Recap: Hurricanes 3, Caps 0

Becca, you do yeoman’s work.

Maybe this team just isn’t as talented as everybody thinks they are.I’ve seen them play Hunters system maybe twice to a T in 2 full games. The other times it’s maybe one or two periods a game. Is Hunter asking too much or maybe his system just isn’t built for this team.

One thing to keep in mind, when was the last time the Caps had a non-optional practice? I’m looking at the schedule and I think it may have been Friday, 1/6 because they’ve had a game every other day starting 1/7 in San Jose. I think every practice since then has been optional. Also, Feb’s schedule is brutal. They have 5 back to back games, wow.

Also, I think it’s time for GMGM to trade for a legit 2C for this team. The Caps aren’t going to have any lottery picks anytime soon so the chances of drafting one are zero. They need to trade for one even if they have to give up Kuznetsov and a first rd pick.

Early returns indicate that BB was possibly not the problem. Same stupid stuff, now with less shots!

Good work, as always, Becca. May the Caps soon give you a little more backup!

If anyone wants to talk about the MTL-PIT shootout or the Kitties-Hawks, OT Hockey is here.

the player fenwick chart is absolutely brutal

There were a lot of spectators tonight – why can’t we try to run four lines and forecheck when there’s any opportunity..do we ever?

There’s nothing to show you that the Caps are not even close to competing against the stronger teams in the league this year than watching their games against teams like the Isles and Canes. If they routinely get hemmed into their own zone by teams that only have one good line, how the hell can the hope to not get destroyed by a team like Boston, Philly, or the Rangers? Brutal in the d-zone. It’s been said before, but when the SV% drops from .940 to .910 (like tonight), this team is fucked. Like Ving Rhames in Pulp Fiction fucked.

Remember back under BB this season when the Caps were at least playing well at evens?

Coin flips…sometimes they come up snake eyes, if you’ll permit a mixed metaphor. Oh, well.

Nice recap, Becs.

Suffering is all part of the process, right?

Pens win in SO. Perfect. Fucking. Night.

I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty scared that the window is shut. Watched this one with the sound off, which somehow made the game look even uglier. I think I spent about 10 minutes of game time counting consecutive passes; the Caps never strung together more than two in one possession. If it were one flat game, fine. But we’re halfway into the season and 25 games into Hunter’s tenure, and if a progression to the mean were to happen, we’d see signs of it by now.

No one on this team should be off the table right now, save Backstrom and maybe Ovechkin. Trade Vokoun to a contender for a second or something. Start failing for Nail; our prospect pipeline outside of Kuznetsov isn’t great. It’s time to start thinking about next year and the year after.

YASLVAATOH
I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I just saw the third and put it on the Carolina feed.

They commented a lot about Ovi’s average shift length being longer than 1 minute.
They talked about Carlson being a great talented young American-born player
They said Vokoun’s play at the end wasn’t illegal but was a dangerous move (like carrying the puck into the teeth of the opposition goal mouth?)

I just saw a lot of standing in place by Ovechkin. And when I saw teammates doing that it always tended to make me mad. Even if not tired or something else, you’re already a step behind in wherever you need to go from lack of movement.

Just in the 3rd, I thought Ovechkin, Semin, and Ward were notably…the least good, for both what they were doing and what they were not.

I really liked Orlov’s 3rd period. the youngsters all seemed to have zip in the 3rd I’m used to seeing out of the Guns

Kind of not pretty that third period. I hear the 1st was good pretty decent.

dammit, MTL

Per Chip Alexander of Raleigh News & Observer

Canes have traded Alexei Ponikarovsky to New Jersey.
The trade is for a fourth-round draft pick in 2012 and defenseman Joe Sova.

if a backcheck had a face

Brava.

I wonder if Ovi had a time machine, would he would go back and play harder for Bruce this season? If he didn’t like playing in his system I can only imagine how much he likes no-fun no-gun system.

I really hope that everyone understands that sophomore slumps are quite common, and the fuck ups that Carlson seemingly commits every game will only make him better in the long run… Have faith in the young ones.

The NHL.com slidebar says “Caps Bounce Canes”. Not so much?

…is pretty darn appropriate as that is what we seem to be doing now: firing BB’s. When we are firing at all. As soon as Joe B/Locker dropped the fatal “we weathered the first 10 minutes,” the clouds of doom began to thicken. After 12 minutes, that feeling came again: there is no way we are going to score tonight, and Ward (Cam, that is) won’t even have to be spectacular. Carlson is dining at the Wrong SIde Of The Score Sheet Buffet voraciously and I don’t know if I have ever seen a more glaring absence of Center talent than the last four games…at least we get to go into Pittsburghon the wrong side of a five game winning streak. Ugh.

Try singing “Timothy Leary’s Dead” by The Moody Blues using Ponikaravsky instead. Trust me, it works. (And, now a Devil, you can run with "Ponikaravsky’s Red…)

Whether or not the “sky is falling” or this is a temporary lull, I don’t know.

I do know this: This team is DREADFUL to watch. Simply boring, uninteresting, uninspired hockey. Not just tonight, but for weeks now.

I watched three minutes of Cats-Hawks and was infinitely more entertained than 60 minutes of vapid Caps action.

Can we at least lose in an exciting way?

Ted is somewhere shaking his heavily gelled head.

This was only one game. Just as with last years 8 game losing streak, the Caps aren’t as bad as they look right now. Slumps will end, injuries will heal, and the Caps will have home ice in the first round of the playoffs. Hell, they’ll probably even pick up some pieces at the deadline and go on a late season hot streak as a team nobody wants to play in the first round.

But we’ve seen that movie before, and the ending is always the same: disappointing playoff performances. It’s tough to say that there is anything in this season’s Caps that makes you think the mentality and discipline of the team is different enough to change the narrative. But hey, it’s only one more season off of decade-long contracts.

I am posting this for a ‘friend’: “Missing: Small Modicum of Pride and Urgency—Last Seen Skittering Across the Ice at Verizon Center nearly one Week Ago. If Found, Please Return to KCI, Care of D. Hunter. Offering Capital One Fleece Blanket in Return—No Questions Asked.”

When Halpy is one of the better players on the ice, you’re officially in deep trouble.

The view from Section 202 of the RBC Center was not pretty. My (non hockey fan) friend remarked on the variable, generally low, level of effort on the team and made a comment about the Caps playing their B-team against CAR which was hard to answer. (She also asked why they were spending so much time in their own end. Yeah.)
1. MoJo is being worked too hard, as he started to flag towards the tail end of his very frequent shifts — he really cannot eat so many minutes and maintain the kind of steady passing that Backstrom can in the same position. I really miss our 1st line center.
2. Perrault and Hendricks were jolts of energy when on the ice that Ovi only sporadically managed to match.
3. Brouwer had a rough game, positionally speaking.
4. Seeing Kundratek, Orlov, Perrault, and Eakin on the same shift as Knubs was a rare bright spot, if only because I was too busy giggling about babysitters to pay too much mind to the rather alarming d-pairing.
5. I want them to pass to teammates, not empty ice or the opposition. Kind of dreaded every pass that went across the ice.
6. Good to put a face to brooksengr!