Trying a new strategy on Tiny Tower. Well, first a refinement. When I build a floor, I'll generally build a Service, a Recreation, a Retail, a Food, then two Creatives, then Service, then Recreation, then Food, then two Retail, etc. (Not counting the residentials in the middle, of course.)
The completely new part is that I'm trying to not fully stock floors. I'll stock the three coin item in a floor, then do the work of stocking the two coin item. But I won't actually put out the two coin item until the three coin item is sold. As soon as the 3c item sells, I'll immediately put out the 2c item and then start restocking the 3c item.
I'm still evaluating whether it works or not, but it feels like it should. I'll try to post again in a couple of days, when I have a better feel for how well (or poorly) it's working.
20120430
Series Begun
Well, tonight's game was certainly much more to my liking. As expected, the game started out pretty slow, with the two teams feeling each other out. There was more shooting, and less shot blocking.
It took a while, but the Caps got on the board first. The Rangers turned over the puck on an attempted keep-in that went to Ward. He, Knuble, and Aucoin ran up ice, 3-on-2, culminating in a very pretty tic-tac-toe passing play to Knuble at the mouth of the goal. Lundqvist never had a chance on it, nor did the defenders.
It took almost five more minutes of back-and-forth for another goal to be scored. Chimmer raced into the zone when Lundqvist was handling it behind the net, got the puck, and threw it in front of the net. Hendy was there, and tried to score shooting backwards between his legs. He got it past the defender, and mostly past Lundqvist, but Lundy managed to bat it a bit sideways after it was past him. But Chimmer came back to clean up the garbage, putting it into the net.
It wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a pretty goal, but oh, how it made me happy. That was really the first time I felt like the Caps were going to win.
They gave back a goal with forty-three seconds left in the period, as Shultz tried to defend two guys without help. Unsurprisingly, they got it past Shultz and Holtby.
It was not the first really terrible giveaway in the period (actually, Green and Hamr had several really terrible giveaways in the game; not sure how many were in that period, but I think the two of them had the majority of the Caps giveaways for the game), but, thankfully, was the only one that led to a goal. The one good thing is that the Caps ended up with only four giveaways on the game, so they were very good tonight, by that metric.
The Caps also managed to keep play moving between the two ends of the ice, and generated very good chances when they did get to the other end. The power play was also very good; converting on one chance, but generating a lot of shots and zone time.
Anyway, the Caps went into the first break up a goal, and held onto the same score all the way through the second period. I was starting to wonder if we'd be treated to another scoreless period in the third, but the Rangers tied things up at the seven minute mark. Knuble had just gone into the box for a high-sticking call (which I was a little miffed at, because 1, it was obviously accidental, and 2, the Rangers got away with a high stick only half a minute earlier). The Rangers kept the puck in the zone the entire time from call to score, getting the goal after working the puck around efficiently and then getting the puck deflected from in front of the goal.
As I alluded earlier, the Caps got their one-goal margin restored several minutes later on the power play. Backstrom won the faceoff, following the call, cleanly back to OV. OV skated to the middle of the ice, allowing Brouwer to set up a screen, then wristed it into the top of the net.
From there, play went back and forth, but nobody else managed to find the back of the net, so the Caps skated off with the close victory.
So, a visiting team has won; therefore, the series has definitely started. Let's hope the Caps can defend the phone booth better than they did in the opening round.
Overall, this was one of the Caps better efforts of the playoffs, with good chances, tight defense, and a lot more attention to keeping possession of the puck.
I'm still a bit mystified by Hunter's ice time decisions. OV got thirteen and a half minutes; the only players with less were Knuble, Aucoin, Ward, Chimera, and Semin.
The good part of that is that I think OV is showing more defensive effort the last couple of games. The bad part is that the players with game-breaking potential aren't being given as much time as the grinders.
Beagle's a great story, and all, and I certainly admire his effort, but he should not be the forward leading in ice time.
I guess I shouldn't complain too much (it worked), but I can't see how this works out well for the team, long-term.
Well, we'll see Wednesday, when the teams return to DC, I suppose.
It took a while, but the Caps got on the board first. The Rangers turned over the puck on an attempted keep-in that went to Ward. He, Knuble, and Aucoin ran up ice, 3-on-2, culminating in a very pretty tic-tac-toe passing play to Knuble at the mouth of the goal. Lundqvist never had a chance on it, nor did the defenders.
