Caps Continue to Slump

Well, I sat in law school all flippin night, so I did not have the opportunity to watch Edmonton dismantle the Caps at home, thankfully so.  BUT, we have a loyal reader who threw some comments together on the Caps performance, since I would not intelligently be able to do so (Special thanks to John for the summary).

I missed the first period, so I didn’t see the first two goals.  We’re in a time warp, back in the Glen Hanlon era being outworked by an inferior team, last in their division, on both ends, and missing their top scorer, as was the case with the Columbus loss, and the Philadelphia tie, essentially waiting until the end before playing with a sense of urgency.

Caps had …shaky goal tending, dumb penalties, passes to nowhere, horrible lapses in their own zone

Other Observations:

Nylander and Semin looked particularly lost, pretty much liabilities, although nobody looked good–except for Tomas Flesichman’s second period goal, a time-capsule effort that sparked a brief moment of spirited play.  Team goes into Pittsburgh with nothing in the momentum tank, as Tarik rightly noted.
Every team has its lapses in a long regular season and home town fans were due to be disappointed after such a long streak of artistic excellence, but this is the longest losing streak of the year and in less than a week they have doubled their home ice losses.

In part, you have to wonder if getting people (more or less everyone except Poti and Pothier who is very long term if ever) healthy is hurting the team in the short-run because it takes away that backs against the wall mentality that

Again, thanks John for the excellent summary.
Here are a few more thoughts I had.
1.  Maybe one of the problems here is all the ‘regulars’ coming back from injury.  With the Hershey calls up having gotten consistent play for long periods of time, chemistry and system cohesion developed.  Now, the calls ups are call downs, the regulars are back, and the team looks a bit lost.  Perhaps it will take a few games to gel, get the chemistry back.  With guys like Feds and Erskine, they have not been playing for weeks with the guys on the ice.  Semin doesn’t look back in high gear yet.   This may take a little time.  Fortunately for the Caps, while they struggle, so does Carolina.

2.  D Mike Green made a comment last night on Post Game Live about possibly the caps over looked Edmonton.  I have two problems with that comment.  One, the Washington Post even reported on that very scenario a day or two before the game.  The Caps weren’t mentally prepared?  They knew it could be an issue and didn’t address?  Where is the leadership?    Second, this is a bad attitude to have folks.  if the capitals truly want to do more than just win the Southeast Division, if they want to make a real run at Boston for the Eastern Conference lead, why are they overlooking any game?  They are behind Boston.  They should not be overlooking anything?  My concern here — are these Capitals getting a little too confident?
3.  Finally, we see other teams, good teams, do it.  Is it perhaps time to turn to the future?  Is it time for Simeon Varlamov in goal?  Montreal did it with Carey Price.  Columbus with Steve Mason.  Let’s face it.  The only reason why Bruce Boudreau continues to jump back and forth between Brent Johnson and Jose Theodore is because he is getting consistency from neither.  Varlamov has played in two NHL games this year and allowed 1 goal against Montreal and 2 against Toronto, both wins, one at home, one in Montreal.  In Hershey, he has compiled a 16-4 record with a GAA of 2.26 and save percentage of .918.  Maybe the future is ready now.  Oh well, I won’t bank on it.