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No one wants to see the Washington Capitals lose three games in a row. Fans also can’t be pleased watching the Capitals sputter out of the gate and fall behind yet again in the first period.
While supremely talented, this Caps team has shown a tendency to get outworked and out-hustled in the early stages of recent games (they’ve been outscored nine to one in the first frame of their last three games).
However, if there is a silver lining to all of this, it’s that this streak is happening now and not in a couple weeks. Once the playoffs start, there is no margin for error. If the Capitals stroll into the postseason thinking everyone is just going to roll over as they cruise to the Stanley Cup, they’ll be brought back to reality sooner than anyone around town cares to think about.
Tuesday’s 5-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators will give coach Bruce Boudreau and his staff plenty to focus on. There’s tons of film from the last three games to show carelessness by Capitals players on both sides of the rink.
We’ve got poor decision making and ill-advised penalties in the offensive zone combined with defensemen getting caught out of position and giving up odd-man rushes far too frequently. Add in a few softies courtesy of the team’s suddenly vulnerable goaltending and the Caps begin to feel more like Goliath looking past David rather than the powerhouse we’ve all come to know and love.
“Maybe we are not ready for the first period,” said center Nicklas Backstrom. “We have to. I remember the playoffs last year, we weren’t ready the first two games. We have to get ready now and play a good 60 minutes. We haven’t played a good 60 minutes in a while.”
That’s one thing we can all agree on.
“We didn’t come out ready to play and it hurt us in the end,” said defenseman Tom Poti after the Senators game, although to be fair, the quote could apply to pretty much every game the Capitals have played over the last week.
As surprising as it may sound, the Caps would be wise to take a page from Ottawa, even if they’re currently 21 points behind them in the standings.
“At this time of year, not only do you want to win games, but you want to feel good about how you’re playing too,” said Senators forward Jason Spezza, who had two goals and two assists against Washington. “Confidence is huge this time of year, and there’s a big difference between the win and the loss and how the mood is in the room the next day.”
It’s one thing to say a sneaky Carolina Hurricanes team caught the Capitals off guard in a 3-2 shootout win or that the Caps have always failed to play well in the early stages of a mid-day matinee matchup, which is why they fell 5-3 to the Calgary Flames. But for a third consecutive game, the Capitals looked like they had just rolled out of bed minutes before the puck dropped and were steamrolled by a hungrier opponent.
Looking at the bigger picture, this game marked the 10th time in 18 games that a Capitals game went to overtime, meaning Washington has just five wins in regulation during that span.
With a chance to clinch the first regular-season Eastern Conference title in franchise history with a victory over the struggling Calgary Flames, the Washington Capitals fell flat.
Later in the evening the Capitals backed into the conference title, thanks to a New Jersey loss, but that was merely a consolation prize after the team’s lackluster effort against an inferior opponent.
It’s long been known that this Caps squad struggles with matinee matchups, thanks to a young roster that prefers to sleep in, but the opening period was about as ugly a 20 minutes as anything we’ve seen in recent history.
Capitals goalie Jose Theodore saw his day end prematurely through little fault of his own. His defense was nowhere to be found in the opening frame and before Theodore knew what was happening, he had been lifted after the Flames scored on three of their first 10 shots. Barely 10 minutes into the game, Theodore was headed for the showers and the Caps were effectively done.
“We didn’t have any energy – it looked like we were skating in quicksand,” said Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau. “Their sense of urgency was so tremendous. They had got called out by [Flames general manager Darryl Sutter] yesterday and had gotten embarrassed pretty well in Boston. So we knew they were going to come out. But we just didn’t meet their push and for the first time in a long time it looked like [Theodore] was struggling a little bit.”
With Semyon Varlamov in net the Capitals didn’t fare much better in their own end. It was 4-0 after the first and the Flames cruised to an easy 5-3 win, handing Washington a rare home loss in regulation.
“We didn’t start the game well,” said Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin. “We knew they would come at us hard. Still, we didn’t give up. In the second and third period we had more chances. It was kind of a tough situation. They’re a team that needs points for the playoffs. We knew they’d come at us hard and we were not ready.”
Which brings us to our second point.
When the horn finally sounded and the first period mercifully came to an end, the home team headed to the locker room while the Verizon Center crowd showed their disapproval with a chorus of boos. We fully admit that the Caps came out flat and looked about as bad as possible in the early stages of this game, but hearing jeers and even mock cheers from Caps fans was definitely a shock to the system.
This team is accomplishing feats no other team in this franchise’s 35-year history has matched and folks were ready to turn their back after a predictable sluggish start? We’re not talking about the Redskins going 4-12 or the Nationals losing another 100 games. We’re talking about a team with a 27-5-4 record at home, which is tops in the NHL.
With a second-period tally, Ovechkin now has 46 goals and 100 points on the season. While Ovechkin has a knack for making the extraordinary look ordinary, reaching 100 points in four of his first five seasons is a big deal. That’s the kind of accomplishment that only elite players with names like Gretzky and Lemieux have achieved.