It took almost five more minutes of back-and-forth for another goal to be scored. Chimmer raced into the zone when Lundqvist was handling it behind the net, got the puck, and threw it in front of the net. Hendy was there, and tried to score shooting backwards between his legs. He got it past the defender, and mostly past Lundqvist, but Lundy managed to bat it a bit sideways after it was past him. But Chimmer came back to clean up the garbage, putting it into the net.
It wasn't, by any stretch of the imagination, a pretty goal, but oh, how it made me happy. That was really the first time I felt like the Caps were going to win.
They gave back a goal with forty-three seconds left in the period, as Shultz tried to defend two guys without help. Unsurprisingly, they got it past Shultz and Holtby.
It was not the first really terrible giveaway in the period (actually, Green and Hamr had several really terrible giveaways in the game; not sure how many were in that period, but I think the two of them had the majority of the Caps giveaways for the game), but, thankfully, was the only one that led to a goal. The one good thing is that the Caps ended up with only four giveaways on the game, so they were very good tonight, by that metric.
The Caps also managed to keep play moving between the two ends of the ice, and generated very good chances when they did get to the other end. The power play was also very good; converting on one chance, but generating a lot of shots and zone time.
Anyway, the Caps went into the first break up a goal, and held onto the same score all the way through the second period. I was starting to wonder if we'd be treated to another scoreless period in the third, but the Rangers tied things up at the seven minute mark. Knuble had just gone into the box for a high-sticking call (which I was a little miffed at, because 1, it was obviously accidental, and 2, the Rangers got away with a high stick only half a minute earlier). The Rangers kept the puck in the zone the entire time from call to score, getting the goal after working the puck around efficiently and then getting the puck deflected from in front of the goal.
As I alluded earlier, the Caps got their one-goal margin restored several minutes later on the power play. Backstrom won the faceoff, following the call, cleanly back to OV. OV skated to the middle of the ice, allowing Brouwer to set up a screen, then wristed it into the top of the net.
From there, play went back and forth, but nobody else managed to find the back of the net, so the Caps skated off with the close victory.
So, a visiting team has won; therefore, the series has definitely started. Let's hope the Caps can defend the phone booth better than they did in the opening round.
Overall, this was one of the Caps better efforts of the playoffs, with good chances, tight defense, and a lot more attention to keeping possession of the puck.
I'm still a bit mystified by Hunter's ice time decisions. OV got thirteen and a half minutes; the only players with less were Knuble, Aucoin, Ward, Chimera, and Semin.
The good part of that is that I think OV is showing more defensive effort the last couple of games. The bad part is that the players with game-breaking potential aren't being given as much time as the grinders.
Beagle's a great story, and all, and I certainly admire his effort, but he should not be the forward leading in ice time.
I guess I shouldn't complain too much (it worked), but I can't see how this works out well for the team, long-term.
Well, we'll see Wednesday, when the teams return to DC, I suppose.
On Broadway
[I wrote this earlier today, well before the game started.]
I don't have a whole lot to say about the Caps/Rangers tilt the other night. I watched it, starting shortly after it ended, as I was at a technology conference earlier in the day. One thing that hit me was that there was a remarkably small amount of action for a game that was moving a lot.
Some of that shouldn't be a surprise, I suppose. These were the top two teams in shot-blocking in the first round, I believe. So each team blocking about as many shots as they put on net shouldn't be as surprising as it normally would be. And I think that does a decent job of explaining why there were so few shots, overall.
It is good that the Caps were not outshot (for once) in the game. They were dead even at even strength, with the Caps holding a decent lead in power play shots. But Holtby did not have a good game, and the defense left him out to dry on Richards' goal in the third. And Lundqvist led his team, as he's done all season.
End result, it was a fairly long day for the Caps.
It didn't seem like the Caps spent nearly enough time in the Rangers' zone, although shots were even, as noted. I guess the Caps just did a better job of generating shots when they were there.
Overall, though, the 3-1 score in NYC tells us just that this series hasn't started yet. And it better get started tonight.
I don't have a whole lot to say about the Caps/Rangers tilt the other night. I watched it, starting shortly after it ended, as I was at a technology conference earlier in the day. One thing that hit me was that there was a remarkably small amount of action for a game that was moving a lot.
