All posts in hockey

(photo by Clyde Caplan)

I’m not going to sugar coat it — the downfall of the Washington Capitals could very well be their inability to close out a wounded opponent in the final seconds of a game that was all but over.

Allowing forward Brad Richards to net the tying goal with 6.6 seconds left in regulation when the New York Rangers were essentially on life support is the kind of gaffe that team’s rarely ever rebound from.

And yet, I can’t allow myself to get overly worked up about the new and creative ways the Capitals continue to torture their fanbase.

I can’t rant and rave about how the life of a D.C. sports fan is bad for my health or call out a player for an ill-advised penalty in the closing moments of a tightly-contested playoff game.

Why? Because I caught on to this team’s dirty little secret a while ago.

The Washington Capitals are incapable of taking the easy way out.

They’re not interested in making life easier for themselves or their fans. They’re never going to venture down the path of least resistance. No, this franchise only knows one way to conduct business and they’re not going to rest until everyone involves looks at them and screams at the top of their lungs “What the hell were you guys thinking?”

Look, the 2011-12 Capitals have been “dead and buried” at least half a dozen times by this point. It started with the early-season collapse that resulted in the dismissal of coach Bruce Boudreau and then again when it looked like these players were either unwilling or unable to get on board with Dale Hunter’s system.

Hell, even I wrote on more than one occasion that this team was incapable of winning meaningful games in this system and that the front office needed to decide once and for all whether these players were worth building around.

But who could blame me for being critical of this franchise when they had 29 wins and 31 losses and sat in 10th place in the Eastern Conference heading into the final stretch of the season?

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The Washington Capitals head back to practice today in hopes of bouncing back from their 2-1 triple overtime loss to the New York Rangers.

While the team put up a helluva fight in the 20th longest game in NHL history, there is also plenty that can be improved upon.

Case in point, players like enigmatic forward Alexander Semin should probably dedicate a little time and energy between now and Game 4 into ensuring he avoids foolish penalties — like being whistled for tripping during the final minutes of the first overtime period.

While his teammates were able to bail him out and kill the New York powerplay, the above reaction by Caps coach Dale Hunter shows just how much he appreciated Semin’s decision-making skills at such a pivotal moment in the game.

(photo by Clyde Caplan)

At this point, longtime fans of the Washington Capitals would rather have their spouse cheat on them than see their favorite hockey team play in another triple overtime affair.

That’s because the Capitals have ventured into triple overtime four times in franchise history and sadly, all four games have ended in heartbreak and disappointment.*

*Quick sidenote: My poor wife took cold medicine at 9 p.m. because she’s been under the weather and wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed and get some rest. Because the Caps game was so tightly contested though, she inexplicably ended up staying awake all the way to the bitter end of the game.

Roughly three hours after she hoped to be asleep and the game had mercifully ended, my wife never even said a word. She simply stood up and tried her best to drag her exhausted, cranky  and near-lifeless carcass to bed. That’s what being a fan of this team does to people.

Because I’ve got plenty of personal experience in this matter — namely watching the Capitals self destruct in the most brutal ways imaginable — let me try to put it another way for the newbies.

In a lot of ways, even though the franchise has been around since 1974, the Capitals are still like a teenager. Most days they’re fine, but you never want them too stay out too late because nothing good happens in their world after midnight.

Once the evening reaches that breaking point, you can only hope they’ve gotten the most of their evening. Because, like a teenager trying to sneak back into the house after missing curfew, it’s only a matter of time before they take that beating.

My parents used to say nothing good ever happens after the street lights come on, and clearly that’s a mantra that the Caps still live by today.

Not only that, but historically speaking, losing a triple overtime game has signaled the end of the postseason for the Capitals.

Just how bad has it been? Keep reading.

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

It’s no secret that the life of a D.C. sports fans isn’t exactly filled with lollipops and rainbows.

The Nationals have yet to qualify for the postseason since relocating from Montreal, the Wizards have been a doormat for as long as anyone can remember and the Redskins have hosted just one playoff game since moving into FedEx Field back in ’97.

Basically, locals fans have been forced to put all of their proverbial eggs in the Capitals’ basket when it comes to rooting for a professional franchise that is even remotely capable of accomplishing noteworthy.

Fortunately for Washington, the Caps were able to win on the road — taking three games from the Bruins in Boston. Otherwise, this series would have gone very differently because the Capitals have struggled to win consistently at home  in the playoffs.

Since Alex Ovechkin and friends came into our lives, hockey has been center stage in our nation’s capital — with Caps games routinely selling out at the Verizon Center as a sea of red-clad fans pack the stands and do their best to give Washington a true home-ice advantage.

And their efforts have not gone unnoticed, as the Capitals have gone 133-48-27 at home during the last five regular seasons.

