Recap - Hurricanes 4, Capitals 1

Rec’d.

The moment after the hit, when Ovechkin looked up then crumpled, was scary. We’ve seen players badly injured by such hits and one of our own – Pothier – lost two years from a serious concusion. While I’m no fan of the fights that occur after clean hits, I was shocked and even angry that no Cap teammate immediately went after Brind’Amour. If ever there was a time to fight it was then. Boudreau should’ve sent the boys out for the next faceoff ready for a line brawl. Instead, the club sent a message to the league that we will tolerate cheap hits to our star players.

This needs to be addressed quickly. We can afford a player being suspended for a couple games right now if need be. The next opponent that runs our goalies or takes shots at our skaters needs to be confronted. I love our club, I love our talent – but we are sorely lacking in toughness right now.

I wouldn’t say it’s the only thing that mattered from last night, but it’s certainly the lasting impression. Shameful.

It’s called a one-game suspension if you get called for instigating.

With the blind walrus on the ice, do you really think any of our guys would risk being suspended for a game to get back at Brind’Amour last night? I certainly don’t.

Our guys are smarter than that.

I guess Russians carry their own water, eh? Given the situation, it would have been asinine to extinguish our last fighting chance down 2 with 100 seconds left., and Bruce, I am certain, had just finished reaming the bench for taking retaliation minors [even if Green’s call was farm fresh horseshit).

30 shots blocked or missed the net. That’s the story of the night for me.

Ward made a pretty good save on him last night on that semi-breakaway, but on the whole I agree with you completely.

That’s pretty dramatic. The Caps clearly didn’t give a 60 minute effort and looked like they were gliding along at some points- they won’t do that in a 7 game series.

Think about every big game this year and how the Caps (pretty much) always rise to the occasion. Look at everytime we played an “elite” team and look at our record against them. We have certainly struggled down the stretch. But it wasn’t a matter of lack of skill or coaching-it was pure laziness or anticipation for the “real” season to begin.

Every “elite” team has gone through this because of that same thing.

We have the team to compete with all 30 in the league-it’s a matter of effort. Don’t think for a second that when the first round rolls around there will be a lack of effort. They’ve been waiting for this since Game 7 of last year and I’m confident they will make it count.

In the meantime however, we can hope for the Canadiens in the first round :).

I can understand the frustration, but I think that to look at the team’s past month or so rather than its entire body of work on the season is a bit myopic (though “uninspired” is certainly a shoe that fits at the moment).

The real concern, however, is whether or not they can get back to the kind of play that had them dominating not too long ago when it matters.

Okay Dougeb, why don’t you just sell your season tickets on E-Bay or Stub Hub or Ticket Resalers or something, if you’re as disillusioned with the team as you appear to be.

On the other hand, they keep beating the best team in the conference and have a winning record against the conference’s playoff teams too. It’s pretty clear they’re having trouble finding the same kind of motivation for games they were earlier in the season, but they’ll be fine come playoff time.

It’s a natural by-product of this team’s style of attack. They want to make the perfect shot or the pretty pass rather than just putting their head down, getting a shot on net and collectively driving the net looking for rebounds. They are terrible at attacking in that manner and it’s hard to see that automatically changing when it needs to come playoff time. Bruce has talked about changing that mentality all year long when they face or lose to teams with strong team defenses but it just simply has not happened. Their sheer skill level pushes it out of the forefront a lot of the time but it remains a big issue that they really need to work on.

If this team gets bounced in the first round the defense will likely be pointed out but how they attack as a team could be just as big of a culprit.

At that moment, let’s look at who was available to do the stepping up…Kozlov, Semin, and Pothier. That’s who was on the ice. No one there is going to be getting in anyone’s face. And Brind’Amour didn’t take another shift in that game.

But I would hope some guys have long memories.

Yeah, I don’t understand that call against Green at all. Pitkanen high sticks Green, then grabs him in an effort to even things up/out. They’re saying that in that sequence the only person to do anything wrong after the high stick was Green? Uh, no. Green and Pitkanen should have gotten 2 each for roughing and then Pitkanen an extra 2 for the high stick.

My only two thoughts were: the game is under 5 minutes and I believe there’s a rule (I’m not 100% so please correct) that suspends players who randomly start fights in the last 5 minutes of the game, and a penalty was assessed and the players felt that was justice enough, remember, the Caps blew a few power play chances because they retaliated hence drawing 4-on-4’s.

If a player gets called for instigating in the last five minutes (or OT, fwiw) it’s a game misconduct and the player and coach can also be suspended a game, although the suspension is usually reserved for obvious cases of guys being on the ice to rough up the other team. The best example for the Caps might be the day before Thanksgiving against Atlanta when Hanlon was coaching.

Amen! Same thing we’ve been saying, he basicly said that selanne is ok but OV’s is not and lumps all of his celebrations together. Get Over It Already!

No kidding. Mike Milbury’s ideal NHL apparently has less players being excited over goals and more stickwork after the whistle.

Is it my imagination or did he basically say that AO celebrates like he did after his 50th on every goal he scores now (huh?) and that he’d be fine with it if it was just after big goals, like his 50th, for example (huh?).

I wonder if Boudreau is going to say he really likes Milbury like he did with Cherry. Of all the good things Bruce has done for this team, I really was disappointed with the way he hung Alex out to dry on this. I always thought he was supposed to be a player’s coach, but lately he seems more concerned with his own reputation in the hockey world. I’ll be curious if he’s got the balls to rip Milbury.

The diving call was crap. Utter crap. Just the kind of refereeing I’ve come to expect out of Mourelli and McCreary. ’Scuse me. UNSPORTSMANLIKE CONDUCT is what they list it as on the game summary. From FLASH?! Please! Give me a break.

All diving calls are officially recorded as unsportsmanlike conduct.

If you were at the game last night, you likely didn’t have the chance to see the replays of the dive that the rest of us did, and which many of us found to be completely legit.

The officiating did not cost the Caps last night’s game.

it’s not the first time I have wished to understand Swedish.

Calle looks like he could still lace ’em up.