When we lose of late, the loss is usually self-inflicted. There were too many penalties and too many missed opportunities. We were up 1-0 at the end of the first period but I honestly thought the score could have been 3 or 4 to 1. We hit posts and we missed open nets. The Flyers hit a post too.
Then we were killing off a power play and threw the puck into the stands again giving the Flyers a 5 on 3 power play and – BANG! - the puck is in the back of the net and the Flyers have life. We were called for 9 penalties, many cheap ones and some for retaliating against the Flyers who are expert at this. I thought the goalie interference call was marginal at best. The Flyers are known for running goalies and Jose Theodore isn’t known as a dirty player.
We have to internalize that we took a loss from the jaws of victory and that we have 3 more games in this stretch that are very important: Atlanta on Thursday; Boston on Saturday; and Florida on Sunday. There is no time to look back. We have to shake it off and get back to work. Three games in four days is a tough schedule.
Tough loss only because the Caps were up 2-0 before self-inflicted misfortune led to the 5-3 goal by Giroux – the Caps are horrible killing off 5-3 against. That gave the Flyers life.
The 3:19 stretch in the 3rd after Hartnell’s game tying goal on the 3 on 2 was marked by no willful intent by players to win the puck battles in our end when there was a hit coming. If players are hurt and it is not public knowledge, that’s fine (a la Morrisonn in last season’s playoff series). However, if we are so soft that we won’t fight to obtain possession with the pressure and eventual hits coming – that’s a big problem – HUGE! Richards destroyed Poti in a different shift. Green shies away from almost all hard contact when he needs to gain the puck. Schultz was just poking and tapping and poking and tapping the last guy to score the fourth goal. Does the big boy know any check other than a pay check? Sick!! (in the bad sense of the expression).
Anyone will beat us by chipping it in and chasing hard. We’ll go as far as the D and goaltending take us. All 6 of our defenders don’t need to be puck moving defensemen. Some have to be very tough – especially the slower, bigger ones!
Go Caps!
Ted: The defense is woefully inadequate for the playoffs. This was another embarassing loss to the Flyers where the defense failed to staunch the bleeding and Jurcina is such a liability at this point. What does GM McPhee see in this guy? Please get a guy like Pronger who can rough up the Flyers…I am so sick of losing to them.
The most frustrating part of the officiating is the predictability. As soon as we had a 5-3 we knew and the players knew the Flyers would get the next 2 or 3 calls. No matter what. And it’s that way for every team. It’s garbage. It causes teams to play scared and try to avoid any and all contact.
Ted,
You are correct that this loss was self-inflicted, however if the NHL wants to expand their current fan base and continue to draw new fans, their has to be something done about the quality of officiating in this league. This is not a “refs are against us” post. I had a new person attending their first game at both Pittsburgh and Philly and even they commented that there were horrible inconsistencies on both teams through the game.
The NHL should make referees available to the media after the game to explain calls made that change games and that are controversial. The league needs to publicly admit when their officials make terrible mistakes much as the NFL does. It still doesn’t change the outcome but it may dissuade all the conspiracy theorists.
Thanks.
Opus