I guess there's a reason that defensemen spend a couple years getting seasoned in the minors, huh? I can't speak directly to how terrible that the blueline played last night against Florida, but can from different accounts see that some troubling trends are emerging from the Caps.
Most of their current woes are the result of the defense facing constant pressure and coughing up the puck on the forecheck. To alleviate this, the defense has been instructed to make safe choices and simplify their game. This leads to the second biggest problem which is... generating consistent offense. Currently the Caps are suffering from poor outlet passes being generated from our defensemen. Poti, Green, and even Fedorov in his limited duties have been stalwarts on getting the puck into the attack zone with speed. Currently, the puck gets to the neutral zone but loses momentum as our forwards have to fight to retain possession... let alone enter the attack zone under control.
The short term answer is to keep it simple and not make dumb mistakes such as delay of game penalties (i.e. Fehr), obstruction in the offensive zone (i.e. Nylander), and save the inevitable infraction for those that are really needed like getting caught flatfooted at the blueline (i.e. ALL CURRENT DEFENSEMEN). The longterm response is get better soon.
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