Caps vs. Panthers 3-1-2009 Post-Mortem

Could have used Bill Guerin... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• We have to think that Don Cherry approved of A.O.'s goal celebration today.

THE BAD:

• We don't want to blame this game today on Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore because it wasn't his fault and we still don't think he's over his hip injury. However, no matter how you cut it, 4 goals allowed on just 14 shots is not acceptable, period.
• Get well soon Viktor Kozlov. Your replacement, Jay Beagle, was a -2 today. At least get Michael "Meadowlark" Nylander back in there.
• The Hockey Song returned....

THE UGLY:

• The Penalty Killers gave up goals and the first three power plays they faced and to make matters worse, had to kill off six penalties today.
• Yep, we're going there again as we complain about the pathetic job done by Stephane Auger and Brad Watson today. Folks, we don't complain as much about the penalties that are called on us (with the exception of the trip on Jay Beagle) as much as we're tried of the calls that aren't made on the other team. It became obvious in the first period that the Caps were afraid to engage the Panthers because they didn't want to take another penalty; especially since they failed to kill the first three. Florida on the other hand were more than willing to get their sticks into the act because they knew it wouldn't be called. For those of you who think that officiating doesn't have that large of an effect on the outcome of a game, you need to watch Craig Anderson trip A.O. in front of the goal with no call and you'll see how much of a difference it makes.

For the record, while the officiating was as bad as we've ever seen it today; it was not the reason why the Caps lost by four goals and should have lost by more. Plain and simple, the Caps didn't come to play today. Last Sunday they had the calls go against them but they prevailed because they were ready to play. Today they weren't, Florida was, and now the Caps have egg all over their face. The damage that this game does is magnified by New Jersey shutting out Philadelphia. The Devils take over the second seed from the Caps because they have more wins. The Devils also have a game in hand on the Caps. Should we end up in third place again this season by a point or on a tiebreaker, we'll look to this game as one where a better effort might have been the difference.