Caps vs. Panthers 11-19-2007 Post-Mortem

I told you it would get ugly... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• Sorry, no obligatory A.O. climbing the Caps All-Time scoring chart update in an attempt to be positive.

THE BAD:

• Forget the "FIRE HANLON" chants started by a guy who has been given a microphone on more than one occasion this season to get the crowd going, even the boos were half-hearted tonight. When Bruce Cassidy (and the Sundance Kid) was stinking up the joint behind the bench, the team got booed louder and with more passion than tonight. Same thing for Ron Wilson's last season. Don't be concerned because they were booing and calling for the coach's head, but concerned because they really weren't into any of it.
• What turned out to be the game winning goal should have never have counted because after leaving his drop pass to Olli Jokinen, Richard Zednik ran a moving pick on Tom Poti that was a classic case of textbook offensive interference; but the officials (as they all too often do in these cases) refused to call it.
• Though even if we got the Power Play on that, what good would we have done with it? Sure we were 1 for 3 which is respectable but what isn't is blowing 1:28 of 5-on-3 time and only getting a single shot on goal. We STILL haven't scored a 5-on-3 goal this season. At least Glen Hanlon didn't waste our timeout on the situation in the first period.
• Am I the only one tired of the Caps storming back to within one goal in the third period at home but not getting the game tying goal? This is the third time (fourth if you count the Islander game that they tied up in the third period and then gave up three straight goals) they've done this.

THE UGLY:

• For the first time all season, the Caps tonight looked like the worst team in the NHL. Four of the three goals they gave up tonight were the result of just not having any fight in them and Olie Kolzig shouldn't be blamed for any of the four goals he allowed tonight. The Caps were simply beaten to pucks all night long and looked about as interested in being at the game tonight as most of the crowd was.
• Guess what? The Caps actually had fewer than 20 shots blocked by the Panthers (it was 19). And three of them came on the final sequence after we won the faceoff in the Florida zone. 8 shots missed everything and once again we have almost as many misses than we have shots on goal (30 tonight).

If I were a betting man I would wager than Hanlon will be put out of his misery on December 2nd. That's the first day of a five day break and it would give the new coach a chance to settle things down and install his system without having to worry about playing games before it was all installed. But we now have our third four game losing streak the season going. We're dead last in the NHL and I don't think things could get much worse on the ice than they already are. To quote the famous Jim Mora rant "PLAYOFFS? I just want to win a game."

Though JP has a report that Hershey Coach Bruce Boudreau heads the list of replacements for Hanlon. If that happens, I'm joining the Fire George McPhee Bandwagon. Replacing one minor-league coach with another will not solve anything in the long run.