguins and Secondary Sid as they took on the hometown Habs the very next night.

Our plan in place, Original 6 generously slapped down his credit card for plane tickets, hotel reservations, car rental and ridiculously marked up tickets to the game at the Centre Bell. One would think such kindness would have kept us from busting his chops nearly the entire trip. Alas, it was not to be.

coming soon... Part 2 - The trip begins.

What is Bill Guerin, like 70 now?

Talk about a bitter taste in the mouth. The Caps played a fairly good game last night, but were undone by stupid penalties and even worse special teams play. The Caps power play is, in a word, awful. In the words of Rick Pitino, "it sucks, and it stinks, and it sucks." Wasted opportunities like this at the beginning of the season are going to haunt this team when the playoff chase comes around.

While plenty of blame goes to the Caps putrid power play, there were other issues that certainly didn't help the Caps cause. A rare poor outing by Kolzig allowed the roughly 340 year old Bill Guerin to record his first hat trick since the league expanded from 6 teams in 1967. Kolzig did a particularly poor job of sealing off the 5 hole, allowing goals that literally slid underneath his pads.

The bright spots for the Caps occured within 5 minutes of one another. After apparently not realizing he was playing with the most dangerous winger in the league for most of the game, Joe "don't call me dead meat" Motzko finally fed a pass across the slot to Alex Ovechkin two minutes into the third period. Ovechkin did what he does best, one timing the puck into the twine before Rick DiPietro had a chance to react.

Less than five minutes later, Nicklas Backstrom showed the world why he is considered one of the top prospects in the game. Backstrom charged up the left wing boards, fought off two defenders, then made an amazing feed from behind the net to Tomas Fleischmann, who banged the puck home to knot the game at two.

Now I'm not one to say I told you so, but Flash looked a whole heck of a lot better playing with Backstrom and Nylander than he did on the top line. Flash and Backstrom looked like they had been playing together for years, and for stretches of the third period looked like the most dangerous line in the arena. Their uptempo style and aggressive play in the offensive zone had the Isles on their heels, and it looked like only a matter of time before the Caps would take the lead...

... and then, faster than you can say "they just need to avoid taking a stupid penalty here" Captain Clark upended an Islanders defenseman in the offensive zone, giving the Isles the man advantage. Clark has not looked like himself since the beginning of the season. While some of that can be attributed to his move off Ovechkin's line, he just looks like he's forcing the issue right now instead of allowing the game to come to him. Clark's intensity and his willingness to put everything he has into every shift he takes is what makes him Captain material, but he needs to dial it down a notch and just play his game right now.

Bryan "Just because I wear an eye patch it doesn't make me a pirate" Berard promptly beat Olie Kolzig on the ensuing power play, and the momentum pendulum swung fully the other directions. The Caps continued to take bad penalties, and Guerin put the game out of reach with two late goals to complete the hat trick.

So what can we take away from this game? Well, I certainly wouldn't bet on Olie Kolzig having another bad game any time soon, so that's not an issue. The power play continues to let the Caps down, primarily because they continue to go against conventional wisdom and spread the puck around instead of force feeding it to Ovechkin at every available opportunity. If Joe Motzko has the puck on his stick for more of the power play than the Russian Machine, there's a fundamental problem with the power play strategy. We said it last year, but it bears repeating; It's time for the Caps to go find a power play coach/consultant. There has been no improvement on the power play in the time Hanlon has coached here, and while he's done a good job overall, it's clear that nobody's buying what he's selling with the man advantage.

The Caps also need to cut down on the penalties in the attacking zone. There's no excuse for that. Ever. And without Boyd Gordon in the lineup, the penalty kill looks average instead of unbeatable. Hopefully Boyd's back spasms will settle down and he'll return to the lineup sooner rather than later.

And finally, everyone's burial of Flash might have been a bit premature.

Next game is this Saturday against the Flightless Devilbirds. If you are in the area and consider yourself even a passing fan of the Caps, there's no excuse for not buying a ticket to this game. Seriously. Go do it. Right now. We'll still be here when you get back. Remember, if you're sick and tired of other fans coming in and taking over our building, you can absolutely do something about it. Buy a ticket. Get your friends to buy tickets (as long as they're not from Pittsburgh). Don't let some idiot Pens fan in your section even start that pansy little "let's go pens" chant in your section. Drown their voice out with your own. Do not, however, attempt to drown them in the literal sense. I know they're annoying, but attempted murder is not the answer. Yet.

It wasn't meant to be (this year)

There were two distinct points last night when the Capitals had opportunities to cement their lead on the Penguins and take control of the game. The first was Alexander Semin's fake and pass on the power play from the right corner of the net, which he put directly on the tape of Kris Beech. Since Semin had slipped towards the front and taken on the defenseman in front, Beech had an empty net with nobody even close to him. And what did he do with it?

He flubbed it. I'm still not even sure how it's possible, but if anyone can flub a shot from two inches away (besides Zubrus), Kris Beech is the man for the job. He somehow managed to have a perfectly settled puck flip up and over his stick as he tried to redirect it into the net. So instead of a 3-0 lead, the Caps were stuck at two, and Pittsburgh dodged a game-breaking bullet.