Some of that shouldn't be a surprise, I suppose. These were the top two teams in shot-blocking in the first round, I believe. So each team blocking about as many shots as they put on net shouldn't be as surprising as it normally would be. And I think that does a decent job of explaining why there were so few shots, overall.
It is good that the Caps were not outshot (for once) in the game. They were dead even at even strength, with the Caps holding a decent lead in power play shots. But Holtby did not have a good game, and the defense left him out to dry on Richards' goal in the third. And Lundqvist led his team, as he's done all season.
End result, it was a fairly long day for the Caps.
It didn't seem like the Caps spent nearly enough time in the Rangers' zone, although shots were even, as noted. I guess the Caps just did a better job of generating shots when they were there.
Overall, though, the 3-1 score in NYC tells us just that this series hasn't started yet. And it better get started tonight.
20120425
Warding off defeat
I've gone through this whole series with seriously low expectations, which has been very good for my sanity. A series where all seven games were decided by a single goal? Eep.
The Caps put Holtby out there in desperation, hoping he'd catch fire. Boy, did he ever. A save percentage of .943? That was better than management could have realistically hoped. Certainly, it was quite a bit better than expected. And thank goodness it was, because there was no margin for it to be worse. This was a series where the margins were so thin, it could have easily been a sweep for either team, just based on one or two bounces in each game.
Hendricks got the Caps started, with a nice deflection of a Carlson shot eleven minutes into the first period. I had to apologize to a friend, who called when that was scored. But I couldn't share the excitement, because I was only five and a half minutes into the game (my daughter had swim class that kept us from being home at the start).
I had just about caught up early in the second, when my daughter decided she didn't want to listen to us any more, so we had to send her to bed early. So I didn't get caught up to the game until well after Boston's tying score fourteen minutes into the second (Seguin was able to poke home a puck that trickled behind Holtby, which three Caps were unable to poke away). In fact, I didn't catch up until the intermission before overtime.
And I guess it was appropriate for the game to go into overtime, but I kept hoping the Caps would win one cleanly.
My low expectations kept me from getting too upset early in overtime when it seemed like the Caps couldn't clear the zone. I didn't even get too excited when they cut back to Ward and Knuble getting a turnover and rushing the Boston net. I wasn't surprised when Knuble's shot was stopped by Thomas, but I was shocked when Ward managed to cut to the rebound and put it into the net. In fact, even after one ref (or linesman, I didn't notice) indicated goal, I was still waiting for a goaltender interference call.
So my celebration was pretty restrained, but my joy wasn't.
I'd like to say something like, "this gives the Caps X days to get ready to face Y', but we don't know who or when yet. All we know is that it will be an away game, and that it won't be at Florida or Ottawa. But, no matter who it is, the Caps have a few days to heal up and recover. They'll almost certainly be underdogs, so let's hope that works in their favor. Again, the pressure on them will be pretty low.
And let's hope that Hunter's strategy doesn't turn the next series into another set of coin flips. If my expectations hadn't been so low, I'd've been ready to kill someone at several points in this series. I don't want to repeat that.
The Caps put Holtby out there in desperation, hoping he'd catch fire. Boy, did he ever. A save percentage of .943? That was better than management could have realistically hoped. Certainly, it was quite a bit better than expected. And thank goodness it was, because there was no margin for it to be worse. This was a series where the margins were so thin, it could have easily been a sweep for either team, just based on one or two bounces in each game.
Hendricks got the Caps started, with a nice deflection of a Carlson shot eleven minutes into the first period. I had to apologize to a friend, who called when that was scored. But I couldn't share the excitement, because I was only five and a half minutes into the game (my daughter had swim class that kept us from being home at the start).
I had just about caught up early in the second, when my daughter decided she didn't want to listen to us any more, so we had to send her to bed early. So I didn't get caught up to the game until well after Boston's tying score fourteen minutes into the second (Seguin was able to poke home a puck that trickled behind Holtby, which three Caps were unable to poke away). In fact, I didn't catch up until the intermission before overtime.
And I guess it was appropriate for the game to go into overtime, but I kept hoping the Caps would win one cleanly.
