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Caps PR guy Sergey Kocharov tweeted the news to fans in the DMV of both teams. More baseball related hockey news… Washington Center Mathieu Perrault was spotted sporting a Yankees hat at the D.C. United game this week. Kocharov told fans not to worry about Perrault, “I don’t think he can name 3 players on that team.”
They were a team that played for two head coaches, three starting goaltenders, and were without two of their stars for long stretches of the campaign. And yet, they not only made the playoffs, but made enough noise in them to take the number one-seeded Rangers within a few minutes of an Eastern Conference final. Yet, there are few who’d call the season successful by the measures set out in September. It was supposed to be cruise control until the playoffs, where things were supposed to go much differently than they had in the team’s four previous attempts to break through to a Stanley Cup final. Instead, we got the manic collection of talent that reached its apex for brief stretches and its nadir for much longer ones. To a certain extent, every year in the modern NHL is a reset of sorts. But for Washington, 2012-13 will absolutely look more different than any Caps team has in five seasons. Here are twenty burning questions we have about next year’s team, and a few futile stabs at some answers.
With the Nationals on a 10 game home stand and MLB.tv blacking out Orioles games, I didn’t get to see too much of the O’s this week. From what I did see, Brian Matusz got a raw deal due to some predictably poor defense in Anaheim, Wei Yin Chen had yet another very strong outing, and the offense looked great in some spots (Jones and Wieters) and rough in others (Reynolds hasn’t had a hit in nearly a week). But despite not seeing much of Baltimore this week, there is one thing I do know. Cam Cameron is ruining Joe Flacco. How the hell is Joe supposed to build a successful career with shoddy schematics? No one will ever know how good Flacco can be until Cam’s parking spot is empty, and his playbooks are halfway through the shredder. This is how Ravens fans introduce themselves around here, and Baltimore was in the AFC Championship game last year. At the same time, O’s fans acknowledge that there’s some talent on the pitching staff. Tommy Hunter won 13 games with Texas, Jake Arrieta’s stuff is cough syrup nasty, and Brian Matusz was once considered good enough that people still wonder what’s wrong with him. If Baltimore fans had their way, Cam Cameron would have had an appointment with Ned Stark’s barber months ago. Which leaves me scratching my own head as to why Rick Adair’s is still under an Orioles cap.
After last night’s series-evening 2-1 win over Boston, the Capital still technically have a shot at walking into the Baltimore barn as the Stanley Cup champions. They also have a shot to have a different head coach and a whole new batch of questions to answer about why the team has yet to seriously challenge for the crown. The pre-sale for special people starts today and tickets go to the general public on Monday. The opponent for what will likely be the Caps preseason opener has yet to be determined. Please, anyone but Nashville.
The reason? The same reason I’m trying not to get my hopes up for Marvel’s The Avengers. It’s all about the villains. Milan Lucic, Brad Marchand, Zdeno Chara and to a lesser extent Tim Thomas are like an all-star team of infuriating opponents all wearing the same sweater. They are coached by the joyless Claude Julien. They dress in black. They hail from the most obnoxious den of sports fandom in the Western world. Oh yeah, and they are the reigning conquerors of Lord Stanley’s Cup. They are, unequivocally, the greatest villains the Caps could’ve drawn for a first-round series. READ MORE >>>
Out in the bleachers at Camden Yards, I perfected the skill of heckling from a young age. I come from a family of hecklers. Tonight in Washington the stakes are high. As everyone in the sports world knows, the seventh seeded Capitals are tied 1-1 with the defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins in the best of seven series and the fight will resume in our nation’s capital tonight. My favorite Capitals blog, RussianMachineNeverBreaks.com, understands just how valuable the 18,506 fans can be and that’s why they are asking for everyone’s help this evening in some major heckling of Bruins netminder Tim Thomas. The 2010-2011 Vezina Trophy winner has shown that he can be rattled. Thomas punched Nicklas Backstrom after the whistle was blown late in regulation during game two and when Nicky fired the game winner past him in the second overtime, Thomas skated off the ice and headed to the locker room just as the puck hit the net. Only this time he didn’t fall on his face.
After Chris Kelly’s game winning goal against the Capitals on Thursday, the Bruins gathered behind the net to celebrate. Boston fans knocked out one of the panels of glass which smacked David Krejci square in the dome. Krejci finished third on the team in scoring this season. Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli said the team his not decided his status for game two. Video of the incident is embedded below. Krejci is day-to-day. He reportedly missed today’s practice.
I’ve lived down in Maryland for about 6 years now, and with the exception of the alma mater (Go Terps), I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on objective reality when it comes to Baltimore’s sports teams. Since this is the “let’s get to know each other” phase of the relationship, I’ll tell you a little about myself before giving my judgments on each of your kids. In a family made up of exclusively of Giants-Yankees fans, I blame Wayne Chrebet and Todd Pratt for ruining my life as a sports fan. I lived next Wayne’s aunt and uncle as a little kid in New Jersey, and when he got drafted by the Jets, I contracted a serious case of Gang Green which has been festering for about 16 years now.
