The "contender" that isn't

I'm so glad that you like your team George McPhee because your team is a joke.  Ted Leonsis and George McPhee set out to build "Washington's hockey capital" and to create a team that contended, whatever that means, year after year, by relying on their not so young anymore guns.  What they've built instead is a team at serious risk of missing the playoffs preceded by "contending" teams that found new ways to embarrass Caps fans every year during the playoffs.  They are a team without character and one that could care less about working hard and throwing everything they've got out there on the ice every night to win games.  I've written about the "no heart" theme for years on this blog.

Granted, no team can play hockey with a crazy level of intensity for 82 games and, at least, 16 more to win the Cup, but the Caps can't even come close to matching the intensity of recent championship teams like the Boston Bruins or the Chicago Blackhawks.  They don't even match the intensity of my new favorite underdog hockey team, the Nashville Predators.  I loved watching that team in the playoffs last year and I'll be rooting for them when the Caps start playing golf.  They played above their expectation level last season, kind of like another Dave Poile team, the 1997-98 Dale Hunter led Washington Capitals.

The only thing good about this season is that the Caps won't disappoint me because I have zero expectations for this team. With no heart, not to mention a legitimate first or second line center, the Caps will be playing golf by early April.  As always, let's hope they pull their collective heads out of their rear ends and prove me wrong.

Let's go Caps!  

p.s. To the unfortunate person who bought my tickets for tonight, I'm sorry.  I knew it was going to be bad, but I didn't think it was going to be this bad.