My low expectations kept me from getting too upset early in overtime when it seemed like the Caps couldn't clear the zone. I didn't even get too excited when they cut back to Ward and Knuble getting a turnover and rushing the Boston net. I wasn't surprised when Knuble's shot was stopped by Thomas, but I was shocked when Ward managed to cut to the rebound and put it into the net. In fact, even after one ref (or linesman, I didn't notice) indicated goal, I was still waiting for a goaltender interference call.
So my celebration was pretty restrained, but my joy wasn't.
I'd like to say something like, "this gives the Caps X days to get ready to face Y', but we don't know who or when yet. All we know is that it will be an away game, and that it won't be at Florida or Ottawa. But, no matter who it is, the Caps have a few days to heal up and recover. They'll almost certainly be underdogs, so let's hope that works in their favor. Again, the pressure on them will be pretty low.
And let's hope that Hunter's strategy doesn't turn the next series into another set of coin flips. If my expectations hadn't been so low, I'd've been ready to kill someone at several points in this series. I don't want to repeat that.
20120423
Those things men do
My wife and I weren't able to see Mirror, Mirror as we'd planned on Friday night (the 7PM show we were planning on was canceled), so we instead went to see Think Like a Man. I was a bit skeptical, based on the description, but choices were limited and reviews were pretty good, so off we went.
The first good news had to do with where we were seeing it. It was at the AMC at Mazza Gallerie, which we'd never been to. In fact, we'd never been to that shopping center together, and it was many years since either of us had gone at all. We lucked out with that movie being one of the two screens inside the Cinema Club. It's set up as a theater inside the theater, with a stocked bar, separate bathrooms, and very nice seats. It also paid for our parking, which would have been nine dollars. So things were going well before we even set foot in the screening room.
One thing I should point out, too, that I didn't know before we got there, is that this movie is actually based on a real book. Whether that book is meant as relationship advice or comedy, I don't know. My suspicion is that the book laid out several archetypal guys, and those became the main characters of the movie.
The movie, though, is definitely comedy. I could have done without the (occasional, and only slightly intrusive) narration, but that was only a very small complaint.
The movie itself was hilarious. I won't say I was laughing from start to finish, but I definitely spent a lot of time holding my sides. One thing I liked a lot was that almost none of it was driven by people doing stupid things.
So I would definitely recommend going to see it. Heck, if I were going to see another movie in the next two weeks or so, I'd strongly consider going again, myself. But that won't happen, so I'll just wait and get it on video.
The first good news had to do with where we were seeing it. It was at the AMC at Mazza Gallerie, which we'd never been to. In fact, we'd never been to that shopping center together, and it was many years since either of us had gone at all. We lucked out with that movie being one of the two screens inside the Cinema Club. It's set up as a theater inside the theater, with a stocked bar, separate bathrooms, and very nice seats. It also paid for our parking, which would have been nine dollars. So things were going well before we even set foot in the screening room.
One thing I should point out, too, that I didn't know before we got there, is that this movie is actually based on a real book. Whether that book is meant as relationship advice or comedy, I don't know. My suspicion is that the book laid out several archetypal guys, and those became the main characters of the movie.
The movie, though, is definitely comedy. I could have done without the (occasional, and only slightly intrusive) narration, but that was only a very small complaint.
The movie itself was hilarious. I won't say I was laughing from start to finish, but I definitely spent a lot of time holding my sides. One thing I liked a lot was that almost none of it was driven by people doing stupid things.
So I would definitely recommend going to see it. Heck, if I were going to see another movie in the next two weeks or so, I'd strongly consider going again, myself. But that won't happen, so I'll just wait and get it on video.
Hi-Low
Last night's Caps-Bruins game was certainly one for highs and lows. Before the game even started, we saw Pittsburgh eliminated. And I will say that I was impressed. It was 4-1 when I turned it on, and Philly was playing as if they were the team losing, not the ones leading. I can't say as I've ever seen the Caps manage that sort of play when ahead.
The first period was played pretty evenly, territorially, perhaps with a slight edge to Boston. The score, of course, didn't go the Caps way, as they were down on goals to Peverley and Krejci (the latter on the power play) and managed only one score on a Greenie slap shot that ricocheted off a defenseman.