But for as good as the Caps have been during the regular season at the Phone Booth, their regular-season success has carried over into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

In case you didn’t realize it, the Caps are just 11-13 at the Verizon Center during the last five postseasons.

Read that sentence one more time and let it truly sink in. The Capitals have won just 11 out of 24 home games in recent history.

Sure, the “Rock the Red” era has produced countless sellout crowds from a rowdy and passionate fanbase, but unfortunately, it simply hasn’t translated to wins.

Just last series, the Capitals needed to win three games in Boston to eliminate the Bruins. That’s what happens when you lose two out of three in Washington.

How does a team that wins 64 percent of their home games during the regular season suddenly have such a difficult time once the playoffs roll around?

I decided to take this question to the players themselves in hopes of 1.) making them aware of just how few wins the hometown fans have been able to enjoy in person recently and 2.) seeing if they could come up with a reason for the lack of success locally.

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

When it comes to playoff hockey, a win is a win.

So I fully realize that fans should be thankful when the Washington Capitals emerge victorious against the top-seeded New York Rangers 3-2 in Game 2 of their second-round series. But at the same time, that doesn’t mean there aren’t things this team could/should do better.

Blindly praising a win without looking at any potential problem areas is a recipe for disaster moving forward, and there are definitely aspects of this series the Caps are going to want to improve upon both teams head to our nation’s capital for the next two games.

For starters, the defensive pairing of Mike Green and Roman Hamrlik needs to either step up their collective game or coach Dale Hunter should seriously consider breaking up this duo.

Both players log a ton of minutes each night, which would be fine if they both weren’t off to such a poor start against the Rangers.

Maybe it’s because Green missed 50 games during the regular season and Hamrlik began playing professional hockey back in 1991 — the same year teammates Cody Eakin and Dmitri Orlov were born — but both defenders look a step slow through two games against New York.

Not only that, but their subpar performances are clearly affecting them psychologically as well. As frustration boils over because neither veteran is performing particularly well, they’ve both started to suffer from mental lapses which result in ill-advised penalties.

During the final stages of the second period of Game 2, Green was whistled for tripping after he chose to retaliate because he had been knocked to the ice on a hard, but clean hit.

Earlier in the middle frame, Hamrlik was whistled for holding because he apparently didn’t want to get hit when digging out a puck from behind the net, so he slowed down, allowed the Rangers player to get inside position and then he had no choice but to mug the opposing player.

Notice a pattern here? Hockey is a physical game. If you play for any length of time, you’re going to get hit. If that’s an issue, you’re in the wrong line of work.

While it’s trendy for Caps fans to rant and rave about defenseman Jeff Schultz, they should be much more concerned with the play of Green and Hamrlik. I’m just not sure Washington can win this series if this duo continues to play so poorly moving forward.

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(photo by Clyde Caplan)

It’s no big secret that the Washington Capitals under coach Dale Hunter look drastically different than they did during the glory years under Bruce Boudreau.

Back then, the Capitals never really cared about the opponent or what their gameplan was, they were confident in their abilities to trade goals with whoever happened to be on the schedule that day.

When they were on, the Caps were a powerhouse offense that struck fear in the heart of opposing goaltenders league-wide. When the offense struggle however, it became painfully clear that ignoring the defensive side of the rink was probably not the wisest of moves.

Sadly, those days will forever be remembered for regular-season accolades and accomplishments that never translated into postseason success. Sure, fire-wagon hockey was enjoyable on the surface, but it isn’t a way to win in the playoffs.

Even Boudreau realized that, which is why he attempted to change his team’s mindset in hopes of getting the players to be more defensively responsible.

Unfortunately, his message fell on deaf ears because, let’s face it, Boudreau was essentially the cool teacher who suddenly woke up one day and wanted to be taken more seriously. After years of kicking his feet up on the desk and letting his students sleep in class, he tried to remake himself into a taskmaster and his players never bought in.

A change needed to be made, and Boudreau was let go. Hunter was brought in to save this sinking ship, and for 60 regular-season games, it appeared that the former Caps captain was in over his head as well.

But then the playoffs rolled around and suddenly everything changed. All of the sudden, all of his players looked completely at home in Hunter’s system. Offensively-minded players like Alexander Semin were suddenly hustling back on defense and even sacrificing their bodies for the good of the team.

The days of freelancing were long gone and almost overnight, the Capitals transformed themselves from a fatally-flawed franchise that barely limped into the playoffs into a team that could trade punches with the defending Stanley Cup champions.

Everything changed so quickly, that I’m sure some D.C. sports fans are still trying to figure out how the Capitals were able to eliminate the Boston Bruins during a season in which so little seemed to go Washington’s way.

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