Penner, Halak and Kuznetsov Become Caps

Since none of the above is a defenseman, the Caps are a sure bet for missing the playoffs or flaming out during the first round, as usual. The Caps defense, the one I heard George McPhee saying he likes on WTOP this past Friday, will not withstand the pressure of the Stanley Cup playoffs for longer than one series. See prior post here.

So what do Dustin Penner, Jaroslav Halak and Evgeny Kuznetsov bring to the Caps for the run to the playoffs? Penner, recently of the Anaheim Ducks, scored 32 points in 49 games this season, his best since 2010-2011, but that's because he played with Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf. On the plus side, Penner's been on two Stanley Cup winning teams, the Ducks in 2007 and the Los Angeles Kings in 2012, so he knows what it takes to get there and most Caps do not. Penner's a tough player and the Caps can always use more toughness, but he's known to be inconsistent and lackadaisical, at times, and the Caps don't need more of that. They've got enough, as evidenced by last night's two plus periods of lousy play against the Phoenix Coyotes before they decided to wake up and score 3 goals in a little over 6 minutes to win the game.

Read more here.

Let's go Caps!