Caps vs. Senators 3-30-2010 Post-Mortem

Now we're starting to worry...  Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• Alexander "Slappy" Semin with two goals tonight skating on the top line.
• "Mighty Mouse" Mathieu Perreault with a go-ahead goal early in the third period.  The penalty he was called for later that the Senators tied the game on just reeked of being a makeup call.

THE BAD:

• The special teams were certainly "special" once again.  The Power Play was 1 for 5, scoring on their first shot on their first Power Play and then taking the rest of the night off.  After Slappy scored the first goal, the Power Play unit didn't register a shot on goal over the next two man advantages.
• Captain A.O. led a 2-on-1 late in the third period and instead of ripping the shot on goal against a shaky Brian Elliot, he passed it to Mike Knuble who had to do well just to get the puck towards the goal but ended up missing the net.  Captain A.O. seems to be overthinking out on the ice right now and needs to let the game come to him.
• And despite Slappy scoring two goals, putting him up on the first line was a big fat mistake.  Knuble needs to stay with Captain A.O. and Nicklas Backstrom in the playoffs because with Slappy on the first line, there isn't anybody going to the net and Slappy and Captain A.O. get in each other's way more often than not.

THE UGLY:

• As bad as the Power Play was, the Penalty Killers were even worse posting an ugly 1 for 4 tonight.  That folks is why the Caps were a collective +5 on a night where they lost and people think we have a defending and goaltending problem.
• And speaking of players overthinking, we could actually see Tom Poti thinking tonight.  He had two ugly turnovers because he held onto the puck for way too long.  He was a +1 and the only goal against he was on the ice for was the game winner, but we are not happy at all with his play tonight.  He seemed to improve once reunited with Joe Scorvo.
• Falling behind 1-0 on the first shot of the game and trailing after 1 period 3-1.  The sooner this starting slow ends the better.

Ok folks, we are starting to get a little concerned but we still happen to think that Bruce Boudreau holding Brooks "and Dunn" Laich out for the fourth consecutive game sends a mixed message to his team when he's trying to get them fired up for the playoffs.  The players know if these past four games meant anything,  Laich would have been playing in at least three of them and can tell that despite the words of the Head Coach, there's no real urgency right now.  Maybe Bruce is trying to wear down the player's cockiness and get their attention through some losses down the stretch here so that they'll play better come playoff time.  Or maybe there is something else going on here, we don't know, we're not in charge.  However, either way, we're glad that the Caps are getting this out of their system right now rather than trying to play through this in the first round again.  We're also glad that the Easter season will be over before the playoffs begin too.