Even though we’re highly superstitious, there’s something you should know about this Washington Capitals team.
They really do have a legitimate shot at re-writing their franchise history this season. They’re capable of achieving something that no other Capitals team has ever done. And no, we’re not going to actually come out and say it – for fear of jinxing them.
For the third time this season, the Caps and the Pittsburgh Penguins squared off in what is officially the NHL’s most riveting rivalry. And for the third time this season, the Penguins failed to hold onto a lead and allowed the Capitals to come back in dramatic fashion.
This time it was a 4-3 shootout victory with gritty forward Mike Knuble scoring the unlikely winner. Sure, he’d never scored a goal in a shootout in his career, but coach Bruce Boudreau had a hunch. On this night, that was enough.
Anyone familiar with the franchise’s history knows one inevitable truth – if the Caps are going to do the unthinkable this season, they’re going to have to go through the Penguins in the postseason. There’s no way around it. These two teams have to face off at some point in the Stanley Cup playoffs in what professional wrestling refers to as a “loser leaves town match.”
Hockey fans were treated to a sneak preview one year ago when Pittsburgh won the seven-game series in Washington and went on to hoist the Stanley Cup. But this team is vastly different than from even a year ago.
Knuble continues to show his finesse-oriented teammates it’s okay to score ugly goals. Youngsters like Eric Fehr and Tomas Fleischmann continue to grow and take on more responsibilities. New additions like Eric Belanger, Scott Walker and Joe Corvo were brought in for specific reasons to add depth to an already bloated roster, meaning talented players will find themselves on the bench as a healthy scratch if Boudreau isn’t happy with their effort. Nothing gets a hockey player’s attention faster than messing with his playing time.
But there are two keys to a lengthy playoff run for the Capitals – forward Alexander Semin and goalie Jose Theodore. It’s no coincidence that Semin and Theodore were the top two stars in the team’s win yesterday. Mark our words, this team will go as far as that duo takes them.
The big topic this week, as most fans of the Washington Redskins know by now, is Albert Haynesworth.
New head coach Mike Shanahan started the team’s offseason workout regimen last week and said from day one that, although the workouts were “voluntary,” he expected his leaders to be present.
Well, Haynesworth showed for the first day, listened to Shanahan’s first comments to the team and then was nowhere to be found after day one. Later we learned that Haynesworth had apparently committed to an individual workout regime with a trainer who helped him become one of the most dominant players in football back when he was with the Tennessee Titans.
“Last year I worked out with the Redskins and the year that we had wasn’t great by any means, very disappointed in my play and stuff like that, so I’m getting back to basics, what got me to be one of the top defensive guys in the NFL, and that’s what I plan on doing,” Haynesworth said during a radio appearance yesterday. “I told Mike, and he was like ‘Well, I wanted you to train with our guys and all that stuff.’
And I said ‘I totally respect that, but to get me back to where I want to be, I need the serious training, I need the stuff that got me where I’m at.’ We do a lot of specialized stuff. My trainer comes up with some great stuff that’s just for me, basically. Not just maybe a defensive lineman, but just for me, stuff that I can improve on to help me get stronger and things that help me focus better. Nothing against them or whatever, but I want to get back to being the best defensive tackle in the NFL, and I need to do this.”
Here’s the thing, maybe we have a different perspective because of our military background. Maybe concepts like loyalty and sacrificing for the good of the team mean more to us than it does to a “me-first” guy like Haynesworth.
But if our boss asks us, as one of the team leaders, to make sure we’re available for team workouts, then we’re going to be there. If we had previously committed to something else, we’ll quickly pick up the phone and cancel. It’s a new day with a new head coach, and Haynesworth owes it to Shanahan and friends to be a part of the team, not continue to be a hired assassin.
“My thing is, they pay me to play football,” Haynesworth said. “As long as I’m dominating and being that great player, then that’s all that matters. No matter how I get there, as long as they want me doing that, then that’s what matters.”
And that’s where the disconnect is. Haynesworth is only here to collect that paycheck. He doesn’t care about being a member of a team or doing what’s best for the organization. He’s only concerned about taking care of him and if that doesn’t work for anyone else, he couldn’t care less.
Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin is on his way to capturing a third-straight league Hart Memorial Trophy, as the National Hockey League’s most valuable player. He’s the best player on the league’s best team, while he’s tied for the league lead in goals (45) and leads in points (97) and plus minus (42). The fact that he’s played missed 10 of the Caps’ 72 games this season just shows how much better than everyone else he is.
And yet, here’s a top 10 countdown of Ovechkin’s best moments off the ice. We were familiar with most of these, but we definitely didn’t know he appeared in a Russian game show. Good times.
