Caps @ Avs 10-25-2006 Post-Mortem

All sorts of reasons to feel good about this 5-3 win, but they had to go and do something downright stupid at the end.

THE GOOD:

• With 45 saves, Olie Kolzig had his best game of the season. Some might say that he single handedly kept them in the game in the first. But I think that the Caps were playing well; they just had to kill too many penalties and couldn't get any offensive momentum going.
• You can't complain about the start of the game with Captain Chris Clark scoring just 53 seconds in. The Caps jumped all over a backup goaltender getting a back-to-back start.
• Both the Power Play and Penalty Kill looked good tonight. The Power Play was 1 for 3 and the Penalty Killers were 1 for 7. The Penalty Killers killed off a 2 minute 5-on-3 and didn't give up a Power Play goal until the last kill in the third.
• With a two goal lead in the third period, the Caps never let up and did not try to sit on the lead. When Colorado pulled within one twice, the Caps scored again to restore the lead. Last week in Atlanta I said that they need to learn how to win the close games on the road when they are ahead; tonight they did what they couldn't get done a week ago.

THE BAD:

• Having to kill a 2 minute 5-on-3 and 5 penalties in the first period. It kept players like A.O. and Alexander Semin off the ice and prevented the Caps from building on their quick start.
• 18 shots in the first and then 22 in the third. The 18 in the first was understandable because of all the Penalty Kills, but 22 in the third is a little discouraging as I felt that the Caps kept applying pressure and didn't seem to be sitting in a shell.

THE UGLY:

• Again, too many penalties. While I like the fact that the Caps are getting better at the Penalty Killing, they don't need to keep practicing it so much during games.
• Just what in the world was A.O. doing out there after Matt "Omar" Bradley's empty net goal iced the game? Seeing A.O. go down in a heap and needing help to get off the ice was not fun to watch and Glen Hanlon should be questioned for putting him out there when the game was no longer in doubt. A.O. is this franchise and we cannot afford to lose him for any length of time for any reason. Especially stupid ones.
• The defending (or the complete and total lack thereof) of Ossi Vaananen and Patrice Brisebois on Mike Green's goal. No wonder Brisebois is not a fan favorite in Denver. They made Mike Green look like A.O.

I have to say that I am a little steamed about A.O. While it is good to hear that he's ok, seeing him helped off the ice is without a doubt a total buzz kill. There was a lot of good in tonight's game but it all got overshadowed by what happened at the end. The Caps played well for the entire 60 minutes and they closed out the win. There are still things that need some work, but overall, there isn't much to complain about tonight's game except for the star player getting hurt in garbage time. Let's hope that we don't see A.O. out there in garbage time like that again.

It has been.... A TWO POINT NIGHT!