Tag Archives: Detroit Red Wings

All Good Things Come To an End

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Our 9 game win streak is over. It was fun while it lasted. It helped us to regain a stronger seeding in the standings.

We played quite well last night and good enough to beat most teams but quite difficult to beat the Detroit Red Wings at home in a back to back game for us. Both teams now have 92 points in the standings.

We lacked just a bit of energy and drive compared to the Montreal game. And being so short-handed finally showed last night being without – count them up – Backstrom, Arnott, Green, Poti, Varlamov, Erskine and Fehr. Seven players that we count on.

No excuses though. Detroit won 3-2. They scored on a power play and we didn’t. And that is the game in a nutshell.

We flew out to New Jersey and we get ready for a tough two game set against the hottest team in the NHL, the New Jersey Devils, and then on to Philadelphia to play the Flyers. How is that for a tough three game set? Detroit – New Jersey – Philly. All on the road in one week’s time.

As an aside, we hit 93% renewals of season tickets. Thanks for caring and for sending in your paperwork. The deadline is fast approaching.

How Many Times Has The Shoe Been On The Other Foot?

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Detroit played a great game last night. They were in a groove; played their system; and took it to us. At one point in the first period, I looked at the scoreboard and it said 15 shots vs. 2 shots and the score was tied 0-0.

Jose Theodore was stellar. He played with great confidence. He stole that game for us. Kudos. Atta boy. Way to go.

We won over a very dangerous Detroit team 3-2. It was a game that I thought we didn’t deserve to win. But we have reached that point now in our development. We don’t play as well as our capabilities and we can still beat a fantastic opponent. Everyone chips in and we get the two points. We have beaten Philly and Detroit back to back and now we go play Pittsburgh. I don’t ever remember a more competitive three game stretch since we bought the team 11 years ago.

Our fourth line was just awesome. Bradley and Steckel played the game with playoff-like intensity.

But it was our goaltending that was the highlight of the game. Jose Theodore played lights out.

He truly stole the win for us. Thank you. Go Caps!

We now have 68 points - first in the East and third in the NHL.

Yuck

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That game looked like a game played between grownups and some spoiled teenagers.

When you play Detroit - in Detroit - you can’t give them 5 power plays with stick based penalties. Everyone knows that. Read this blog post to see some good notes from the game.

Detroit scored twice on the power play, one with 6 minutes left to take the lead and then they do what great and experienced teams do, they put the sleeper hold on us and just won like it was a playoff game 3-2. Boring and hyper efficient.

We have much to learn from a perennially great team like the Red Wings: Mostly don’t believe the press clippings; play hard, play disciplined; have everyone contribute on playing good D; and hold on when you get a lead.

We have left a couple of points on the table the last three games. We don’t use excuses of playing on the road against great teams to start the season. If we stay out of the box, we have more points. Points matter at the beginning of the season as much as at the end of the season. We are learning how far we have to go to execute and truly become a good team.

As I have said before, miles to go before we sleep.

Good Article on the Power of Red

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Here is a great article about sports teams that wear Red as their color of choice.

We certainly have seen an up tick in success since we went back to our retro homage look and feel and use Red as our primary color.

Only issue is that the same kind of science of color talks about the inefficiency of wearing Black as a primary color. That notion didn’t seem to hurt the Stanley Cup champs last season and they beat the RED Wings.

Torch was Passed

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As noted in my blog twice this series, the Pittsburgh Penguins are the better team and they deserved to win the Stanley Cup. The torch has been passed from the Red Wings to the Penguins. They are the class of the NHL. They are the champs and they deserve everyone’s respect and congratulations.
 
They are a great set of core young players and they have a great franchise; great fan base; great ownership and coaching. We all have our hands full now. They came back from two game deficits in two different series. They won two Game 7′s on the road. They are worthy Stanley Cup winners. That kind of determination has never been shown before in NHL history. Youth must be served. Kudos and congratulations to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Two Great Series Continue

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The Stanley Cup Finals have been as advertised - with great skill; lots of star power and truly competitive - the best the NHL has to offer.
 
The two teams that are still competing have set the bar quite high for us to jump over. They are both strong in goal and have strong and mobile D that scores and gets pucks on the net; lots of depth; great strength down the middle; and forwards that back check, crash the net, draw penalties and can score.
 
This has been a showcase for great hockey and it has been a joy to watch.
 

The Importance of Discipline

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Here is a very smart piece on officiating in the NHL playoffs and how important it is to stay out of the penalty box. And how important it is to capitalize on your opportunities with a man advantage or be efficient in the penalty kill. This article also offers a good analysis on the officials and who calls what.
 
I was  not surprised to see that we had the worst efficiency rating  in power plays to penalty kills in the league during the playoffs and that the two finalists, the Penguins and Red Wings, are ranked number 1 and number 2. When you see we are last in terms of differential - we had 13 less power plays than penalties against - it is a wonder that we went to game 7 in Round 2 in the playoffs, isn’t it? Twenty-six minutes of being purely short-handed is a lot of time in the playoffs.
 

They Are What Their Records Say They Are

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The Red Wings vs. the Penguins rematch in the Stanley Cup Finals will be great theater.
 
They are the two best teams in the NHL.
 
They both play a high tempo aggressive game. Both teams are filled with star players and have very good D; great centers; strong goaltending; great special teams play; and are well coached and have experience throughout the lineups.
 

Just a Quick Word on Detroit Fans

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We didn’t sell any group tickets to any fan clubs from Detroit. We didn’t sell any tickets to any travel agencies from Detroit either.
We didn’t have to since we were sold out with fans from our own community. My goal is to start next season with 14,000 season tickets sold!

What I do see happening though now is this: Many season ticket holders are now selling off some key games against big rivals on ticket exchange services. They get a huge markup on their tickets that helps defray the cost of tickets for the rest of the season.

There were about 5 rows in front of me where there are usually a large group of season ticket holders that had sold their tickets to local Detroit fans. I may have to find a way to get first right of refusal on resell of our seats. :-)

Many fans that were rooting for Detroit are actually our season ticket holders. They are happy Caps fans and loyal customers and they root for the Caps always except when we play Detroit. When we sell out the bottom and top bowl, the club seats go on sale via Washington Sports and some of those tickets get sold as groups or online to Detroit fans.

It is obvious that we have made progress. Perhaps ten percent of the arena was rooting for Detroit at yesterday’s game. I won’t rest until we have 100 percent Caps fans in our building but I admire what Detroit has built in terms of fan loyalty. Thank you Caps fans for being loud and proud. We are building a Hockeytown right here in DC.

A Big Win in Front of a Great Crowd

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Thanks Caps fans. You were loud and proud! That was a nice win; a much needed 2 points; and a statement win by our team.

We have now garnered 3 of 4 points over Boston and Detroit in the last two games we have played. We seem to play the good teams quite well. Our penalty kill played well yesterday and I thought the game plan looked like a playoff game. The intensity was high and both teams were afraid to make mistakes.

Now onto today’s game which is just as important as yesterday’s game. Two points is two points. It also felt good to see our team healthy again and able to ice a starting lineup that looked like the opening night lineup too.

I know there are things to complain about but frankly I will enjoy the win and just get ready for today’s game. Enjoy the win and the ride while it lasts. :-)  Go Caps!