The joy and agony of watching the Washington Capitals

The joy is watching a sublime 4 goal performance by Alex Ovechkin against the Tampa Bay Lighting. He started scoring when the Caps were down by 3 goals and finished by tying the game at 19:27 in the 3rd period after Ondrej Palat scored the go ahead goal for the Lightning at 8:36 in the 3rd.  Ovie forced the game to overtime and the Caps won in the shootout. There are games when Ovie carries the Caps on his back and this was one of them, supported by his center, Nicklas Backstrom, who netted 5-points of his own.

Ovie overcame Mike Green's 18-minutes of penalties in the 1st period, ending with his 10-minute misconduct. I was happy to see Green leave the ice. He looked lazy and inept during that period and has been playing poorly most of the season, as noted in my post a couple of weeks ago. Why Coach Adam Oates doesn't cut his playing time is beyond me.

Read more at thefarmclub.net.

Let's go Caps!

Why can't the Caps play with effort all the time?

I realize in an 82-game season, it's not reasonable to expect that any team will bring it every night. But, when the Caps hustle, they win. It's that simple. It's also the one thing they haven't done consistently in the Alex Ovechkin era.

After getting blown away by the Carolina Hurricanes 4-1 on Tuesday and publically proclaiming they weren't ready for the game, the Caps played hard this weekend and came away with strong wins against the Nashville Predators, 5-2 on Saturday, and against the New York Rangers, 4-1 on Sunday. Reading about Karl Alzner saying the Caps weren't prepared for the Carolina game made me want to throw my remote at the TV. This problem is way too common with this team.

From barely looking alive during too many first periods, to generating far fewer shots on goals than most winning teams, from giving up a goal a minute or so after scoring one, to falling apart after going down by two goals, this is not a mentally strong or a consistently performing hockey team. That is on the players and the coaches.

Read more at thefarmclub.net.

The Lightning are up tomorrow.

Let's go Caps!

Where did Mike Green go?

At age 28, in the 'prime' of his career, Mike Green is not playing good hockey this season. The two-time Norris trophy finalist struggles defensively, at the worst times, and isn't producing offensively like in seasons past. Green played well last season with 26 points in 39 games for a 0.75 point-per-game pace. His regression from last season, also under Coach Oates, is perplexing. It's also going to hurt the Caps.

Read more at thefarmclub.net.

The Caps sucked tonight in a disgusting 4-1 loss against Carolina.  Get it together Caps.

Next up, the Predators.

Let's go Caps!