The Washington Capitals are 30 to 1 longshots to skate with Lord Stanley. Only the Florida Panthers, who bested them at almost every crucial juncture of the season and won the Southeast, have worse chances (40 to 1). You can count on one hand the number of Capitals who are playing the best hockey of their careers, and none of them are guys whose jerseys are readily available for purchase in the team store. If you were to list the Capitals three goaltenders in reverse order of playoff readiness, you would get a list of the Capitals three goaltenders sorted by severity of injury. There is, frankly, little rational reason to hope for anything other than an unceremonious dismissal and the dismantling of the roster. Not a single ESPN analyst out of 12 picked the Capitals to win their first round series against the Bruins. The 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11 Capitals did not wear the favorite hat well. Maybe the underdog is simply more their style. And if anyone is an underdog, it’s these maddening 2011-12 Capitals. READ MORE >>>  There is finally a flying car! RussianMachineNeverBreaks.com‘s Peter Hassett joins the program to talk Capitals hockey, the guys predict the Orioles 2012 season and discuss Joe Flacco’s bold comments. The Boss, Matt Sadler, joins the show to give his take and intimidate the other panel members. Dave Gilmore also pops by to discuss the Caps and Flacco. Join Zach, Patrick and Matt for this week’s edition of the best sports podcast in Baltimore, the BSR Podcast. Here are some of the topics discussed on this week’s show: Joe Flacco Thinks He’s The NFL’s Best Quarterback
Interview With Peter Hassett Of Russian Machine Never Breaks
Podcast: Play in new window
Washington and Buffalo are tied with 88 points in the Eastern Conference, but the Caps hold the tie breaker with a greater win total and regulation/overtime wins. It’s in their hands. Caps forward Brooks Laich isn’t worried. ”We’re making the playoffs,” he told The Sports Junkies this morning. ”We’re not talking worst-case scenario. We’re making the playoffs.” The task won’t be easy. Washington faces the division leading Florida Panthers on Thursday and wrap the season in New York against the Rangers on Saturday. Matt Hendricks shoot out move is enough to put veteran goalies on their backs… and then make them fall on their face on the way to the locker room. Hendricks nasty shootout move has been fooling goaltenders all season and Tim Thomas of the Bruins was no exception last night. “He didn’t know what the heck was coming at him,” Craig Laughlin told viewers on the Caps broadcast. ”The paralyzer paralyzes Tim Thomas.”  Photo: Mitchell Layton For the second season in a row, small sample size notwithstanding, 22-year old Braden Holtby has been the Washington Capitals’ best goaltender. For the second win-or-die game in a row, coach Dale Hunter is giving the nod to Holtby tonight against Buffalo. In his NHL career, Holtby has played in 18 games, and in all of them has displayed a confidence and swagger in front of the net that shows a visible boost in the 18 men in front of him. Even the four games he’s been lit up in the past two years, the young goaltender hasn’t been fazed. Hunter might be the paragon of the Capitals organization, but the rough road the first-year coach has seen has exposed the fact that the team’s current makeup might not match Hunter’s coaching preferences. With three good goalies to choose from, Hunter is calling on number 70 in crunch time. Holtby, the Canadian who plays like a defenseman who happens to wear a mask and glove, might be Hunter’s best match in net and the Capitals best chance at the playoffs. READ MORE >>> Remember that picture we posted of Alex Ovechkin wearing a tuxedo while sitting on a king’s throne? We finally get to see the six minutes of content surrounding that awesome snap shot. The World-Wide Leader put together a nifty six minute feature on the Great Eight that covers his family life and relationship with tennis star Maria Kirilenko. Ovechkin is also asked about the Washington Post’s story that questioned his questioned his abilities. |
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The 2011-12 Capitals were as frustrating as a hockey team can be. From night to night they vacillated between inspiring play and sheer disorganized chaos.
The Washington Capitals will take another day trip to Baltimore’s 1st Mariner Arena this year for the 2012 Baltimore Hockey Classic. The arena should be more prepared this year, knowing how slushy the ice was at last year’s inaugural event. The Caps will take the ice on September 26th.
Perhaps I’m just looking for a silver-lining after last night’s 4-3 loss by the Capitals to the Bruins. Or maybe I’m just geeked up for 
Heckling is one of my favorite parts of professional sports. It’s my opinion that pro athletes should not only have to perform at the highest level of their sport and be in the best physical condition of their lives, but they should also have enough mental toughness to endure some good (clean) verbal criticism from the fans in the stands.
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