Blowing in the wind

I wasn't able to watch all of the Caps/Canes game the other night. My DVR didn't record it, for some reason, and I didn't try to turn it on until almost half-way through the second period. Then, I went upstairs at the period break to get the kids to bed, and missed another five minutes of the third.

All in all, it was disappointing. Fehr's line still looks pretty bad in its own end (and hasn't done the good job of intercepting passes in the offensive- and neutral-zones since game one), although I did miss their goal in the first. Erskine still looks pretty terrible (actually, I'm beginning to wonder if he's even fit for third pairing).

Holtby looked pretty decent; there was nothing he could have done on the first goal. And the second? Well, I was surprised he didn't get all the way across, but Semin does have a wicked shot, and it was 5-on-3, so I'm not terribly upset.

OV continues to look like a force of nature, now with five goals already. I can't see how that's a sustainable pace, but nothing really jumps out as deserving regression (maybe shooting percentage, although that's not absurdly high, either, considering his eight shots per game). My reaction about his line, and defense, from game one definitely was out of line. Their Corsi and Fenwick is pretty darned good (60%, all situations).

One bright spot was that the Caps finally ended a period with the lead. Yes, sad to say, the first period of this game was the first one all season where the Caps led. Ur
bom (recently claimed off waivers from New Jersey) played and had a quiet sixteen minutes and change (and for a defenseman, that's a good thing).

Unfortunately, that's about the best that can be said about the game. Nothing went spectacularly badly, but nothing really went well, either.

And so, it ended with another Caps loss, this one to a (once and future) division rival.

The one bit of encouragement (slight though it is), is that the Caps ratio of goals, 5-on-5, with score within a goal, is unsustainably low. It will improve, just about no
matter what the Caps do. Less encouraging, though, is that their Corsi and Fenwick under the same circumstances, are not good (49% and 47%, respectively). Not terrible,
but not promising. But they can't keep shooting 4.5% under those circumstances. They have plenty of legitimate NHL talent, so that will not continue.

Let's just hope that that change comes soon.