Smokin' crack makes me feel good

Yes it's true I've been hitting the pipe again, but it's amazing how amazingly optimistic it will make you about the playoffs race. The Caps first line played great, creating more than enough chances to win that game outright by a couple of goals. However, the rest of the team was offensively invisible.

Notes:

• Before he seriously challenge for loose pucks, Fleischmann needs to gain 20 pounds of testicles.
  
• Semin needs to either shoot or pass when he gets the puck. He can't do both at the same time and showed again that he can do neither just as well as trying to do both which is, of course, bad. Make sense?
  
• Green is still suffering from a swollen helmet because he has been mentioned by a fourth grade blogger in the same paragraph with Bobby Orr. Earth to Green: You have done nothing other than surprise people with your speed and decent wrister. Keep your head out of your ass, make smart plays, and you'll be the man. When you go end to end and wail a blind pass into the slot with three opponent's sticks between you and Ovechkin, you're not the man: you're behind the play.
  
• Huet was a friggin' stud (have I mentioned that before?)
  
• Kozlov played superbly everywhere he went (including when he went top shelf for the winner)
  
• The third line was good at defense and marginal at generating some perimter brand offensive chances
  
• The fourth line was above average and almost cashed in a couple ugly ones on some feisty plays by Bradley
  
• Eminger is back to his scaringly mad ways. He was about a 1/2 second behind the play on offense and then again on (gulp) defense. Who is the answer back there? Erskine? Lepisto? Mama Ovechkin?

In summary, they played a good defensive game but need to generate more solid threats throughout the lineup to make a true run at the postseason.

Tonight I was treated to a night of hockey in a great out of town spot called the Maple Leaf Pub in Houston. I called ahead to make sure they had enough TVs to accomodate a lone(ly) Washington fan and was assured they would do me right.

Sean seated me in a prime spot at the horseshoe bar with my Caps on Comcast right across the way. I must have been a treat to the fans of the Pens, Bruins, and Wings on the other side as I twisted, gasped, and screamed at the silent TV above their heads.

Anyways, full props to Sean and his great bar. Good night for the Caps.

Caps v Canes 2/23/08 - redux

[shiver... groan... shakes off cloudy beer head]. Where to begin about that one? I could blame it on a couple of non-calls such as Staal waterskiing behind Ovechkin as he carried into the zone in the 2nd. Or I could blame it on Fleischmann missing two glorious wide open nets but neither sufficiently explain what happened in Raleigh tonight.

This game was about depth and persistence. Washington has one and half lines that can score regularly while Carolina has boasted three for the last three years. They are banged up currently but seem to still have two solid scoring lines. Their goaltending was better and the defense was about a wash. We were handicapped by Erskine and they by the loss of Wesley. (Does anybody feel that we might have fared better if Erskine got lost on his way back from the dressing room before the 2nd? Or maybe that we institute the "one named dumbass per team" rule?). The cutesy turnovers were terrible as we blindly threw pucks to the center of the ice but mostly we were beat by consistent pressure that led to defensive breakdowns and then to penalties.

Carolina played with resolve and showed character as they fought back after getting blown out in the first 10 minutes. The Caps effort highlighted the need for a true top-6 center rather than playing Kozlov who's better suited at the wing (on most nights).

Enough analysis. I'm done with it... it was just a very dissappointing game and I felt I had to vent but don't feel the need to go into too much depth. It's pretty simple. If the Caps want to make the second season (forget about doing something when if they make it) they need to win tough games. This was another tough game...

That's all my beer-fuddled head can handle. At least my fantasy team moved up from 4th to 2nd... woohoo!