The second period was almost all Caps, though. If I remember aright, they took a couple of minutes to get going, but then were just all over the place. They put the Bruins back on their heels, and were only a little bad luck (and, to be fair, some good goaltending from Thomas) from managing three or four goals. Unfortunately, it took them nineteen minutes to actually hit the back of the net (Chimmer, from Backstrom and Hamr), so they ended the period tied again.
And the third period was again back and forth, with Ference putting the B's up twelve minutes in, and OV almost bringing the house down when he tied it three minutes later. Fortunately or unfortunately, that was all the scoring for the period (probably fortunately, as Boston had the better of the play from there on out), so they went into overtime again.
And things continued to go poorly in the extra period. The Caps managed one or two chances, but spent too much time in their own end. And then Backstrom had his second bad turnover of the game (Nicky had a very up-and-down game, with two assists, but two mistakes leading to goals against. Ference's third period goal was largely due to him failing to hustle on a back-check), giving Boston the puck at the blue line, and they brought it in, and Seguin managed to skate past Wideman and Holtby to put it in the net from a sharp angle.
So everyone heads back to Boston for a winner-take-all game seven in Beantown. I'm hoping the Caps can manage to play at least two periods Wednesday the way they played the second period yesterday. If so, they'll move on comfortably. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
And let's hope Dale starts playing guys a bit more smartly. Ward is playing well, but is getting damned few opportunities (at the very least, he should be playing the PK. But he could also use more even strength time). Knuble played, but only for six minutes. Perreault, who's been very effective, did not plya at all. The one good thing I can say is that at least Beagle didn't get more time than OV (though he did get more than Semin, who was, again, very good while he was on the ice).
The first period was played pretty evenly, territorially, perhaps with a slight edge to Boston. The score, of course, didn't go the Caps way, as they were down on goals to Peverley and Krejci (the latter on the power play) and managed only one score on a Greenie slap shot that ricocheted off a defenseman.
The second period was almost all Caps, though. If I remember aright, they took a couple of minutes to get going, but then were just all over the place. They put the Bruins back on their heels, and were only a little bad luck (and, to be fair, some good goaltending from Thomas) from managing three or four goals. Unfortunately, it took them nineteen minutes to actually hit the back of the net (Chimmer, from Backstrom and Hamr), so they ended the period tied again.
And the third period was again back and forth, with Ference putting the B's up twelve minutes in, and OV almost bringing the house down when he tied it three minutes later. Fortunately or unfortunately, that was all the scoring for the period (probably fortunately, as Boston had the better of the play from there on out), so they went into overtime again.
And things continued to go poorly in the extra period. The Caps managed one or two chances, but spent too much time in their own end. And then Backstrom had his second bad turnover of the game (Nicky had a very up-and-down game, with two assists, but two mistakes leading to goals against. Ference's third period goal was largely due to him failing to hustle on a back-check), giving Boston the puck at the blue line, and they brought it in, and Seguin managed to skate past Wideman and Holtby to put it in the net from a sharp angle.
So everyone heads back to Boston for a winner-take-all game seven in Beantown. I'm hoping the Caps can manage to play at least two periods Wednesday the way they played the second period yesterday. If so, they'll move on comfortably. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
And let's hope Dale starts playing guys a bit more smartly. Ward is playing well, but is getting damned few opportunities (at the very least, he should be playing the PK. But he could also use more even strength time). Knuble played, but only for six minutes. Perreault, who's been very effective, did not plya at all. The one good thing I can say is that at least Beagle didn't get more time than OV (though he did get more than Semin, who was, again, very good while he was on the ice).
20120421
Squeaker by the bay
The Caps played their best game of the series today. They worked hard from top to bottom, weren't intimidated, and kept trying to win the game (as opposed to trying not to lose it).
Through that, they managed to never trail in the game, taking 2-0, 3-2, and 4-3 leads. And the only time they stopped trying to score was in the last minute and a half (after scoring that fourth goal). There was a lot of hitting in the game, which Boston led pretty handily, but it never got the Caps to back down.
This was the first game where the Caps looked like they could legitimately win (ie: with merely good goaltending), and, in fact, that is how they won. Shots were still 37-32 in Boston's favor (and really a bit worse than that, due to blocked shots), but I would bet scoring chances were even closer.
Hendricks had another very good game, good Sasha made another appearance, and Knuble even scored a goal (though I still would have sat him in favor of Perreault). OV was also looking quite dangerous again (and should have played quite a bit more than fifteen and a half minutes), even if he didn't factor into any of the goals.
