Game 3 Caps @ Flyers 4-15-2008 Post-Mortem

It's not over yet, but it's close... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• It took almost three periods, but the Caps did finally start get consistent traffic in front of Martin Biron who continues to underwhelm. The problem was that the Flyers were standing in front of the cage too blocking 25 shots.
• We're starting to see signs of life from Viktor Kozlov who showed more willingness to get himself dirty tonight than he has in the first two games. Though we've put out a missing persons report for Nicklas Backstrom who has almost totally disappeared.

THE BAD:

• We were still waaay too loose in the first period tonight. Waaay too many clearing attempts that were soft dumps that were easily picked off. Waaay too many attempts to carry the puck up the ice which were poke checked away at our blueline. Waaay too many attempts to carry the puck over the Flyers' blueline that were stripped and shut down throughout the game.
• 1 for 7 tonight as the Power Play remains cold and even worse, the Penalty Killers had to kill off 6 penalties tonight. Not enough discipline and even though we didn't see it here in the D.C. area because of technical difficulties, could somebody please tell us what Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green was doing fighting Scottie Upshall :17 into the third period???
• Is there some clause somewhere that requires Scott Hartnell and that Scumbag Dani Briere to run Cristobal "WE MUST PROTECT THIS HOUSE" Huet at least once a game? While I'm not one for Ultimate Fighting on Ice, why hasn't Matt Kent Cooke and Matt "Omar" Bradley returned the favor on Biron?

THE UGLY:

• Tonight's John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles Bonehead Play of the Game goes to Milan Jurcina for his ugly turnover right in front of UA which gave Sami Kapanen an easy goal and the Flyers a 3-1 lead late in the first period.
• The Caps continue to get outshot in this series, tonight it was by a 33-19 score.

Well folks, we hate to say "We told you so" (yeah right...) but "we told you so." Back when we were first harboring dreams of making the playoffs, the Caps were laying eggs like this against teams that we knew (or at thought) would make the playoffs, we asked if you really wanted to see this? We asked if there really was a point? That's not to say that there aren't some good things that have happened and are happening right now. The town has rallied around this team better than it did 10 years ago and our young players are gaining valuable NHL Playoff experience this year. We happen to think that a large reason for our struggles right now comes from our young defense and young guns up front who are getting their first taste of NHL Playoff hockey and, while certainly better than they were last year, still need some polish to their games. We said last year when this team was struggling that you can see where it was heading and even as they struggle now in the playoffs, you still can see where they're heading. The better days for this franchise are still to come.