Penn-ciling in a loss

Well, wasn't that a kick in the face?

I was finally able to turn the Caps game on around nine last night (thankfully, I'd remembered to set the recorder), and ended up wishing I'd just gone to sleep earlier.

Given the chance to seize first (and for OV to jump up to equal/beat Crosby), what happened?

Well, they came out pretty flat, and never (outside of the odd shift here and there) looked like they were in the game. In fact, they were doubled up in shots in all three periods (ok, one short in the second), even though they were down by three or four in the third.

I thought they did ok when they managed to get the puck in the offensive zone (and that shot differential gives an idea of how often that happened), but they were badly outclassed in the other two zones. And Holtby did not have a good game; not a terrible one (Crosby's PPG, for instance, I was amazed he was even close to saving), but not a terribly good one either.

Wow; finally looked at the Fenwick close mark (only nine minutes of the game). A complete white-wash. Wow. Hard to believe that's even possible. At evens, it was only 29% for. Man, I knew it wasn't good, but that's far worse than I thought.

I had a little quibbling; I thought there were a couple of penalties that weren't called (the puck-over-glass on Fleury, interference by Malkin on Martin's goal). But I don't think they mattered.

I hope the team takes this as a gut check, and an indication of how far they need to go. Because it sure looks like they have a long way to go (as I've been saying for a while).

I don't know how many other teams have the talent to exploit the Caps like what happened here, but there's certainly a few.

The only positive I can take out of it is that they did manage to get four points out of the last three games, which is better than I'd've predicted (I think I would have been hoping for three, and expecting two). But that's cold comfort, this morning.

Anyway, I guess it's over. Next up is Montreal, on Friday. Let's hope that, at the least, Green is back (and hey, let's try Dima over Urbom, too; it wouldn't be a huge difference, but I'd at least look to see if it is a difference). And maybe pull Fehr out of whatever purgatory he's managed to fall into? Go Caps!