That is a fact. Last night was the first game this season where we were down three goals to an opponent. It was an odd game in that we jumped on them 2-0 to start the game.
Twenty games in and one loss of magnitude. It happens.
We seemed tired. We seemed short-handed. We didn’t draw a single power play for a long time last night either.
New Jersey is playing great team oriented hockey. They are the hottest team in the NHL. They deserved the win.
We have lost to them twice without Alex Ovechkin in the lineup in the last two weeks.
We have to regroup now.
Injuries are piling up on our end. Jurcina. Gordon. Knuble. Ovechkin.
It is a long season. It is a grind.
Back to back games are tough. We get a couple of days off before our next game against the New York Rangers perhaps reinforcements are on the way. Here’s to better health. Go Caps!
Tags: Hockey, New Jersey Devils, NHL, Ted Leonsis, Ted's Take, Washington Capitals
I wonder how many emails you got during this game. lol
To paraphrase an NHL owner: ‘Its over, lets learn from it, lets move on’.
Onward…
LETS GO CAPS!!
My only question is, if Semin continues to make the bad passes, takes the dumb and lazy penalties, and doesn’t seem to listen to Bruce, why isn’t he made a healthy scratch for a game or two, so the message gets through. This is not new behavior for Semin, so does he continue to get a free pass as it continues? What does this do for the team chemistry if they have a ‘rogue’ type of player like this.
He is gifted, true, but at what cost is that ‘gift’ in the team concept?
Ted, According to what you’ve written on your blog, there was a day a few years ago when you asked yourself if you felt the Caps could win a championship. Your honest answer was “no” and you blew up the team. Look where it is now.
This said, you need to ask yourself seriously if you think a team with Jose Theodore in net can win a championship. As you contemplate your answer, recall that after ONE GAME in last year’s playoffs, your coach abandoned Theodore. Since then, the goalie’s record is: 5-3-4. His goals against average 3.24; his save percentage: .893.
Five wins in thirteen games with a TOP NHL team? With Jose on the bench, the Caps are 7-1-0.
Ted, it’s time for YOU to LEAD this franchise once again. It’s time for you to ask yourself a critical question: Can this team win a championship with Jose Theodore? He didn’t last more than ONE PLAYOFF GAME last year. What leads you to conclude he can get you SIXTEEN PLAYOFF WINS this year?
Don’t you love the all capital letters emphasis people just have to place in their prose?
Third game in four nights, 4-1 without Ovechkin, coming into the hottest team in the league playing very well, and to jump out like that to an early 2-0 lead - the Caps were probably running out of the adrenaline of playing so well without so many of our key guys. This adversity should help us down the road this season.
Four regulation losses in 20 games? Who is complaining? We can be better and tighten up on our D, the turnovers, and the soft goals and we’ll have even less that four regulation losses in the next 20.
Go Caps!!
Ted - I love the Caps all to pieces, I really do. But can they please for once not get completely roasted every time I travel to see them? This is getting ridiculous.
I went to I think four out of town games last year and they got skunked every time except one, and that one they won in overtime.
About the Semin and Theodore comments:
* I understand why it has not been done up till now. It’s hard to bench Semin with Ovechkin out of the lineup. That’s like cutting your nose off to spite your face. I’m expecting, though, that wild horses will not keep Ovechkin out of the lineup on Tuesday, so maybe it is time to send a message. That’s not the first time he’s done that move and it’s not the first time that it’s killed us.
* As for Theodore … let’s be realistic for a minute. I don’t think we can or should trade him at this point - his value is limited to other teams, but we do not want to try to go into the playoffs with a rookie/rookie tandem, and if he has indeed been mentoring Perreault, that in and of itself is value far beyond who’s in the crease on any given night, because Perreault is to date a beast. Remember that it’s only November, and that it is fair to think of the first 50 games this season as an audition for the playoffs. The field for who will start as goaltender is still wide open, and may the best man win.
Varly has not played as well as his record indicates - the loss in overtime in Philly was really on him, not on Theodore, although Theodore took the L. He’s still young, and while he’s been solid lately, he had a rough start.
That said, Theodore is .841 in his last seven outings, and gave up 5 goals in 18 shots on Saturday. That’s just brutal, okay? There’s definitely room for improvement there and it warrants a raised eyebrow, but man you people hit the panic button at the drop of a hat.
Semin is such an enigma. When he’s playing, he can either single-handedly win us a game or he can also cost us a game with one bonehead play. But..the Caps are a MUCH BETTER team when he is in the lineup-ESPECIALLY when #8 is playing as well.
He’s our Brett Favre, I think.
Teddy, I went to the game Saturday night and actually had pretty good seats! I had my friends cowbell with me and I rang it LOUD and PROUD! In fact, after I rang the cowbell for the 2nd time, some guy (a devils fan, BOOO) jumped out of his seat and into the isle. He started acting a little silly, maybe even a little bizarre! He was waving his hands and jumping up and down. I love to get people going!! Rock the Red! Lets Go Caps!!!
Hi Ted!
Some of us using Verizon FIOS are missing games. I know that there isn’t anything that you personally can do to help in this other than to help spread the word which would be greatly appreciated! It’s over 15% of the games that we will miss throughout the season and for STH and die hard fan that really stinks! Here is a link to an recently written article about our problem; http://mikeholden.wordpress.com/2009/11/18/verizon-fios-frustrating-some-caps-fans-in-dc-area/
Any publicity that you can help bring to this issue for us would be wonderful!
Thanks!
Angie