Caps 2 - Panthers 4

The Capitals are in trouble. BIG trouble...

But before I get to why the Caps are in trouble, here's tonight's save of the game...


Tonight's Recap:

-At least they got more than 20 shots tonight right?

-If one was to ask me which team looked more like a playoff caliber team tonight, I'd have to go with the Panthers. The Caps looked to be in a funk. The Panthers had a pretty good forecheck all night. They kept the Caps power play at bay (not saying much). Look at the time out the Caps called with 45 seconds remaining, one team was talkative and looked to be in sync with another. The Caps couldn't get the proper personnel on the ice forcing a timeout. Then when the video zoomed in on the bench, no emotion, no NOTHING. That's bad.

-I knew we were in trouble tonight when I saw who was slated to start the game. No knock against Neuvy but WHY oh WHY not start the hot hand in net? Neuvy will get his but seriously, the only way the Caps have been standing a chance lately is by the play of Vokoun. Throw in the fact that he'd be playing against his old team with his family in town, what more motivation could a guy ask for? I mean WOW! Starting to question the brains of this team. Even as a local adult league goalie, I can play back to back nights, throw in some extra motivation, and I could play damn well in that second game. Goalies love to compete! I'm left scratching my head on this one.

-I've said earlier in my posts that if the Caps rode Vokoun, they'd make the playoffs. Well, if they continue to throw Neuvy in there when Vokoun is on his A-game, we're going to have some problems. Right now, we're a horrid offensive team (wow, did I really just say that about a team with Ovechkin on it?). We're "in transition" to a new scheme under a new coach. We've got to ride the hot goalie for all he is worth to make it into the playoffs. So we shall see.

-As I said earlier, the Caps shot the puck more than 20 times tonight. That's a victory almost it seems for this squad. Being outshot 38-28 still does not make us a defensive team. I don't know what it makes us.

-Because I did not get to post about it earlier, Rechlicz got recalled and was claimed to be the toughness the Capitals needed by Coach Hunter. He skated for less than 3 minutes tonight. Joel Ward got less than 7 minutes of ice time tonight. One of these two is costing us quite the penny...

-Speaking of Rechlicz, if this is the direction Coach Hunter thinks this team needs to go in then we may be in for a long second half ahead of us. We've got to be able to hold an opponent to less than 30 shots and be able to get at least 30 shots on net of our own. With less than 3 minutes of ice time tonight, I don't seem him doing this. Add in Ovechkin's usual of late of 3 shots on net, and tonight we would have still only had 31 shots on net. Something needs to change or spark a fire underneath this team's butt.

-Needless to say, this game left me quite frustrated. Feb 27th and the trade deadline is fastly approaching us. Are we sellers or buyers? Right now, if we can't string some wins together, we may need to be sellers. But whose even worth selling after tonight? If tonight was the showcase for Jeff Schultz, who did he impress with 9:48 of ice time? Who did Semin impress with his invisible play tonight?

-Ovie comes back next game and there will be hope as usual. So GO CAPS!