Proud of Caps team last night

As noted yesterday in my blog post and then later to about 300 season ticket holders in a chalk talk session at Verizon Center – even though our team is without Alex Ovechkin, Mike Green and Nick Backstrom; and we are playing the Boston Bruins; we can’t feel sorry for ourselves – we have to hang together and scratch out some wins and some points. 

And that is what we did. See video highlights here

Last night’s victory was a great game to watch; we played with fire – with determination and we bonded as a team. We had players step up; thank you Matty! And we got two points and move back into 3rd in the East and first in the SE division

I am proud of the team; the coaches and the staff. I sensed no apprehension going into last night’s game shorthanded. Players stepped up – played with pride and we got the job done. Thank you. 

We now have a nice and needed break – enjoy some time off from the daily grind in the NHL schedule. Go Caps!

 

 

Over The Top Passion

Congratulations to the Boston Bruins and to their fans and their ownership.

A Stanley Cup Championship. Wow! A Cup! I lived in Boston the last time the team won a Stanley Cup and I know how the community will react. It will be over the top and a love fest! Several of my relatives are beside themselves today with joy and happiness over this long awaited win.

It was sad to see the reaction in the streets of Vancouver last night. Rioting as well as fans getting injured because of a loss in the seventh game of the finals. The Canucks had a fantastic season and their fans must be proud of the team and their players. That was a noble and hard fought final series.

Hockey brings out such strong passions in its fan base. Some good and some not so good.

Safety and security is our number one deliverable in sports for our fans.

Peace.

Wish Us Luck – Wish Us Well

In Boston tonight.

Where we play a tough team at their house in the Bruins.We will be banged up and short-handed but I hope focused and hungry. We need a win this weekend in back to back games. Tomorrow in Ottawa, too.

Wish us well at home tonight against the hottest team in the NBA, the Miami Heat. We get some players back from injured reserve. I believe that will help us.

A busy weekend for sure. Go Caps! Go Wizards!

Caps Play Boston Tonight

They are scary good. Gigantic and tough D man in Zdeno Chara. Best goaltender in the NHL right now and former Vezina trophy winner, Tim Thomas. Unbelievable stats - 7 and 0 record and 3 shutouts to date.

The Bruins practiced at Kettler Capitals Iceplex yesterday and they look strong all around.

We are 0 and 2 against them so far this season.

This will be a tough game.

We will need our fans to help uplift us. We need a 7th man tonight. Be extra loud and proud please. Thank you. Go Caps!

It Isn’t Them It Is Us

I don’t like to read about hot goaltenders being the reason for our loss. Never have. If you are a good team, it is more about you than them.

Our best players didn’t play as well as their best players. Period.

Our best players are not in form right now. It shows on our power play. It shows 5 on 5.

Our team is getting opportunities to score and we aren’t finishing.

We had many good chances last night. We didn’t finish.

And we can’t expect our penalty kill to be perfect every night. We had a bad night on special teams last night and the results show it. The best way to have a great penalty kill? Don’t get penalized. Don’t be in the box at the end of a very good first period. That hurt.

We aren’t a very good team right now. We have a lot of work to do in practice. We have to heal up as we seem to lose a player in every game to injury that jumbles up the lines.

We are what our record says we are and right now, we are just an average NHL team.

I hope it serves as a wake up call as we play a young and hungry team on Saturday at home.

Effort really matters in professional sports. Focus really matters.

The goals will come.

The Pre-season is for Getting a Groove Back

Caps are now 4-0 in pre-season play.

But let us all be honest, the pre-season doesn’t mean much. The coaches are experimenting; or trying to put in place new systems; or playing different players on different lines to see how players mesh together.

Conditioning happens at practice and during the days of workouts. The games are used for analysis; for seeing who can play with whom; which lines can work; and which specialty teams and players work best together.

I would rather be 4-0 than 0-4 but don’t get too excited. We have a couple more pre-season games ahead - at home on Friday and on Sunday. There will be more experimentation and more test drives. The games are fun and I hope to see you at the Verizon Center on Friday night and on Sunday afternoon. I would also note that our first pre-season game had the most paid attendance of a pre-season game in our team’s history.

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