A for Accountability

You probably heard from your Twitter timeline, or saw during the game; number 42 was noticeably absent from the game. It wasn’t because he was taking dumb penalties or was taking shifts off. Nope, it was because he missed a team meeting.

This may seem trivial, and I guess you could be right. But the Caps are focusing on a different aspect of their game these days; accountability. Boudreau has come to realize you win when your team and players are accountable for their actions on and off the ice. Whether it’s stupid penalties, taking shifts off, etc. He’s employed a “cause and effect” style of coaching. Here are some examples;

You are on the ice when the other team scores a goal less than 30 seconds after our team scores a goal, you don’t play your next shift (Nashville, anyone?).

You have the most dumb penalties on the entire team, you get benched a game. When that doesn’t work, and you get yet another few dumb penalties (diving? really) free press pass (coughsemincough).

You accidentally (We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt) sleep in when there’s a team meeting? You don’t play the next game (Someone get Ward an alarm clock for Christmas, please).

This concept is new to the Caps and fans alike. Some may not like it because of it’s seemingly harsh consequences. But does it work? I like to think 2 fairly solid wins are proof in the pudding. Keep up the work Caps, you have a long road ahead of you.

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Canada 3, Caps 0

Canada pulled another win on the Caps yet again. But I must note, and to quote the great Holden Caufield, Semin played like a “sexy bastard” during the first period. And he wasn’t the only one, if hockey games were only 20 minutes long we would have so had that one in the bag! (or at least a pity point).

It doesn’t work that way, though. Sadly. you know, I could just go on and on about the Caps defense and how they were left in Nashville,scratch that, first round against the Rangers in the Playoffs last year. But I’m not, it was so blatantly obvious the players might have well just not been on the ice.

what I’m going to address is effort and accountability. Those are two things the Caps are severely lacking in, which they really shouldn’t be.

It’s one thing to be playing good, smart,a nd hard hockey and lose. No one’s going to be extremely pleased about it, except the opposing team, but no one’s going to pitch a temper tantrum and throw their shoes at the wall.

It’s a completely different matter if you’re playing like a bunch of girl scouts, standing there looking like an idiot watching a guy go one-on-one with your goalie and score.

I’ll give you one guess to figure out what way the Caps played last night, and if you watched the game, I don’t really think you need to guess. The Caps played pitifully last night, I’m honestly shocked every player on the Jets roster didn’t score a goal! We had absolutely no presence in that game. Effort? unheard of.

If the Caps just played like the team they’re capable of playing like, our losses would be less frequent (I know we’d still lose games) and a little bit more close. Unlike a 4-1 loss that wasn’t even a game after the Jets scored their third goal. It was a game we could have easily won! but maybe that’s the problem, we get cocky with a lead and blow it. But I would think after dancing around this barn, game after game and Playoff crap out after Playoff crap out, they’d figure it out! Clearly not.

That leads to my next point, accountability. No one can make the Caps play, no matter how many times Boudreau goes on a F-bomb laden rant until his face goes blue, no matter how many bag skates he makes them do, and no matter how many wackadoo line combinations he makes.

It’s not going to do a damn thing unless the players themselves commit to playing every game like it’s their last and just playing with heart and grit. Honestly, Ovechkin has never been the kind of player to be a Captain and never will be. He’s a fantastic player, but he isn’t Captain material. I don’t care that he’s the “face of the Caps franchise”. The Caps need a real leader who’s going to actually motivate them, because that’s what’s going to motivate them.

Until we have a real leader who makes his players accountable for their actions and makes them go out and play like a respectable hockey team, they aren’t going to play any harder or any better.