Caps vs. Ning 11-10-2008 Post-Mortem

Kolzig is welcome to tend the visiting goal at the Verizon Center anytime he wants... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• Scoring on the first shot of the game is impressive enough, but scoring on your first two shots is definitely a good sign.
• If it holds up, A.O. has ended the longest goal scoring drought of his career with a "dirty goal" that was the only kind he was going to score considering he's still very gun shy right now as he easily could have had more than the six shots on goal he was credited with tonight.
• We'll give Brent Johnson credit for another game well-played but with two sets of three games in four nights with only one of those the next six games at home, Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore going to get his share of icetime.

THE BAD:

• We can understand to an extent sitting on a three goal lead for two periods but giving up 30 shots over the last two periods is a recipe for disaster.
• Not only was the Power Play ineffective tonight (except at killing the penalty for the Ning) but the Penalty Killers had a tough night too allowing 2 goals on 5 chances. Worst of all was the 12 shots the Ning got on those five Power Plays compared to the 4 the Caps took on their three.
• Milan Jurcina is starting to look like a player trying to play his way out of the lineup.

THE UGLY:

• John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles had one of his "tough" games tonight with too many gaffes to document. However, we can't blame him for all of them as all too often Bruce Boudreau left him out there against the Lecavalier line which he is ill-equipped to handle. For getting outcoached by Mullet Melrose Boudreau wins the John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles Bonehead Move of the Game Award for tonight. At least it didn't cost us any goals, tonight.
• Good old Steve Eminger, a -3 tonight but what was really ugly was the running around he did on his old team and the fact that the Caps didn't want to stand up to him. Was it because they felt sorry for him?

Now that we've gotten the Olie Kolzig tribute out of our system, we again remind you that we didn't want to see this. Kolzig playing on another team just trying to hang on when his better days are clearly behind him. We freely admit that we thought Kolzig would play the game of his life tonight and it was pretty clear that he didn't. If he did and this was the best he could do at this point in his career, then he shouldn't wait until the end of the season, he should retire now. That being said, it was good to see the team move on from Kolzig as it is pretty clear that the Ning aren't going anywhere and the Caps have plans for a long April.

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