I hope that was as bad as it gets. It’s hard to imagine how it could get much worse than last night’s 5-0 loss against a depleted Carolina Hurricanes squad. Cal me an optimist, but if that’s the low point, and the team can pull it together for the final 23 games of the season, this campaign won’t be a lost cause.
That is not to say, with less than a week until the NHL’s trade deadline, that the status quo is good enough to make the playoffs. Change needs to and will occur. The Capitals are too close to the Eastern Conference’s top eight teams to be sellers, but with a nearly-full payroll and the very real chance there will be no postseason hockey in D.C., general manager George McPhee will also need to be a very cautious buyer.
This is life in the Phone Booth. Things are never as good, or bad, as they seem. Even after the debacle at RBC Center, the 2011-12 Capitals are not a lost cause. Yet. READ MORE >>>
“Normally you can try and take some positives out of games, tonight, nothing,” Troy Brouwer to 106.7 The Fan’s Sky Kerstein after the Capitals 5-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.
“Florida lost yesterday, we were looking good, we were excited about today and then we come out and just flat, just terrible.”
Washington put themselves in a 2-0 hole five minutes into the game and Dale Hunter pulled Tomas Vokoun in hopes of stopping the bleeding. It didn’t work as Andrea Nodl put one past Michal Neuvirth with :30 seconds remaining in the first period to put Washington down 3-0 heading into the first intermission.
“We weren’t ready to play, gave up chances, gave the puck away, didn’t get the puck in deep, just all around embarrassing.”
Brouwer followed Matt Hendricks’ lead, who fought twice in the second period, and dropped the gloves in the third to square off against Justin Faulk.
Alex Ovechkin and Dennis Wideman should be pissed. They’re on a 9th place team coming off three terrible losses who have allowed three goals from center ice this month and — on top of everything else – Ted Leonsis is raising ticket prices.
I’d want to slash my teammate too.
Katie Carrera of the Washington Post tweeted on Thursday that Ovi and Wideman “got into it a bit” after exchanging slashes, shoves and a stare down battle during their morning practice.
The spat between the Captain and the All-Star was all in front of General Manager George McPhee, who told Katie Carrera he’s not fine with the intensity during practice. “Yeah we don’t mind that at all. We’re not running a Sunday school; this is pro hockey,” McPhee said. ”That would have been a good one. That would have been a rock star versus the all star.” READ MORE >>>
While Tebow-mania dominated the football season, Lin-sanity has taken over the slowest sports time of the calendar year. The guys break down Jeremy Lin’s rise to the top, discuss the latest Orioles news, talk some Terps football and of course Kate Upton’s SI swimsuit issue cover.
Here are some of the topics discussed on this week’s show.
Kolzig worked with Tomas Vokoun and Michal Neuvirth (on stopping shots from center ice) and took a couple jabs at the Capitals captain.
“For Alex, it’s a work ethic,” Kolzig tells Katie Carrera at the Washington Post. “He just has to get back to being the way he was in his younger days and maybe not get wrapped up too much in the rock star status that comes with being Alex Ovechkin.”
Kolzig says that Ovechkin isn’t feeling the love that he did in his early days in the NHL. ”Alex was getting away from playing the hard, no-nonsense, honest type of hockey, exuberant hockey that he displayed the first three years that he was in the league,” he says. ”I think that’s what endeared him to everybody. Then all of a sudden he was the same Alex, he was celebrating certain ways and what endeared him to everybody now made him look like a villain.”
A couple months after being honored for playing in his 1,000th NHL game, Mike Knuble finds himself preparing for a new home as Dale Hunter and the Capitals no longer appear to be interested in his services.
The 39-year old veteran is a fan favorite, but has been a healthy scratch in the last three games in favor of minor league call-ups.
Knuble explains to El-Bashir that he hasn’t thought about talking with the Capitals before their upcoming four game road trip. ”You just kind of got through this weekend.” READ MORE >>>
Here’s a tip for the NHL coaches ou there — if you’re playing the Capitals, take some shots from center ice.
Last night Braden Holtby became Washington’s third netminder to allow a goal from center ice this month. We showed you Dustin Byfuglien’s goal on Tomas Vokoun on Thursday.
If you can stomach another, here’s Joe Pavelski’s 69 foot goal on Braden Holtby.
There can’t be anything more dangerous in pro sports than diving face first in front of a hockey player firing a slap shot at goal.
And there’s nothing more surprising than Alex Semin sacrificing his face for the Capitals.
As Ian Oland of RussianMachineNeverBreaks.com points out, Semin dove face-first in front of a shot fired by Brian Boyle of the New York Rangers on Sunday and manage to block the shot on a 2-on-1 break.
With 7:30 remaining in regulation, I turned to my family at the Verizon Center and jokingly said “let’s go.” The Capitals had just gone up 2-0 on their second power play goal of the evening and Tomas Voukon appeared to be concluding his second shutout in as many games. The game should’ve been over.
Then chaos ensued. With a two man advantage the Jets struck and cut the deficit to one. 12 seconds later Dustin Byfuglien fired a shot from center ice and suddenly the game was tied.
Washington earned a point in the shootout loss, but as Dave Gilmore tweeted, its a “sour-tasting consolation point” for the Caps.
The NHL All-Star fantasy draft was held on Thursday night. In case you missed it, Alex Ovechkin was selected
Ovechkin opted to skip the entire weekend after getting slapped with a three game suspension for his hit on Penguins defenseman Zbynek Michalek. He’s been spotted down in Miami, which sounds 1000 times better than Ottawa anyway.
His decision to steer clear of weekend has come under fire though. Andy McDonald of the St. Louis Blues called Ovechkin “classless” in a tweet on Wednesday. READ MORE >>>
During the Capitals practice on Saturday in Pittsburgh, Alex Ovechkin took a shot that bounced off the glass and struck Hendricks in the ear.
“It hit me and it was kind of surprising,” Hendricks told Mike Vogel at Dump ‘N Chase. “It felt like somebody came up and hit me in the head with a baseball bat. It stunned me.”
Pittsburgh provided a plastic surgeon to stitch Hendricks’ ear and he’s worn a ear flap over his helmet in the Capitals last two games.
“It was pretty funny once the guys started coming off the ice. Their comments weren’t too comforting. They made it sound like it was a lot worse than it really was.”
If you want to see the disgusting picture of Hendricks’ split ear, check it out after the bump.
A three game suspension couldn’t keep Alex Ovechkin off the ice last night. The Capitals captain slid out after Washington’s 5-3 win over the Boston Bruins and slammed Mathieu Perreault in the face with a shaving cream pie in celebration of his first career hat trick.
Sure, you could watch Shanahan’s fancy video explanation (embedded after the bump), but isn’t it interesting that the league gives Ovechkin three games off just days after he purchased a fancy new $4.2 million house in Fairfax County. READ MORE >>>
This isn’t the first or last time his colleagues show Ovechkin the respect he’s earned on the ice. The Capitals’ frontman was voted the league’s MVP by the players three consecutive years, from 2007-2010.
While his goal totals might be down the last two seasons, Ovechkin’s game is slowly rounding out. The physical tools have always been there, but when the pucks aren’t going in, Ovechkin seems to know that he can’t afford to disappear from the game completely.
Keep your head up - it’s the oldest rule in hockey for a reason.
I hope that was as bad as it gets. It’s hard to imagine how it could get much worse than last night’s 5-0 loss against a depleted Carolina Hurricanes squad. Cal me an optimist, but if that’s the low point, and the team can pull it together for the final 23 games of the season, this campaign won’t be a lost cause.
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