Slippery Oil
Well, the second half of the season appears to be off to a rousing start, doesn’t it? Going 0-3 after the halfway mark, including two losses at home (and one shutout), doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Neither does the sight of lines being shuffled throughout the third period, the goalie being pulled with over two minutes to go in the game, or the disaster that was the power play. Bad turnovers, horrible passes, no energy – this is not the team we’re used to seeing.
And it’s not one we should be used to seeing. This team is finally getting healthy again, with the return of two more defensemen to the lineup, and yet they’re playing with less passion and enthusiasm and, dare I say, talent, than they did when the roster was peppered with Hershey space-fillers.
What happened tonight – and what has happened on and off over the last three games – is just a lack of effort. It’s becoming clear what the Caps’ weakness will be down the stretch, and that is their inability to beat the teams that occupy the bottom third of the standings. Not just beat – demolish. Time and time again they’re showing a complete disinterest in performing like the talented team they are against a team that maybe doesn’t have the names, the depth, the skill that the Caps have. And it could end up hurting them in the end.
The silver lining of this game, if you want to find it (and I always do), is pretty thin – but it’s there. The penalty kill that went to work when Fleischmann was whistled for high-sticking was nothing short of masterful…we’ll ignore the fact that it failed to create any lasting momentum. Speaking of Flash, his goal was the kind we’ve been waiting to see from him…we’ll ignore the fact that he took that double minor that required the masterful penalty killing.
Yes, the penalty kill looked, for the most part, to be in good shape. One blip on a multi-penalty night won’t make me toss out the PKers right away. The power play? Not so much masterful as musterless. No attack zone pressure, no net presence, no passing ability whatsoever, and hardly a shot to challenge Roloson – who was very good but made to look even better by the lethargic Caps.
The defining moment of the game for me was one that in any other game would have been comical – tonight it was just symbolic and a little bit tragic. Mike Green found himself down on the ice, knocked down at the blue line. A moment later, Green still for some reason down on all fours, Semin stepped out onto the ice, apparently didn’t feel the need to watch where he was going…and tumbled headfirst over Green.
Oy vey.
There’s nothing to panic about, of course, Three losses are three losses, and with both Philadelphia and Carolina losing tonight no one has gained any ground. We get to start fresh again tomorrow in what is actually a decent scenario despite being the second of back to back games. The Caps travel to Pittsburgh to take on a team that is slumping – slumping, but also coming off a big win on the road against a very physical team.
They really don’t like to get hit, those Penguins.
Since the Caps have a tendency to a) snap other teams’/players’ slumps and b) stink on ice in their second of back to backs, the chips appear to have fallen slightly in the Caps’ favor. What they do with that oh-so-small advantage, of course, will remain to be seen.