The second point came on the first Penguins power play after a soft Bryan Muir hooking call. During the course of the penalty kill, Shaone Morrisonn had not one but two clearing opportunities with nobody on him. Both times, his weak clearing efforts were held in by the defense. Not surprisingly, Pittsburgh capitalized, and made what should have been a 3-0 game into a tenuous 2-1 score instead.

As has become habit lately, the Caps were unable to hold on.

There was some good to come of last night's game. Alex Ovechkin absolutely DESTROYED Jordan Staal with a huge shoulder check, and looked dangerous all night. Olie Kolzig was strong if not stellar throughout the game. Alexander Semin also played extremely well, although the Beech flub seemed to affect his overall game. He was considerably less likely to give up the puck to anyone that didn't speak Russian after that point. And who can blame him?

Unfortunately, we didn't get much out of the first bout between Big Donnie and Gentleman Georges Laraque. Lots of posturing, a quick tie up and a spill. Not exactly the all out throwdown we expected of two of the league's finest enforcers. Kudos to Don for keeping his head in the game and continuing to play a hard, clean physical game even after the fighting major.

I know it's a moot point, but I'm going to bring it up anyway. The referees last night might as well have been wearing yellow instead of white so their jerseys could match the team they were playing for. The tripping call against Semin was maybe the worst piece of refereeing I've seen all season. Semin had control of the puck, was being pressed by another player, made a move with the puck, and his checker tripped over Semin's stick during the stickhandling maneuver. Because of that SEMIN gets the gate? Utterly ridiculous. The non-calls on Pittsburgh all night were equally egregious. The only call the refs made against the Pens was a double minor for high sticking, and only because the play needed to be stopped because the possibility of injury existed. The only other call the refs made was in garbage time in an attempt to make the scoresheet look more balanced.

Yes, we know the Penguins are going to the playoffs. And yes, we also know the Caps aren't. But that's no excuse for the NHL (by way of its officials) to hand the game to the Pens on a silver platter. The Pens first three goals were on the power play, two of them because of questionable calls. The ice would have been slanted Pittsburgh's way last night because of the differential in talent. There is no reason, and more importantly no excuse, for the NHL to tilt it further just to keep the Pittsburgh story going. And if you think the Pens treatment last night was anything but the norm, you're a fool.

If the Pens and Crosby are as good as advertised, they should have no trouble winning games without the help of the refs. But it's clear the league isn't willing to take any chances with it's posterboy or Pittsburgh's feel good storyline.

Just win this one

It's been quite a year for Caps fans, from the peaks of the opening third of the season to the valley of the post-all star losing streaks and the abominable road performances. But as a Caps fan who believes in the rebuiling process, and sees light on the horizon, I only want one more thing this year.

If the Capitals go out and beat the Penguins tomorrow night, I'll be perfectly happy with the season.

So go out there and do it for all the fans that have had to endure the busloads of bandwagon-hopping Penguins fans that were dumped in front of the Capital Center for all those years. Do it for the great Capitals teams of the early 90s that were stopped in the playoffs by Crybaby Lemiux and his gambling degenerate sidekick Jaromir. Do it for the Caps fans that have had to endure year after year after year of hearing Penguins chants and cheers for opposing team goals. Do it to erase the memory of that ugly third period collapse earlier in the season (the Deuce is still convinced Bettman made a call from the league office and told the officials to make the game more... even for TV purposes.)

But most importantly, do it for yourselves. This is a young Pittsburgh team. They're going to be competitive in this conference for the next few years. The Capitals need to get it in their heads that they can beat this team. Because we're going to be seeing a lot of them in the playoffs in the years to come.

So come on, Capitals. Get it done. For the fans, for the team, for yourselves. Beat the @#$*! Penguins!

Now will the Penguins shut up?

I know it's wishful thinking, but at least we can hope that the Penguins will stop all their whining about how The Secondary One needs to be protected by the refs, the league, the FBI, the CIA, and Chuck Norris.

According to TSN.ca, the Penguins just signed Georges Laraque. This is the second Pens move after acquiring Gary Roberts from Florida. It's safe to say they're gearing up for a playoff run in Pittsburgh. I hate the Penguins. Hate hate HATE the Penguins.

It's time

to whack the Penguin(s). Game time is 1 o'clock.

Welcome to rock bottom

In the last 3 games against the Panthers, the Capitals have surrendered 17 goals.

Let that sink in for a bit.

17 Goals. 3 Games.

The Panthers have 5 wins in the Southeast Division, 3 of which have come against the Caps. For the mathematically impaired, that's OVER HALF of their wins in the division.

The Caps have lost 14 of their last 20 games, and 9 of 10 on the road. Those are NOT good numbers, folks.

Let's just say I won't be grabbing for my playoff ticket deposit any time soon.

The Caps are winless on a road trip once again, with the Flightless Devilbirds up this Saturday. Right now, these two young teams are headed in opposite directions. Pittsburgh is right in the thick of the playoff race. The Caps are also knee deep in something, but it sure isn't the playoff race.



Today's BHM spotlight is on Daniel Hale Williams, a surgeon who founded the first black hospital in the United States, Provident Hospital. The school served to train Black nurses and utilized doctors of all races. In 1893, Williams performed the first successful open heart surgery. More info on Williams can be found here.