Olympics End Badly for Caps Leaders

It started with Captain Alex Ovechkin's Russian team not making it to the Olympic medal round, on their home ice,  and it ended with Assistant Captain Nicklas Backstrom being kicked out of the gold medal game about 2-hours before faceoff because he took medicine for his allergies. I felt so bad for him when I heard him all choked up in interviews. And, on top of that, Ovie's father had heart surgery because of issues he experienced during Russia's win against Slovakia. They didn't tell Ovie until Team Russia was eliminated. His family means everything to him as any long-time fan of his knows. This does not bode well for the Caps.

Read more at Two Pad Stack, formerly thefarmclub.net.

Let's go Caps!

What if Neuvirth Played in 2011 Playoffs?

Now that Michal Neuvirth, once again, seems to be the Caps goalie du jour, I looked at a blog post I wrote in 2011 because I remember writing about him as the Caps headed to the playoffs under then Coach Bruce Boudreau. Here's what I wrote.

Did the Caps blow it? Hockey goalies are notoriously mental to begin with -- see Braden Holtby's pre-game routine or Ilya Bryzgalov's press conferences -- and all of the Caps coaches, Bruce Boudreau, Dale Hunter and Adam Oates, employed the play the hot hand strategy with the young goalies, which brings us to today. Has the goalie merry-go-round hurt all the Caps young goaltenders mentally? Would the Caps be in a better place today if they'd settled on Neuvirth in 2011? 

Read more here.

Let's go Caps!