A muffled starting gun, perhaps?

Did none of the Caps read my last entry that the "RACE IS ON"? The answer to that would be a resounding, "NO, YOU IDIOT. Nobody reads this garbage, certainly not NHL players." I'll stop using all caps now, but seriously. You would have thunk the boys thought playing the #2 team in the East would be a cake walk. They thunk bad, and done got smoked.

Before I rail on all that was bad in that game.... and there was a LOT of it (crap, there's goes more all caps, sorry). I'll start with what was good.

1. Johnson's positioning was good for three of the goals. On Koivu's goal he overreacted and pushed himself completely away from the near post where Saku drained it.
2. I finished cooking dinner at 7:40 and was always a couple of minutes behind the game on the trusty DVR. I was able to skip commercials and flip to primaries coverage between periods. A nice and relaxing time with the remote was in my grasp, except...

... there was a matter of having to watch that game: ouch.

Ovie, who is normally never to fault, was getting out of position trying to tatoo Komisarek and seemed visibly off his game. And I think Kovalev must have called for a centering pass in Russian in the third when Ovie placed on his tape going the other direction. He looked befuddled.

Erskine. Mr. Mean-face was pretty exposed. I didn't like the pairing with Green when it was announced but didn't think it could look that bad. I won't recount the turnovers and penalties but will end by saying he should be used in tandem with a mobile partner that has a modicum of defensive responsibility (i.e. anybody but Green).

Semin. Lost. Fleischman. Lost. Pettinger. Lost. Greggie? Dead. Niedermayer!? Dead. You get the message.