Caps Can't Be Finished

Well folks, we've been spending too much time playing Poker online (not for real money, we're using our real names on Facebook) to do much blogging but after the signing of Brendan Morrrissonn yesterday, we felt as though we needed to chime in.

First of all, backing up to the first of the month, the signing of Mike Knuble looks to be a dangerous move for us. While CW says that the Caps need somebody willing to go to the net, is a 37 year old the right guy for that job? Sure he says he's "a young 37" and "a low mileage player" but he plays a high mileage style. Secondly, signing him for two years is a little much in our book. While it isn't as long as Michael "Meadowlark" Nylander's contract, we still haven't seemed to learn the lesson yet. Of the "sensible" free agents we've brought in since the lockout, Tom Poti is the only one even remotely close to providing us with what we expected and even then, Poti could still be classified as a disappointment.

Now adding Morrrissonn to the mix (not to be confused with and no relation to Shaone Morrrissonnn) is real a head scratcher. Yes the Caps lost Viktor Kozlov and Sergei (#3) Fedorov but will Knuble and Morrrissonn really replace those two? General Manager George McPhee certainly thinks so as he climbed to the top rope and dropped a Randy Savagesque elbow on Kozlov with his statement of “We replaced a 13 goal scorer with a 20 goal scorer.”

OUCH!

You don't see McPhee do that everyday though it should be noted that two years ago, we weren’t so much concerned about scoring “dirty goals” or “playoff goals” if you will as we were about just simply making the playoffs. We got Kozlov to get those extra gimmick points we had been leaving on the table to help get us into 8th place in the Conference.

Kozlov never really provided that and now he's gone. So the Caps turned to the reject bin again to try to fix a hole.

Getting back to Morrrissonn, we wonder what the second line is going to look like because we've seen time and again here in D.C., European wingers play better with European centers. Alexander "Slappy" Semin on the first line with A.O. and Nicklas Backstrom is something we've seen plenty of and we've had success with it. But is it really a long term solution? A second line of Morrrissonn, Eric Fehr, and Mike Knuble could work. But Tomas Fleischmann looks to be the odd man out and Meadowlark is just going to occupy roster and salary cap space.

But there has to be more moves to come. First of all Brent Johnson doesn't have a contract, from anybody, right now. It isn't as if there weren't teams looking for backups. We think Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore is going to be traded and McPhee has asked Johnson to cool his jets and wait for the trade to be finalized. Furthermore it has been noted that the Caps think that Karl "Malden" Alzner has done all he can do in Hershey, with seven defensemen already on the roster, the Caps need to make space for Alzner. We think Poti, Morrrissonnn, Brian Pothier, and/or Milan Jurcina (only because he could hit a home run in arbitration) could be traded. And this doesn't even take into account John Carlson, a defenseman the Caps would like to get into the NHL for a little bit next year.

So if you're one of those who cringe every time a UFA defenseman signs elsewhere, please understand, McPhee has more work to do before this summer is over.

Now if you excuse us, we have to go get beaten on the river again with pocket rockets by some schmuck with a king-five off suit...