Caps vs. Buffalsugs 11-25-2009 Post-Mortem

We didn't see that one coming...  Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• No we're still not sold yet but Semyon "The Saviour" Varlamov had an outstanding game tonight.  While, the Buffaslugs have a pathetic offense, he still did very well keep them off the scoreboard and deserved the shutout.
  
• Perennial whipping boy, Jeff "Sergeant" Schultz played a solid game tonight, finishing with a +2 which is not easy when your partner these days is Mike "BEAM ME UP" Green.  We wonder why Brian Pothier got the 3rd star ahead of him?
• The Penalty Killers came through in a big way tonight killing off a major penalty, with no shots on goal allowed, and then shutting down another Buffaslugs Power Play in the third period.

THE BAD:

• Seriously folks, if we didn't know any better, we would think that Green didn't want to go to Vancouver as a member of the Canadian Olympic team.  Maybe when the inevitable rejection comes, he'll settle down and focus on getting his game back together.
• While the Caps did a good job of maintaining their coverage in the defensive zone, they were giving away the puck in their defensive zone too much tonight.  Luckily the Buffaslugs are so bad offensively.
  

THE UGLY:

• The officiating tonight was downright atrocious.  Yes, the Caps won the game and we will admit that the boarding call on A.O. was legit. The league has been seeking to crackdown on those hits recently and it had to be called.  However, we believe that because Paul Devorski (is anybody surprised to see his name involved in this???  We aren't.)  and Kelly Sutherland refused to call any penalties before that one, A.O. felt as though he could take that run and get away with it.  After all, right before that there was a clear cut interference committed by Tyler Miles that was ignored.  But what upsets us the most is that for the second time this calendar year, the Washington Capitals played an entire game without getting a single Power Play chance.  With as much talent as the Caps have, the only reasons at all for the Caps to not get a single Power Play is either the other team is letting the Caps run wild or the referees just flat out refuse to call any penalties on the Caps opponent.  Before Game 7 against the Penguin Scum back in May, when the Caps also didn't get a single Power Play, we couldn't find the last time that the Caps went through and entire game without having a Power Play chance.  Now for the second time in just six months, a team playing the Caps isn't required to kill a single penalty.  You want to tell us how were nuts to think that the league has a problem with its officiating and that the Caps are getting hosed more often than not?

Well, we'll give credit where credit is due.  We didn't think that the Caps could survive a low scoring game against the Buffaslugs, but that's exactly what happened.  And a lot of the reason why the Caps did was because they came up with a sixty minute effort.  Though that's not to say that the Caps played a perfect game or that they couldn't use some of the walking wounded to get back into the lineup.   But with a couple of days off and four games in the next 10 days, the Caps needed this win to get things back on track.  Now we need to continue to build upon it.

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