Apologies for the somewhat sporadic posting this week, as CC’s palatial digs are playing host to a Maple Leafs fan and a Bruins fan until Friday. Naturally absurdity, revelry and plenty of hockey abound but sadly that leaves little time for blogging duties. We’ll do our best to keep things rolling around here as the Caps (hopefully) get back on track…
5 out of 82 equals about 6%. Five games out of an eighty-two game season is 6% of a season that runs from October to April (and beyond).
During that time the Caps have done the following:
- Had an incredibly strong first game in which they dominated at both ends of the ice, showed discipline and excellent special teams, and showcased their offensive talent
- Opened at home with two great periods in which they opened up a 5 goal lead before ultimately (and understandably) letting up
- Played a tough team in a tough building and matched them goal for goal until the end in a frenzied, slightly insane and slightly sloppy game
- Came out flat, disorganized and undisciplined against a less talented team and earned their first regulation loss
- Played an overall good game against a still dominant Detroit team only to be undone by penalties
In other words…we’ve seen it all. The season is young and mistakes are bound to happen; it’s what the team and the coaching staff does now to turn the tide and put a stop to this skid that will determine what fortune holds for the Caps.
There’s certainly no need to panic yet – five games does not a season make, and just as the Kings are not likely to remain atop the Pacific Division and just as Malkin is unlikely to be one of the league leaders in PIMs by the end of the year, the Caps will climb back to their rightful place among the elite teams.
Nonetheless, there is time for some concern. Concern over whether the Caps are thinking they can win on talent alone or whether they really do need an upgrade on defense. Concern over when the leaders are going to step up and let others know that taking bad penalties hurts the whole team and has to stop. Concern over whether Boudreau is going to be able to instill accountability in his young team.
So in previewing tonight’s tilt against the Devils we focus not on New Jersey but on the Caps – what they’ve done wrong and what they’ve done right and what needs to happen for this slide to become a winning streak.
And it’s not just because the Devils are duller than a 24-hour marathon of Crosby interviews, I swear.
Areas to Maintain:
• Offense – Yeah, they can score. We know they can score. Everyone and their brother’s dog knows that the Caps are one of the league’s offensive powerhouses.
• Defensive Contributions – The Caps have gotten 9 points and 29 shots on goal through 5 games from the defense, with everyone but Schultz having picked up at least a point.
Areas to Improve:
• Discipline – The Caps have taken 26 minor penalties, which ties them with Vancouver for the 7th most in the league. Mike Green has 6 of those on his own, which isn’t totally strange but is still troubling. More troubling is Boyd Gordon’s 3 minors – it may not sound like a lot, but Gordon took 8 all of last season, and that was a career high.
• Timely Discipline – It’s not just about cutting down on penalties in general; it’s knowing when you can get away with one and when to be more careful. In three of the five games the Caps have taken a penalty in the third period, either when leading by one or tied. In all three games the other team scored on those penalties.
• Goaltending – Jose was fantastic Saturday night and turned aside 34 shots, but that needs to be the case consistently all season. Too early to tell whether or not it will be, as so far he’s had two great games and one not so great game.
• Secondary Scoring – Matt Bradley’s goal in the first period of the Detroit game was the first goal scored by someone not in the top 6 forwards. And while it’s nice to have a somewhat balanced attack among all 6 of them, the rest of the team needs to start chipping in, at least occasionally.
If some (or all) of these things look familiar, it’s because we’ve talked about them before. Incessantly. All of last year, really, and some of the season before.
So what does Boudreau do about it? We’re seeing a lot of the same problems as last year with glimpses of change and development but not enough to make a difference.
How does he handle it when his golden boy, Mike Green, takes two undisciplined penalties in a tie game? How does he handle it when one of his top offensive powers, Alexander Semin, continues to do the same? What happens when the so-called “Care Bear Line” incessantly prefers to make the overly cute play instead of the simple one and forgets about team defense in the process?
If Boudreau has shown himself to have one fairly evident flaw, it’s that he seems unwilling to actually lay down the law with some of his top minute guys. If Chris Clark or Eric Fehr or any of the third/fourth line guys has a rough game it shows in their ice time; when Mike Green takes two dumb penalties in one game, however, it’s just 4 minutes in the box plus another 26, 27 minutes on the ice. Nothing changes – there’s no punishment, no lesson learned.
At some point telling the player over and over again isn’t enough. At some point the player has to take the responsibility into his own hands and commit to playing a team game. And if he doesn’t, at some point the coach has to step in and use the last weapon he has left – ice time.
It is still early, though. There’s time to right the ship.
It starts tonight, only game 6 of a long and grueling season, with the Caps taking on a Devils team that has had its own share of early season growing pains. Through four games they’re 2-2-0, and in typical Devils fashion have scored only 11 goals while allowing 13. In equally typical Devils fashion, their leading scorer has as many points (5) as Ovechkin has goals.
Still, the Devils come into this game having won two straight, both on the road. They’ve got a healthy power play percentage through four games at just over 26% and don’t get whistled for that many penalties, taking almost ten fewer minors than the Caps and giving up four power play goals.
Oh yeah, and they’ve also got this future hall-of-famer in net…but I wouldn’t worry about that. That Brodeur guy’s all hype and no substance.
Heh.
