Caps vs. Flyers 1-17-2010 Post-Mortem

Just your usual Lazy Sunday Afternoon Matinee... Onto the Battle Damage Assessment....

THE GOOD:

• We have a Brooks "and Dunn" Laich sighting!  Two goals and an assist today to earn the #1 Star.  He's definitely a guy we need to get going.  We don't think the lone assist was an intentional pass but it sure looked sweet.
  
• Mike Knuble gets a knoal as well from about where you would expect him to bang one in.
• Captain A.O. with one goal, one assist, three hits, and three takeaways.  The goal was his 30th this season and 249th of his career.  We hope that Ray Emery picked his jock strap back up after that Penalty Shot.

THE BAD:

• Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore got the win, made 30 saves, but looked very shaky in the first period when he gave up two goals.  That isn't what he should be doing if he wants to continue to get the starts.
• It can be a misleading stat but for the Caps to get outshot 33 to 22 is a problem.  Yes the Caps scored five goals on those 22 shots but the first three came from going to the net.  The Caps wanted to play fancy for too much of the game today.
• It's been awhile since we've seen the Caps get hemmed into their zone skating five-on-five but they couldn't handle the Philadelphia forechecking pressure for much of the first period.

THE UGLY:

• We admit, we like Matt "Omar" Bradley but boy did he look bad on his turnover in the first period that led to the second Flyers goal.  From where we were sitting it looked as Omar decided to give Arron Asham the puck so that Asham wouldn't hit him.  That is not the Omar we know and it is also the John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles Bonehead Play of the Game.
• Maybe the NHL sent out a directive to their officials that the Flyers are not to be blown out of games anymore???  That's about the only logical reason that we can come up with as to why the Caps were allowed only one stinkin' Power Play today.  And because Alexander "Slappy" Semin scored, the Caps had just eight seconds of Power Play time.  Because once again, playing a team known to favor the physical play, the Caps are whistled for way more penalties than the opposition, especially after taking a sizable lead.  On Friday night, the Caps had twice as many penalty minutes as the Thug Leafs (24 to 48).  Today, the Caps, who led the game from the 7:05 mark of the second period had three times as many penalty minutes as the Flyers did (4 to 12).  While the calls on the Caps were ligit in some fashion, there were numerous similar calls against the Flyers that were passed up.

Well folks, too bad we don't play the Flyers anymore in the regular season.  It really seems as though he Flyers just can't get out of their own way when they play us.  We also have to thank Flyers Head Coach Peter Laviolette for going with Ray Emery in goal over Michael Leighton today.  Emery made things easy for the Caps because he was having trouble keeping control of the puck and his crease area all game long.   We do however want to say that even though we'd rather not face the Flyers in the first round of the playoffs; we know that our playoff style of game is up to par with Philadelphia.  Yeah, we could use a little better defense and a simpler offensive attack, but the Caps weren't afraid to roam around in front of the Flyers' net and dig away at rebounds.  This could be a very long and fun run in the playoffs this year.

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