Caps @ Panthers 3-17-2009 Post-Mortem

Ugh... This was like watching a cripple fight... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• Well, first of all, we have to applaud the defensive effort. It was certainly better tonight than it was last night. We have a hard time giving kudos to a goaltender who pitches a 19 save shutout and doesn't have to make a single save in the third period. As better as the Caps were on defense tonight compared to last night, the Florida Panthers were downright wretched.
• The Caps did improve in the faceoff circle, tonight with only Michael "Meadowlark" Nylander being under 50% among the regular centers. It also helps that Florida as a team are bad at faceoffs.
• Congratulations of course go out to A.O. who notched his 400th career point with a secondary assist on Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green's empty net goal.

THE BAD:

• While there was a little more traffic in front of the net tonight, both goals scored on Tomas Vokoun weren't rebounds and Vokoun had a clear sight of both. Sergei (#3) Fedorov had the best rebound chance in weeks and couldn't bury the puck.
• We do agree with Bruce Boudreau that one indicator of intensity on offense is the number of Power Plays a team earns. The Caps earned only one tonight and to be honest, we can't think of any badly missed calls either.
• Tom Poti continued to struggle tonight. Maybe he needs a night or two or three off with some of his flubs, especially in the first period tonight.

THE UGLY:

• John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles gets undressed not once, but twice by the noted skill player Nick Tarnasky.
• And with the one Power Play chance tonight, the Caps acted like Florida in the third period and fired off a grand total of zero shots on goal. We thought this was the team's bread and butter?

For a team that is fighting for its playoff life, the Florida Panthers sure did not play like it tonight. You could be forgiven for thinking that we were about three weeks from Christmas, not Easter, watching this game tonight. This game was ugly from start to finish but we have no doubt that the words "gritty," "hard fought," and "character" are going to be used to describe this game. We couldn't disagree more; this game was about as ugly as it gets and in the
"New NHL," somebody had to win it. But a win is a win is a win and the Caps have inched closer to another playoff spot and division title. We only hope we can get through these next two and half weeks without going crazy.

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