And Holtby wasn't nearly as good as last game (not that he was expected to be), but still looked very good. He also had one absolutely jaw-dropping save where he had to go all the way across the goalmouth, and was still able to get his toe on the shot. I'm really not sure how he got across that fast, but no complaints.
So the Caps get a chance to close out the series tomorrow at home; let's hope they don't mail it in, because I guarantee Boston will not. And let's hope Holtby doesn't have his worst game of the series, because even today they still needed him to be excellent.
Which reminds me... I heard there's at least a small chance Neuvy is ready to start tomorrow. I don't think he will, even if he's "ready", but it's possible. It wouldn't make me scratch my head more than any of half a dozen other personnel decisions by Hunter in this series.
Update: I forgot to mention that Beagle also had an excellent game, getting a turnover and shooting for the Caps' second goal for the punctuation on his performance.
Through that, they managed to never trail in the game, taking 2-0, 3-2, and 4-3 leads. And the only time they stopped trying to score was in the last minute and a half (after scoring that fourth goal). There was a lot of hitting in the game, which Boston led pretty handily, but it never got the Caps to back down.
This was the first game where the Caps looked like they could legitimately win (ie: with merely good goaltending), and, in fact, that is how they won. Shots were still 37-32 in Boston's favor (and really a bit worse than that, due to blocked shots), but I would bet scoring chances were even closer.
Hendricks had another very good game, good Sasha made another appearance, and Knuble even scored a goal (though I still would have sat him in favor of Perreault). OV was also looking quite dangerous again (and should have played quite a bit more than fifteen and a half minutes), even if he didn't factor into any of the goals.
And Holtby wasn't nearly as good as last game (not that he was expected to be), but still looked very good. He also had one absolutely jaw-dropping save where he had to go all the way across the goalmouth, and was still able to get his toe on the shot. I'm really not sure how he got across that fast, but no complaints.
So the Caps get a chance to close out the series tomorrow at home; let's hope they don't mail it in, because I guarantee Boston will not. And let's hope Holtby doesn't have his worst game of the series, because even today they still needed him to be excellent.
Which reminds me... I heard there's at least a small chance Neuvy is ready to start tomorrow. I don't think he will, even if he's "ready", but it's possible. It wouldn't make me scratch my head more than any of half a dozen other personnel decisions by Hunter in this series.
Update: I forgot to mention that Beagle also had an excellent game, getting a turnover and shooting for the Caps' second goal for the punctuation on his performance.
20120419
The Mark of Kane
After sitting on it for over a year, I finally read Riordan's Red Pyramid recently.
I very much liked the story and the characters.
The story was a retelling of an old Egyptian myth that I had never read before. I think I liked it almost as much for increasing familiarity with Egyptian myth as for any of its own merits.
I had issues with it, however. One, the conceit of how it was told was that it was a found recording that the two main characters took turns making. Two, the two did not feel, to me, at all like teenagers (or near-teens).
The problem with the conceit was that the asides by the characters pulled me out of the story. They tended to be fairly funny, but they were still disruptive. There were also a few things that were said that just would not have been said like that if it was an actual recording.
And I have never met anyone nearly as young as them who would do some of the things they did (giving up power at the end, especially, although how logic-driven their decisions were also enters into it).
With that said, I liked the story quite a bit. It did a good job of mixing history and myth, as well as having interesting magic. It also did a good job of deciding what to explain, and what to leave mysterious. There was one historical note that I think was wrong, however. It mentioned Western museums having a lot of Egyptian artifacts, but the best stuff being in Egypt. From what I've heard several times, Egypt has nothing to match what's in the British Museum, or the Louvre, and would have difficulty matching the Vatican's collection. I thought that was one of the reasons such a big deal was made out of King Tut's tomb; the artifacts remained in Egypt (aside from tours).
And its use of US locations was quite good (the Washington Monument, above, was a fairly obvious one. The King's house wasn't).
So I've already bought the second book, and ordered the third. Hopefully, I'll get around to reading at least the former, soon. I'm not complaining, but my photography has definitely interfered with that.
Striking it even
Tonight was a pretty lousy night for the Caps' skaters. They spent way too much time in their own end of the ice, and didn't get nearly enough pucks directed at Tim Thomas.
