Yeah, We've Been Slacking...

Look folks, as we've said before, we have a 45 hour work week to begin with, so if you were expecting Post-Mortems after West Coast games, think again. Secondly, the past two home games have ended in gimmicks and quite frankly, sapped any desire we had to do a Post-Mortem.


This doesn't in any way shape or form however mean we haven't been paying attention...

• When the Caps took only 3 shots on goal during their 9 minute Power Play in Calgary and didn't score a single goal, the game was over and the Caps were going to lose.
• The never ending string of 5-on-3's didn't help matters either....
• We fell asleep during the Phoenix game but what we did see wasn't all that encouraging.
• We missed out on Dallas because after getting soaked watching Maryland-N.C. State, we were hoping for Ohio State to take care of State Penn.
• After watching the Nashville game, we wouldn't be at all surprised by another extended losing streak in the month of November. The Caps face the Buffaslugs this Saturday, have the Canes and Rangers at home followed by Olie Kolzig's return. The Caps then visit Carolina before playing a home and home with New Jersey and then head out west again. The only game before Atlanta that looks easily winnable right now is Ottawa next Tuesday. L.A. should be a win but is comes one night after the Caps play in Anaheim. Are we saying the Caps are going to lose all these games? No, but they won't be easy either and some serious work needs to be done in order to win those games.
• While Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore is still adjusting to the team in front of him, he's also taking a little too long to get "warmed up" in games. The blueline also has some really off nights which doesn't help Theodore either.
• We could have sworn we read just last year about how the coach wanted somebody to get in front of the net like Tomas Holmstrom on the Power Play.
• While it is only one month and nine games into the season, how funny would it be if Alexander Semin beats Evegni Malkin-Lindros out for the same awards A.O. took home last year?
• And speaking of A.O., we've all heard in some fashion about the revolving door that is his love life right now. He is currently making $9 million a season right now so why isn't a Russian mail order bride a possibility??? (Why did we start thinking about this? Click here to see why)

And finally, add us to the chorus of folks who said "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" to the undeserved two year extension to John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles. We've given serious thoughts to restarting the George McPhee Watch again because of this monstrosity. We don't think Erskine Bowles is worth $1.25 lettalone $1,250,000.00 a season especially when you have highly touted prospects in Hershey you're dying to get into the NHL but can't because of cap restraints.

First of all, let us state that this 2 year $2.5 million contract only makes some sense if and ONLY IF Brian Pothier never returns from his concussion. But even then, it wastes a roster spot on a player that two years ago was available the day before training camp started. He hasn't gotten any better as he still makes the same stupid plays and doesn't have the footspeed to recover from his misadventures. Secondly, if you were expecting/wanting to see Karl Alzner this season, forgetaboutit; you're not going to pay a guy $1.25 million to patrol the press box which was Erskine Bowles excels in outside of getting burned in the neutral zone. Furthermore, a little known clause in the CBA dictates that extensions signed during the season can only allocate $$$$$ that is currently available under the cap combined with the $$$$$ that will become available on July 1st when expiring contracts expire. What this means is that of the roughly $13 million in contracts we have expiring after this season, $2.5 million of it has already been "tagged" (using the CBA term) for Erskine Bowles and cannot be used to provided extensions for Sergei (#3) Fedorov, Eric Fehr, Boyd Gordon, Shaone Morrrissonnn, Milan Jurcina, Jeff "Sargent" Schultz, and Brent Johnson. Not exactly a collection of key players but 2010's FA's could very well need the extra $.713 million that Erskine Bowles is getting and wouldn't it be nice to lock Federov up for next season before July? Also, considering that we need a true Power Play quarterback on the blueline, this contract makes that much harder to find and afford. Finally, Tyler Sloan showed he could take up space about as well as Erskine Bowles does, is a year younger and makes less than Erskine Bowles did even before the extension.

Simply put, this is a contract that is going to come back to haunt us.