Finally, a Win to Write About

The Caps won two in a row for the first time since early January (sigh). They beat up Tampa Bay Lightning yesterday by a score of 7-1 which followed their 5-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs last Friday. Alexander Semin made scoring look easy in the 2nd period with his natural hat trick. For those who don't know (and I admit, I didn't) a natural hat trick is 3 goals on 3 shots in a row. Tomas Fleishman, Alexandre Giroux (more Hershey Bears replacing injured Caps), and Boyd Gordon contributed to the scoring so the offense was spread around a lot. Wow, where has this team been lately?

Prior to these wins, the Caps put together another abysmal string of losses (9 in a row) that made it tough for me to watch the games. The team looked lackluster overall and the players looked as if they've rather be anywhere else but playing hockey. But, they've played two good games in a row so things are looking up with 9 games left.

So, in continuing from my last blog post, what is next for the Caps? Here's my wish list for the 2007-2008 season:

• A team that is motivated to win hockey games and plays tough every night (that was the case earlier this season, but hasn't been the case in a while). It's Hanlon's job to motivate this team, regardless of whether or not Olie is between the pipes stirring up the team.
• A team that has enough depth to withstand multiple player injuries. The Caps lack of depth has been on display these past few miserable months.
• A strong center that can support Ovie and be a playmaker (I dream of Adam Oates...).
• A strong veteran d-man who can mentor the young blue liners that will stay on this team. So far, I think the Milan Jurcina trade was a steal and he's got great chemistry with his former teammate, Shaone Morrison so let's hope that continues.
• TO MAKE THE PLAYOFFS!
• An ownership/management team that makes it happen.

In the meantime, let's see how many playoff contenders the Caps can mess with like Toronto & Tampa Bay. That's the only perverse pleasure I have left for this season.

Caps play at Buffalo on Wednesday.

Let's go Caps!