Caps vs. Thrashers 11-25-2008 Post-Mortem

Yes, we saw this one (it's not like we had an Alumni Smoker to go to or anything...) Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• We finally got John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles out of the lineup.
• Well, with three goals and an assist A.O. now has 29 points on the season and 339 for his career. Three more points and he will tie Steve Konowalchuk for 17th on the Caps All-Time Scoring list. A.O. now has 175 goals in his career which places him six goals behind Michael Pivonka and Dale Hunter who are tied for 8th on the Caps All-Time Goal Scoring list.
• We'll give the Power Play credit for getting some bounces tonight and going 2 for 4. What impressed us the most though was that the Caps were able to set up their Power Play and weren't scrambling in the offensive zone which can be a problem.
• We only noticed Karl Alzner once tonight when he was getting roughed up behind his own net in the second period. That's a good thing because if you notice a defenseman, it's either because he scored a goal or got beaten badly on a play and gave up a goal. Alzner was even on the night and the one time we noticed him (as he was getting roughed up), he didn't turn the puck over so we feel safe saying he had a good start to his NHL career tonight.

THE BAD:

• With the way Atlanta was playing, especially goaltender Ondrej Pavelec, this game should not have been this close, even with all the Hershey call-ups playing tonight.
• And speaking of call-ups, Sami "Sosa" Lepisto was getting driven past tonight more than a signpost on I-95. We thought for a second it was Erskine-Bowles out there wearing 47.
• We know there are injuries but Tyler Sloan has no business skating on the top defensive pairing in the NHL.

THE UGLY:

• The Penalty Killers were 1 for 3. Decent if it is the Power Play, pathetic if it is the penalty kill.
• Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore's save percentage takes another savage beating as he gives up 3 goals on just 18 shots. Some might want to blame the defense in front of him but Theodore was not controlling his rebounds all night and it was the reason why Atlanta was able to stay in a game they should have been blown out of.

This is a brutal portion of the Caps schedule with 15 games in 25 days with three, three games in four nights runs. The Caps didn't look as sluggish tonight as they did for two and half periods in Minnesota on Monday night but you could see players coasting out there tonight as the Caps got up by three goals. Should some of the walking wounded return this weekend, the Caps could get some more life but you typically expect that out of players who are just called up from the minors. Either way, the fact that the Caps got two points out the game tonight is good. We wonder if the nattering nabobs of negativism will complain about all the Hershey players because tonight was a far cry from what we saw last year when we played Atlanta the night before Thanksgiving.

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