Despite that, they did manage to get a pair of goals. The first, by MarJo, came on a 2-on-1 with him and Laich in the second minute. The second came on the power play, with Semin putting it into the far, upper corner from the left half wall came in the penultimate minute of the middle period.
Other than that, it was pretty butt-ugly. They gave up several odd-man rushes, on one of which, Peverley scored (MarJo broke up another with a phenomenal back-check). Scoring chances were 6-3 in the first, and 7-6 in the second. Shots, overall, were 45-21.
One of the few things that did go well for them was that they stayed out of the penalty box, giving the Bruins only one chance with the man advantage.
Other than that, though, it was the Braden Holtby show. He was an absolute wall, only giving up that one Peverley tally (which was, actually, not a good effort by him. We'll forgive him).
So the ultimate result was the Caps evening the series at a pair apiece. It's not encouraging for the Caps future, but it's a great present.
Two important notes related to Monday's game. One was the Perreault only played four minutes the entire game. This again speaks to Hunter's bad personnel management. If you don't trust him enough to play more minutes, put someone else in the lineup. Oh, and you should trust him more. What's this team's biggest weakness? Puck possession. Where does Perreault rate? Number three (Aucoin is a hair better in far fewer games, and Collins was better (or, more likely, luckier) in his two games).
And the second was that Backstrom failed to keep his cool when he saw OV tripped, and had a stick thrust into his face (by Peverley, I believe. Who was, according to Shanahan, maintaining a defensive posture. Not sure how you are purely being defensive when you've got your stick right up in someone's face, but the NHL thinks it's possible). He retaliated, getting a game misconduct (this was as time expired for the game), which was later expanded into a one game suspension. So he didn't play tonight at all, which certainly didn't help matters.
Also, Erskine played tonight, instead of Shultz, and wasn't too bad. He had some really good hits, and didn't get too out of position, that I can recall. I'd still rather have Dima or Shultz instead of him, but he wasn't a disaster.
In any event, Holtby assured the Caps of one more home game for the season, and the team heads back to Boston for game five on Saturday. Let's hope they can bring home another win. Preferably without being outplayed as badly as they were tonight.
Despite that, they did manage to get a pair of goals. The first, by MarJo, came on a 2-on-1 with him and Laich in the second minute. The second came on the power play, with Semin putting it into the far, upper corner from the left half wall came in the penultimate minute of the middle period.
Other than that, it was pretty butt-ugly. They gave up several odd-man rushes, on one of which, Peverley scored (MarJo broke up another with a phenomenal back-check). Scoring chances were 6-3 in the first, and 7-6 in the second. Shots, overall, were 45-21.
One of the few things that did go well for them was that they stayed out of the penalty box, giving the Bruins only one chance with the man advantage.
Other than that, though, it was the Braden Holtby show. He was an absolute wall, only giving up that one Peverley tally (which was, actually, not a good effort by him. We'll forgive him).
So the ultimate result was the Caps evening the series at a pair apiece. It's not encouraging for the Caps future, but it's a great present.
Two important notes related to Monday's game. One was the Perreault only played four minutes the entire game. This again speaks to Hunter's bad personnel management. If you don't trust him enough to play more minutes, put someone else in the lineup. Oh, and you should trust him more. What's this team's biggest weakness? Puck possession. Where does Perreault rate? Number three (Aucoin is a hair better in far fewer games, and Collins was better (or, more likely, luckier) in his two games).
And the second was that Backstrom failed to keep his cool when he saw OV tripped, and had a stick thrust into his face (by Peverley, I believe. Who was, according to Shanahan, maintaining a defensive posture. Not sure how you are purely being defensive when you've got your stick right up in someone's face, but the NHL thinks it's possible). He retaliated, getting a game misconduct (this was as time expired for the game), which was later expanded into a one game suspension. So he didn't play tonight at all, which certainly didn't help matters.
Also, Erskine played tonight, instead of Shultz, and wasn't too bad. He had some really good hits, and didn't get too out of position, that I can recall. I'd still rather have Dima or Shultz instead of him, but he wasn't a disaster.
In any event, Holtby assured the Caps of one more home game for the season, and the team heads back to Boston for game five on Saturday. Let's hope they can bring home another win. Preferably without being outplayed as badly as they were tonight.
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