Caps vs.Hurricanes 3-3-2009 Post-Mortem

This won't be pretty folks... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• Congratulations to Alexander "Slappy" Semin on scoring his 100th NHL goal.

THE UGLY:

• Sure the Power Play was officially 1 for 4 but they were outscored 2-1.
• Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green didn't look too motivated on either of those shorthanded goals and that was a large part of why he finished tonight a team worst -3.
• We've said before that we're not impressed with Michal Neuvirth who got the surprise start over Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore who has come down with the flu. Tonight you saw exactly why. While the defense was certainly lacking, the goaltending was even worse. We understand he's young. We understand he's a rookie. We like to think he has a bright future ahead of him, but the least he can do is wave at the puck as it goes by him. Too many times tonight he didn't challenge shooter enough, was completely frozen by the shooter, and then didn't move until the puck was in the net.
• For those of you who think "they don't shoot the darn puck enough," Cam Ward had 39 saves tonight. Only one that would be considered spectacular but otherwise, he didn't face much traffic, didn't have to scramble to cover rebounds, and had what could be fairly called a routine night.

Far be it from us to tell somebody else how to do their job but we happen to believe that General Manger George McPhee has to make some kind of trade between now and 3 pm tomorrow. An occasional bad game on home ice can be expected, but two stinkers in a row for a team that fancies itself as a serious Stanley Cup contender cannot be tolerated. Trading a player off the roster will shake up the players that remain and bringing in a player from a team well out of the playoff hunt will add life to the locker room. We admit, it won't be easy for McPhee to pull something off but he's gotten it done before and we don't see why he can't do it again. Because folks, with the playoffs getting closer and closer, something has to be done to get this team geared up for the playoffs because right now, they are as far from playoff ready as they could be.