Caps @ Canucks 10-27-2006 Post-Mortem

If there ever was a game that just begged to be decided by a gimmick, it was this one. I think the NHL was set back about ten years by this game that the Caps lost 3-2 in a gimmick.

THE GOOD:

• Olie Kolzig turned in another great performance tonight. Without him, this game would have been over in the first period.

THE BAD:

• Referees Steve Kozari and Brad Watson were downright horrible tonight. Way too many missed calls and way too many inconsistent calls. What was up with the two diving calls on the Caps? And while I don't have a problem with the obstruction crackdown, I do wish officials would call it both ways. All night Vancouver was running moving picks in the offensive zone. All of them were penalties and not a single one of them were called. All four Cap Power Plays came in the second period.
• The Caps came out as flat as I have ever seen them. They should have been blown out in the first period and Kolzig was the reason why this game got to the gimmick.
• The Caps never really got going offensively. They were bottled up for most of the night and had a grand total of three shots in the first and third periods. It wasn't until they got a 1:19 5-on-3 that the Caps got anything resembling an offense going. 22 shots isn't going to be enough to beat a goaltender like Roberto Luongo.

THE UGLY:

• Again, the Caps paraded to the penalty box. Another game, another 7 Penalty Kills for the Caps. This is becoming a broken record.
• This was not a fun game to watch in any sense for any fan of hockey. Between the Caps looking like the Keystone Kops and the Canucks running picks all over the ice there wasn't much of a flow to this game as things were clogged up all over the place. Even when there was open ice with 4-on-4 hockey, the Caps looked even worse and the Canucks could not take advantage.
• Even when the Caps were able to generate 16 shots on goal in the second period, they still gave up 11. As a matter of fact, the only period that the Canucks didn't register double digits in shots was the five minute overtime.
• The game was decided by a gimmick

I could look on the bright side of this and say that despite the Caps playing as bad as I expected them to it was kept close and the Caps came away with a single point. The problem is, the Caps played even worse than I expected they would. Make no mistake though, unlike the gimmick losses in Minnesota and Atlanta, the Caps didn't leave a point on the table, they flat out stole a point tonight. The Caps had no business being in this game with the way they played. This game is a prime example of why the OT loss is a joke. There's no reason why the Caps should be rewarded in any way shape or form for their performance tonight.