Caps vs. Canes 3-9-2007 Post-Mortem

Oh how I long for the days when teams would take us lightly... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD

• Great game tonight by Brent Johnson and Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green. For Johnny, nothing more he could have done as he's done in by a rebound and a bad turnover. Green asserted himself well tonight and looks like he got the confidence in the AHL that the coaching staff wanted him to get.
• Penalty Killers went 7 for 7 tonight and kept the Canes in their Power Play slump.

THE BAD:

• 25 shots is a somewhat low number but not a whole lot of good chances and just 15 over the final two periods. 9 blocks from the Canes and 12 missed shots from the Caps for only 46 pulls of the trigger tonight.
• You can forgive the 0 for 5 Power Play by realizing that Carolina is ranked 11th. However, the 1:30 5-on-3 that was blown was almost unforgivable. Three times the Caps generated good rebounds and all three times they flubbed. Scoring a goal 5-on-3 would have changed the entire complexion of the game.
• Giving up 45 shots on goal is way too many, especially when you can't get anything going in the other end.

THE UGLY:

• Could somebody please explain to me what Alexander Semin was doing out there tonight? Only one shot on goal, two missed shots, and a number of just simply bad plays. This is not a team that can afford right now for its star players to be missing in action like Semin was tonight.
• Mr. Donald Brashear's turnover that lead to the Canes second goal. You knew right then that the Caps were done.

I've got to hand it to Carolina. They were scary efficient in playing this game tonight. For a team that was desperate for points, they didn't throw caution to the wind and they played a rather responsible game that the Caps just simply couldn't solve. Except for the 5-on-3, there were not many opportunities for the Caps and you just get the feeling that the season cannot end soon enough.