Recap - Flyers 4, Caps 2

I’d say we’ve passed the “off-game” excuse usage and have now entered “real problem” phase.

1 Discipline
2 Secondary scoring

Players should have been amped and ready for this game. We were lucky to have the lead at the end of the first. It oculd easily have been tied up. The rest was Philly outplaying us, straight up.

Most likely due to age they seem to lack focus at times. Seriously look at some of the recent losses (Colorado and New York).

The game last night was not that bad because they did not play a better team they just beat themselves. To me a character role player at the deadline is the way to go. I have no idea who but we need a defensive minded workhorse.

We have all sorts of talent so I think time will work out scoring issues. I think Jose is good enough to win with. Our defense can be good when we FOCUS. It just really feels like they are missing a sparkplug.

The biggest gripe I had about last night was when you are up in the third you don’t need to score. You just need to counter punch when the other team is trying to score.

At least, not that I am seeing now, in oh say, the last three four weeks. Is this the ‘coasting segment’ of the season? Can you blame them? When they swarm and attack like a pack of maddened sharks, like Boudreau has taught them (and urged them and honed them and designed them) to do, they are overwhelming.

They chose not to do so at this point.

Okay. Coast now, if you must. Just don’t lose sight of the on/off switch, boys.

(PS – Nyles is killing me. He is bringing tears of frustration to my eyes. Fingernail marks dent my palms from so much fist clenching. He is KILLING me.)

(PSS – Spotted Peter Bondra last night, hanging around the upper reaches of Section 112. he looks like a million bucks. Miss you, Petey!!)

Granted the whole team was running around disorganized in the last period and a half, but I am going to rip on Theo for a second. Why does he seem so slow to react after making the initial save? It seems like it takes him forever to get back into position. Is he tired? has he been playing too many games?

Hartnell said. “Theodore had a heck of a game the first two periods. It seemed like everything we threw at him he was stopping and hanging onto those rebounds.”
(from Cory’s blog)

We can analyze the third period collapse all we want, but the obvious truth is if the Caps buried just half their high quality chances in the first and second this game is over. We’ve all seen it before, if you don’t bury golden chances early in the game they come back to bite you in the end. And look at who missed those chances; Backstrom, Green, Laich, Fehr-all guys you look to to score in clutch situations. Blame Schultz, blame Theo (which I personally don’t. I thought he was fantastic in the first two periods), but it never should have come down to the last ten minutes of the game.

In the 3 games against philly, we have consistently had these issues pop up: Lack of finishing and discipline.

We can not score on Niittymaki for whatever reason (I think it’s mental – we are over thinking what we are going to do). We miss too many golden opportunities. How many times can we come up empty on a breakaway?

We take too many stupid penalties. In 3 games against Philly 22 penalties. 9/4/9 ( Not including the fights or misconducts).

I’m afraid to say it, but philly has our number. We get frustrated because we can’t score take stupid penalties and stop playing our game and start playing like individuals. Turns into a vicious cycle.

Luckily for us, we know what we need to do to beat philly, and we have a few days until the trade deadline to bring in what we need.

My personal opinion is a mean SOB dman who will not take any crap from anyone (I’d even take brendan witt minus the minimum of 4 penalty minutes a game – even though we already get those penalties with Mo’).

Nine minor penalties – just stupid. Plus you know they dropped off the flu bug to a few Caps, too.

I tried to start a FanShot regarding something I see as an attitude problem but it hasn’t taken. Since I think its relevant here, I’ll cross threads gasp

In Fedorov’s russian language interview (nice work on expanding the fold guys) he essentially says that the Caps are turning their focus to the playoffs. While I agree that this is a playoff team, and one that could, and should make it deep run, to think that let alone say it signals a problem for me. Especially from Feds who is supposed to be a leader/calming influence on this team. I do think that this team sees the 2 or 3 seed as a lock and they expect and hope that they will be able to coast down the stretch, winning more games than they lose, and then turn it up for the playoffs.

Last night showed everything wrong with the idea that you can turn it on and win. Turns out that the opponents have a say in things as well.

Yeah, I said the same thing in the Feds interview thread. That was certainly telling coming from him.

It’s got a be a delicate balance for this team. Last year, they were basically in playoff mode for the second half of the season and you wonder if there was an element of having to be so good for such a long stretch that they just couldn’t sustain it for the long playoff stretch. This year, they are so far ahead in the division, playoffs are all but a lock and they can “coast” to conserve some of that energy for the playoffs.

But, like you said, how much do you let down to conserve, and how easily can you turn it back on again?

This team has no grit. A team can’t do shit without it in the playoffs.

What happened to Super Star Mike Green? Did all the attention jynx him?

No grit is an exaggeration, yeah. But last night was an exaggeration of their lack of the stuff.

There were several forgettable performances on the ice last night, and the boys looked like they wanted to coast after going up two. But I’m laying last night ‘s chilling loss at Bruce’s feet first. Nyls has no business being on the first line. An invisible 14 min TOI. And if the coach can’t motivate (with a benching or at least a period’s sit down) his young charges to not take penalty after penalty in the offensive zone, that’s a problem.