While we made it perfectly clear earlier this week that we aren’t exactly thrilled that running back Larry Johnson is now a member of the Washington Redskins, there is one aspect of the signing we have no issue with.
The three-year deal that Johnson inked was worth just $3.5 million, although he could make as much as $12 million total with incentives.
In the past, the Redskins front office basically handed out five-year, $25-million contracts like candy. Seriously, free agents didn’t even have to visit Ashburn for a chance at a big pay day. They could simply have a connecting flight through Dulles and Vinny Cerrato would happily stand by at baggage claim ready and willing to double their paychecks.
If nothing else, we are thankful that those days appear to be long gone. Redskins general manager Bruce Allen has been aggressive in setting up visits with free agents, but for the first time in recent memory these get-togethers don’t guarantee anything.
In the past, Redskins One would be gassed up and ready to go at the stroke of midnight when free agency kicked off. A big-name player would be wined and dined at Morton’s with the head coach and The Danny (also known as Redskins owner Daniel Snyder) and would finish the night with courtside seats at a Wizards game (clearly this would be considered punishment now, instead of a selling point as it was back when the Wiz were relevant).
Now, a player like offensive lineman Tony Pashos visits town, chats with the new powers that be and ends up signing in Cleveland for peanuts. Talk about culture shock; ‘Skins fans never fathomed a day when the Browns outbid the Redskins for a free agent. But that’s where we are these days. And honestly, we couldn’t be happier.
Since free agency started, the Redskins have added offensive lineman Artis Hicks, nose tackle Maake Kemoeatu, tight end Sean Ryan, Johnson and quarterback Rex Grossman.
None of the players that have been added this offseason – with the exception of Johnson – are considered household names. Sure, football fans have heard of Grossman, but he’s only started nine or more games in a season once, meaning he’s got little to no expectations surrounding him.
For his career, Grossman has played in 37 NFL games (31 starts). He has completed 524 of 971 passes (54 percent) for 6,197 yards, with 33 touchdowns and 36 interceptions. He’s average in every sense of the word. But he’s not here to be a savior; he’s simply a player that Mike and Kyle Shanahan felt they could bring in who is familiar enough with their offense to help the rest of the roster catch on.
It’s no different than when former Redskins offensive coordinator Al Saunders brought quarterback Todd Collins with him. No one expects Grossman to play in actual games; he’s just an extension of the coaching staff. It’s a one-year deal, which gives him enough time to come in, show Jason Campbell and/or whoever else is playing quarterback how to run the new offense and then Grossman can move on to another city.
Is there a less likeable backfield in the NFL today than Clinton Portis and Larry Johnson?
Both running backs head into next season with huge question marks hanging over their head (namely, does either guy have anything left in the tank?), each player is fully capable of making headlines for all the wrong reasons and neither will ever be in the running for “most popular teammate.” But other than that, things are great in Ashburn these days.
So yeah, that’s where we’re at. The last time Portis was brought up, it was because his teammates had finally grown tired of his selfish ways and spoke out against him. It seems that after years of thinking he was above the law or that he wasn’t held to the same standard as the rest of the Redskins players, Portis’ act had finally set off his teammates.
“With Clinton, it’s not a big secret. Everybody knows he doesn’t practice,” said a teammate who asked that his name be withheld. “And then he fires off on someone. You’ve heard people say, ‘Well that’s just C.P. being C.P.’ So what? Does that excuse him for his actions? It shouldn’t. It shouldn’t because there are 53 guys on the squad. Why should one man be different?”
For those keeping score at home, the breaking point in this situation seemed to be if you’re out of the lineup and rarely even bother to show up at your place of work, then you probably shouldn’t badmouth the guys who are there every day putting in the time and effort. Sounds reasonable, right?
But that didn’t stop Portis from running his mouth about Redskins quarterback Jason Campbell on the radio and, honestly, it’s not like this was an isolated instance. Even on his way out the door, backup running back Rock Cartwright couldn’t help but question Portis.
“They never really took care of the guys that put all the hard work in, worked every day, practiced every day,” Cartwright said. “I remember there were times when there wasn’t nobody practicing but Ladell Betts and I, because C.P. didn’t want to practice. So it was just Ladell Betts and I practicing day in and day out. And then they expect you to go out and perform on Sunday, and when you do go out and perform on Sunday, they never reward you.”
Okay, let’s see if we’ve got this straight. Portis has lost a step and is no longer the player he used to be, has questionable practice habits, regularly says something dumb and/or throws his teammates under the bus on a weekly radio show. Did we leave anything out?
Now, you’re adding Johnson to the equation, and you’re not going to believe this, but drama apparently follows this guy wherever he goes as well.
Things started back in 2004 when Kansas City Chiefs coach Dick Vermeil told Johnson to “take the diapers off” in response to what the coach perceived was a casual approach toward preparation. Instead of taking the hint that maybe he should work harder if he wanted to see the playing field more often, Johnson got pissy.
