We lost. But Montreal won. They deserve respect and congratulations for a well played series.
They played committed hockey, they sacrificed, and they out worked us. I have never seen better D and more blocked shots in a playoff series. I think they blocked as many shots as we took last night. Another stat I had never seen before.
Their goal tending ended up being better than our goal tending.
They played a defensive scheme that was very frustrating. They used their match ups deftly. They were more patient than us. They were more committed to their scheme. Be patient– trap– transition to offense off of turn over’s score on power plays. Play low scoring games. We scored 3 goals in the last 3 games on more than 130 plus shots. That is just not going to get it done.
They took advantage of breaks and they scored on their power play opportunities. We didn’t.
They played committed team defense. They took our stars out of play all series. I believe our hockey IQ seemed low this series and we didn’t adjust well on the ice to the new schemes coming our way.
Live by the O and die by the O. We were horrid on the special teams. When you score more goals shorthanded than with a man advantage in a 7 game series how can you expect to win? To me this was the biggest surprise and disappointment. We just couldn’t score on the man or two man advantage thus we didn’t deserve to win. And our second line didn’t contribute to us the way they did during the regular season.
We had a goal scored called back. We weren’t mentally tough enough to overcome that and capitalize right away on the momentum that a visual of a goal in the net provided us.
Montreal deserved the victory last night. They beat us three games out of four at home in front of our rabid fans.
Congratulations to the Montreal franchise. They move on and we stay home and answer questions and do some serious soul searching. But the better team won fair and square.
Tags: NHL Playoffs, Ted Leonsis, Ted's Take, Washington Capitals
Dear Ted,
I’am a real fan of Hab’s and I realy respect your comment in my daily news papper this morning. I want tell you in my langage:
Vous êtes un homme de grande classe.
You are realy welcoome in my born town, Montreal. !
As a Montrealer living in Washington, I thought it was unfortunate that the two teams met so early in the playoffs. I’m a Habs fan through and through, but wanted to thank you for this letter. You were more gracious than I think the Montreal fans could ever be.
Thanks for a great season Ted and the entire Caps organization.
Season ticket holder here and I will rockin’ the red again next year. Keep up the great work!
I have met some classy poeple in my life, who I have a lot of respect for and I can now add Ted to my list, even thought I have never met him. Would be interewsting to do so.
His summary of the series is pretty much bang on.
I might only add that I think Mr.Boudreau was out-coached.
Maybe next year !!
Thanks Ted - From a Montreal Hab fan. You are a classy guy.
Maybe Bill’s Burger Baron will make some Hab burgers.
You are the definition of classy. Of course we had hoped the season would have ended differently but C’est la vie. It was a fun, exciting, successful season! No matter what critics and fans say, the season did mean something. It was the best season in franchise history, we won the President’s trophy, every home game sold out, we had the best win streak in franchise history, some players had their best season ever, and we picked up some fantastic players! Fans need to take a step back and be thankful for the success this franchise has experienced in recent years. We have an owner, GM, coach and players that constantly strive to improve. They didn’t start making changes right after the series, they know that emotions cannot dictate their next move. The Cup will come to Washington. Rise above the critics, work hard, stay focused, and it will come! Thank you Ted for believing in a club when no one else did, not giving up, and being an all around class act. Can’t wait for next season!
As an avid Montreal Canadiens’ fan, I am delighted with their series win over the Caps. As an avid hockey fan, I am stunned at their victory. You are gracious in defeat and you and the Caps should be congratulated for your regular season success. I hope you will find the formula to translate regular season success into playoff success.
Responsibility for the third game 7 loss at home rests with you Ted. It’s easy to search for happiness when you can rest easy in the wealth of regular season revenue that amounts to a waste of time and money for the faithful who assume you take your responsibility seriously and hold yourself and those who work for you accountable to us.
The message I get is that some individual players like Theo are responsible for losses but others are not so accountable for their continued failures to produce improvement.
Ted,
I have followed you blog all year, and have read your book. I have taken great inspiration from your insight.
Dont let the naysayers influence you. We have a great core, with a great coach. Lets build on it.
Thanks for a great season, and even more thanks, for making every trip to the Phone Booth memorable. Although I don’t care for the NBA (ACC BB is much better!), I hope you can translate a Caps experience into a Wizards experience.
Randy Hodson
Leesburg, VA
[...] Congratulations to Montreal « Teds Take [...]
Good afternoon Ted, I couldn’t react to your text. First of all, I’m very disappointed too as I felt the Caps had the strength and the type of season to go to the end. I knew we had weaknesses in our own zone (many turnovers, lack of hard hitting and of surveillance in the slot), but I figured out the Caps opponents were even farther from perfection.
I don’t disagree with your comments at all, but I believe you are too kind with the performance offered by the Montreal Canadiens. Yes, they worked very hard and made a very good job in keeping the Caps sharpshooters out of the scoring sheet. Apart from being very opportunist against the Caps defence, they owe this serie to the stellar performance of Jaroslav Halak, the leadership of Mike Camalleri and the sacrifices of the players who blocked almost as many shots as Halak did.
But, overall, what makes me even more mad is the total absence of objectivity of the Habs broadcasters. I watched all games on TV and, as I wrote in Mike Vogel’s blog (Dump’n Chase), if one believes what they told, any Canadiens player could score from anywhere on the ice and about only Nicklas Backstrom has played a good serie. No wonder the Habs fans are so chauvinist as you could read in some of the comments you received. Some are imbued with such bad faith they try to discredit Bruce Boudreau to plug their own favorite Guy Boucher. While at it, why not offer to trade Roman Hamrlik for Alex Ovechkin?
If the Capitals had won this serie, I doubt very much the Caps would have got any praise from the Habs fans. I have never seen such manic depressive people as they are.
In the meantime, I hope they will leave some buildings upright in Montreal should the Cup is gona be won by the Canadiens!