The Caps lost to the Rangers with an embarrassing score of 6-3. To be quite honest, there really wasn’t a good facet of the game. No one really played all that spectacularly. That is, on the Caps.
The Rangers really kicked some Washington tuchus in the second period. Not that it’s surprising, the Caps have this knack of letting other teams roam free during the second period. Tonight was a prime example, as the Rangers scored an impressive four goals. While Washington only managed to tally two, via Brouwer and Carlson.
The Caps defensive coverage was forgettable, as usual. They had no presence whatsoever and during a few goals, a couple of select players were just standing there letting the puck go in. The Caps know what needs to change here, but they clearly haven’t put into place how they’re going to do it. Let’ s hope it’s soon, because what’s happening now is clearly not working for anyone (but the opposing team) involved.
Their offense wasn’t abominable, but when playing against the likes of Richards, Callahan, Gaborik and Lundvquist, mediocre isn’t going to cut it. Not to mention the (depressingly) usual penalties by the usual suspects, when one of your teams best Penalty Killers is out, is it really a good idea to take stupid penalties? The Caps were simply not capitalizing on their (rare) opportunities, due to the fact the Rangers were simply out playing them. It’s never a good sign when the road team is out playing and capitalizing on chances more than the home team.
As far as Neuvirth, it isn’t entirely his fault the Caps lost. Considering a goalie is only as good as his defense, he did have a good excuse for a majority of the goals. But a few of the goals that went in should have been stopped by him, crappy defense or no crappy defense. Which, in his case, was crappy defense. Goalies can’t win games by themselves, fellows.
All in all, the Caps definitely have areas they need to work on. As exhibited by their 6-3 loss, but it’s not something you can just blanket on one or two people. A team is a team; you win as one and, unfortunately, lose as one. Don’t use Ovechkin or Boudreau as the easy scapegoat. Look at the entire teams performance. They’re all accountable.
capital connection 