Way, way too cute for playoff hockey. Over-creative. And we played the last 30 minutes waiting to get hit.

I don’t define grit as a reactionary TOI alteration with the thugs. They don’t need grit, that lot. They need brains. The top shelf playmakers, they need grit. They gotta dig in. Against Philly? I don’t care the game’s for charity, man. The superstar guys can’t let up against those bastards. They got to keep playing, keep shooting. Thats grit.

That had to be the worst game I’ve seen Schulz play all year. He was on the ice watching for both of the last 2 Flyer goals….ugh…

I usually cringe at the “we need a physical defenseman who can hit!” argument, but against a team like the Flyers it really shows. It was a really physical game, and for two periods we gave as good as we got. But by the third we were beat up. We had no answer for Hartnell, who pounded us pretty good. Green and Schultz were just out of gas at the end of the game.

Would be nice to have someone like Sean O’Donnell to match against some of the more physical forwards in limited ice time. Erskine is okay, but obviously has his problems when he’s overused. And with apologies to Juice, he’s one of our only truly physical defenders. I can’t believe I’m advocating for acquiring a beefy slow-footed gorilla, but I guess I just did.

I’ve been playing around with who the Caps could move by the deadline and while Nyls tops my wish list, I doubt there’s a GM dumb enough to take him off our hands. Morrisonn though is a different case. Given his salary hit and the kids in Hershey waiting to move up, as has been pointed out already, it seems likely he won’t be here next season. McPhee’s track record shows that he rarely loses an asset without getting something in return. So if history is prologue, where could Mo go and what could the Caps get in return? Another defenseman who’s entering UFA, a scoring winger along the Eric Cole lines, Gary Roberts?

Sorry you were demoted back to Contributor. But I’ll be the first to thank you for taking one for the team, and keeping Japer’s under the cap. Japer’s is in better shape now: stronger, grittier, faster with tuvanhillbilly on the roster.

Some guy that crammed into the elevator on the way down to Metro level started barfing, “MIKE GREEN NEEDS TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY SOME DEEEFANCE.”
::facepalm::

Theo was outstanding until that second goal went in. Then it seemed that he was doing that look, analyze, react, then move thing again. Dave needs to work with him on that because it’s just unacceptable at that level.
Turn head to puck, move body with you, THEN react.
Instead he was stretching with his stick flopping around in desperation mode.
Cheers to him keeping us in it until then though. I haven’t seen so many breakaways in one game in a long time.

I think the guys blew their load on Sunday and having Kozlov come back into the lineup will right the ship once more.
Look for the Caps to destroy Atlanta on Thursday. DESTROY. We’re talking pulling the goalie, putting the backup in, pulling the backup.

No. A young team that feels “safe” at home, coming off a definitive victory over a hated rival jumps to a lead after two periods, let’s in a goal and starts to panic in its own end, to the point that if set to music the actions of the d-men in their zone would be a comedic Benny Hill type segment. There should have been a Caps timeout after the tying goal, to settle everyone down, including Theodore, who was stellar for 9/10 of the game.
 
The only answer for Nylander is to sit him consistently. He is no longer merely “not good” he is a deficit. In the last four games he has had two neutral zone giveaways that led directly to goals. He has passed the puck when faced with open nets, he has taken terrible penalties and his ability to skate has provided nothing but empty puck possession. He is the only player I have ever seen who Ovechkin can’t make look good.

Not being the toughest team on the ice against the Flyers is not uncommon, but it’s important to remember that we have out muscled most of the teams we’ve played. We can hang.

In my opinion the discipline and defense problems are tied for the biggest threat, with defense getting a slight nod. After all, with effort you can clean up discipline, but bad defense takes major effort to fix. ShaMo, Jurcina, Green lately, and Erskine at times are problematic. Ovechkin and Nylander seem to have lost all credibility in their own zone. Semin is, just as he is in the offensive zone, either horrible or fantastic in the defensive zone, particularly during the penalty killl (though lately I’d give him higher marks if he could consistently clear the puck to the outside without shooting it ten rows into the stands). Backstrom, on the other hand is a revelation. We simply MUST become more defensive.

All in all I am not worried as much as I am frustrated. I know this team can be excellent to good for three periods, but I’m seeing bad to terrible too often. My one sense of confidence is that Boudreau knows more than I do and seems to be able to use that knowledge to keep the win column more robust than the loss column.

Dale Hunter. I know, he ain’t available, but they need that kind of playoff experience, willingness to muck it up, grit, whatever you want to call it. Fedorov is fine for the experience angle, but that’s not the complete “need” here.

Who’s out there who would be able to do it?

I didn’t see the game last night, but my dad called me today, and he had some thoughts on it. My dad is NOT a hockey fan at all, he grew up in Dayton Ohio during the Big Red Machine years, so it took me aback.

He said that the Caps seemed to get called for everything close to tripping, and the other team did not. He said it seemed very very one-sided in the officiating. I mentioned briefly before about how I feel (That the team now has a reputation with the refs, so they look harder for it) and I wanted to know if it was really like that last night, or if he was just confused or if the Caps were diving. Thanks.