What the Caps are missing…

To quote the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz (those summers spent watching the Wizard of Oz while eating mint chocolate chip ice cream were the best) “When a mans an empty kettle, he should be on his metal…if only I had a heart”. Now the Caps players are clearly not made of metal, nor do they go to an Emerald city to see a Wizard. But they are lacking in one dire area; heart.

The game against Philly was a prime example of that, the Caps could have won. Maybe not easily, but they have the talent and ability to win games against teams who top two players are out.

You could make the excuse that Bryzgolav was on, and there is no doubt he was. But I find it hard to believe a team that wanted to win would wind up 5-1 because of a goalie.

While not playing like they give a care in the world is the reason they played like crap, their defense and shots on net didn’t help either. You can’t score goals without taking shots on net, guys. If you don’t believe me, the Flyers score is a prime example.

They got shots on net, granted, against an off goalie. I can guarantee you that a few of those pucks are going to make it in. That’s just how it works, ask your poorly defended goalies. When playing any team, best players out or not, having 5 shots on goal in any period is inexcusable.

Which leads me to yet another glaring weak spot from last nights game; DEFENSE. It’s that awesome thing of where you help the poor fellow in ten jillion pounds of ear try to keep a little rubber disk out of a 6X6 ft. net. You should try it some time, good stuff. Another helpful hint; When the defense actually shows up and plays, the other team doesn’t score. Mind blown, right?

Speaking of defense, forwards, it isn’t your primary job but you can help when you see you zone being taken over by the opponents. Ovechkin, I’m talking to you. You can be the most offensively talented player in the world, but that don’t mean potatoes if you don’t play all aspects of the game at least decent.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s wrong with the Caps, but it’s going to take a lot to figure out how to fix it. There isn’t a “one size fits all” band-aid equivalent, the Caps are just going to have to through a lot of trial and error to figure this mess out. Does it involve major trades and acquisitions at the trade deadline? Who knows, but expect something big to shake this team up.

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What has become of sports journalists

As a, hopefully, future sports journalist, I am extremely disappointed in some of the people covering this field. Specifically hockey.

People come to you, journalists, for fairly objective and professional stories about games, players, and the like. When you get away from that and start  writing biased stories with no true fact basis, slandering a player’s name. What are people really going to think of journalist? Every single person with a press pass has the responsibility to represent this field to the best of their abilities and someone fell very short.

If you hadn’t already heard, there was a piece written about Alex Ovechkin. This piece was pertaining to his recent drop off in production and the possibility of PED’s or steroids being the reason.

Whether or not this is true, I found it extremely unprofessional to post a story about a player, slandering his name when you don’t even have cold hard facts. All this 800 word post has is speculation. Not one drop of truth in the seeming sea of lies.

I’m not targeting the writer of this article. I am targeting what journalism has been reduced to. A bunch of men and women sitting around coming up the most fantastical lies to get the most views and reads. Isn’t that yellow journalism? Is this what you want your name on, a bunch of good sounding lies for publicity?

 If this is what sports journalism has become, then I ashamed for ever wanting to be a part of it.

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.

Hey Caps, there’s a game going on…

I am absolutely disgusted by the Caps right now (now being the end of the second where the Jets scored 3 goals). I have never seen such a lack of effort, heart, or play by any team I have ever watched. Much less the so touted “best team in the NHL”. My PE floor hockey team play better than these guys and 3 of the players don’t even play!

How is it that we have some of  the, arguably, best players in the NHL but we fail to win game after game to easy opponent after easy opponent. And for chrissake, our defense isn’t even at the game! Did we lose them at the airport? If our defense is so lacking in depth that one player makes or breaks the team, then we need to reevaluate the players we have.

Last year we had our infamous eight game losing skid; something changed, the Caps finally got the message, playing Ottawa of all teams. This isn’t an eight game losing streak, yet. But with the way the Caps are playing, I wouldn’t be surprised if we finished at the bottom of the league.

Something has got to change. At this point, I don’t care if it’s players, coaches, or whatever. Some thing has got to get across to these 22 players that they have to play hard, every damn minute they are on the ice. I don’t care if we’re winning by 50 goals with 10 seconds left.

Someone has got to get the point across to them, you don’t win by standing around in your zone watching pucks fly into the net. are they going to get that message, for the 50th time? I damn sure hope so.

Incase you weren’t aware…

There are THREE count them THREE periods in a hockey game Caps! AND GUESS WHAT!? If you don’t play all three you get screwed and lose. ANOTHER THING rounding doesn’t work in the NHL, if you play 55 mins. you can still lose 3-1 to the Predators!

Also, just because you get the lead late in the game doesn’t mean you’re just automatically going to win taking the last few minutes off. The defense has to show up, and you know, PLAY! And the offense can’t skate in circles either, you have to be present and playing hard until that final buzzer goes off if you expect to win.

I am utterly disgusted with the Caps effort of late. It’s not Boudreau’s fault either, he tries everything under the gosh darn sun to get these guys to play! They’re the ones on the ice making the plays, not Boudreau. He can yell, gnash teeth, pull hair, and eat Hageen Daaz all he wants; but until the players show up it’s about as useful as doing the hula.

Ovie, Knuble, and the like can talk all they want tonight; calling their team various names. But until the attitude on the ice changes, it doesn’t matter anymore than what I ate for breakfast.

If we keep playing like this, with the amount of talent we have, we aren’t even a prayer to do well in the Playoffs. Hell! even make the Playoffs. Yes, it really does matter now, because this is when we really see what teams are made of. And I can tell you this much; the Caps are about as impressive as the Florida Panthers were last year.

The only redeemable thing tonight? Vokoun standing on his head and Troy Brouwer’s goal, at least two people showed up tonight.

The message is simple; show up to games and play hard for 60 minutes. Are the Caps receiving it?