Caps vs. Rangers 12-12-2007 Post-Mortem

FEAR THE MULLET... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• The Caps scored five goals tonight and A.O. has only one of them (and just a single point to move into 25th on the Caps All-Time scoring list) and Alexander Semin has no points. The current run has been spurred by the rest of the team finally getting around to scoring and it needs to continue.
• Normally an 0 for 4 performance on the Power Play would end up in the bad column if it even got mentioned. But against the 4th best penalty killing unit I was impressed with the Caps puck possession and movement in the offensive zone especially since the Rangers were pressuring the puck on their Penalty Kill. The Power Play got off 7 shots and did everything right but score a goal.
• Mr. Donald Brashear sporting the mullet wig in warmups and then posting two assists. You know what this means, he has to wear the stupid thing in warmups for the rest of the season.

THE BAD:

• A.O. and Matt "Princess" Pettinger gave up on what should have been the game tying goal in the first period. Had either one continued to follow up Princess' one-timer, they would have pushed it across but came up short because they pulled up thinking it was in.
• Dilemma for Bruce Boudreau; Milan Jurcina was sent to the Press Box tonight so that Brian Pothier could return and John Erskine Bowles could inexplicably stay in the lineup. However, Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz was -2 with a bad step up at the Rangers' blueline that lead to the Rangers first goal and was beaten on the Rangers' second goal. However, he scored a big goal in the third period for his third goal in three games. Does Schultz get benched despite having a hot hand in the goal scoring department right now?
• And speaking of -2's Tom Poti, Matt "Omar" Bradley, David Steckel, and Quintin Laing were all -2 on the night along with Schultz. It doesn't matter if they were the 3rd or the 4th line tonight, that isn't good.

THE UGLY:

• The Caps got off 18 shots on goal in the first period alone but could only get 17 the rest of the game. Did the Rangers honestly think that Henrik Lundqvist would hold onto a 2-0 lead for 40 minutes?
• Coming all the way back from a 2-0 first period deficit was nice. But blowing a one goal lead twice was bad and made even uglier by the fact that they did it against the Rangers who are one of the lowest scoring teams in the NHL. As a matter of fact, the Rangers had only scored a total of 4 goals in their last five games combined before tonight.

If I say it I'll jinx it so I won't even bother tip-toeing around it. This was another game that seemed destined to be decided by a gimmick that the Caps were able to pull out. The Blackhawks have done us a favor and beaten Los Angeles so the Caps are now in a flat foot tie with the Kings for 29th in the NHL. Steady progress is being made and the Caps are starting to come around.

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