A disappointing loss holds a twinkle of hope

There’s not much to say about the game that took place in the Phone Booth last night. The Caps played with very little energy and drive for the first two periods, this created many scoring chances for Toronto on which they utilized creating a 3-1 lead after the second. The Caps didn’t get their act together until the last 14 minutes of the game, which was due to Center Mike Riberio’s goal.

To be honest, their drive for the last fourteen minutes was the only notable and half way decent thing about the game for the Caps. They played sloppy and gave up way to many good opportunities for Toronto to capitalize on, which they did.

As I stressed in my pregame, the caps have to play a full game with energy. If they keep playing with this lack of focus and drive, they’re going to stay at the bottom of the league and they have way to much talent on their team to be 30th.

While what I said is true, not all players on the team aren’t playing hard. Last night, Mike Riberio, Troy Brouwer, Joel Ward, and Jason Chimera played hard and while their efforts might not necessarily have made an impact on the stat sheet, it did on the ice.

Some players, on the other hand, under preformed. Again, the not so great 8 was nearly invisible with a few rushes on net and a near goal. But his power play presence was abysmal and his play with less than 20 seconds left in the game did not impress. Honestly, I think Jeff Schultz had a better game than Ovechkin and that’s saying a lot.

Until the Caps can figure out how to play a full game with the intensity they had at the end of last night’s game, they’re going to continue to lose and stay at the bottom of the league. I’m not even going to talk about the Playoffs at this point.

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The Schultz bonanza

Nope, I’m not talking about the tv show from the late 50’s, but the Caps silent defenseman, Jeff Schultz. Schultz is a defensive D-man by trade, preferring to stay in his own end and help the goalie more than go to the net and get goals.

That’s not a bad thing, it’s actually a very good thing. The Caps have had a constant struggle the past few years trying to find good defensemen who are more defensive minded, than offensive like Carlson and Green.

Schultz has been having a pretty good season. Again, he isn’t supposed to be a flashy in your face kind of player, but he gets the job done by, for the most part, getting pucks out of the zone. So what’s with all the commotion?

Some say Hunter picked the line combinations out of a hat, I like to think he stole Project Runways tasselled black bag to put together the lines. Either way, Jeff Shultz appeared on the first line today in practice.

While this may be a shock and cause you to spin in circles, don’t you remember back in the good ‘ole days when the Caps won the Presidents Trophy and were supposed to win the Cup? yeah, Schultz was on first line with Mike Green. The entire time. Did anyone blow a gasket? I think not.

If anything, Hunter was trying out new line combos to find that magic “spark” that’s been elusive for some time now. If it works, does it really matter whose on which line? You win the same either way. Or lose…

My two cents; Schultz is a good defensive minded D who plays hard. He might not be a first liner in Washington (although I like to think he could on a different team), but he’s definitely a solid second liner.