Two Steps Forward, One-and-a-Half Back
This one really hurt. The great gains made Friday in Newark were swiftly returned against a lesser foe Saturday at home. It seems incongruent that so stellar a team effort to open a weekend could be followed by so collosal a mess of stinky individualism 24 hours later. But that's exactly what happened, and more importantly, it's what happens when George McPhee's core collection of 20 to 24-year-olds, many of whom are playing their first meaningful games in March in their NHL careers, are pitted against an equally desperate, more veteran club.
Frustrating as it is, it's actually supposed to be this way. Call it, growing pains.
I shared a post-game elevator ride with Saturday night's CBC broadcast team, silently listening to the commentators dissect the downside of so much "skilled youth" skating in high-pressure, high stakes, unchartered territory. The broadcasters were deeply appreciative of the young Caps' abilities -- and deeply convinced of their struggle down the stretch. Not certain doom, mind you, just certain struggle. Verizon Center throngs of 17- and 18,000 strong nightly will attempt to will the Young Guns into first place in the Southeast from outside the plexiglass. But the community of the fervid and faithful will be powerless to effect any shortcuts through the inexperience out on the ice. The cold hard reality is that over the next five weeks, much of them under the bright CBC lights, there will be moments of great glory juxtaposed by evenings of ugly infamy.
Just as there should be.
Bruce Boudreau wanted Friday night's 60 minutes against the Devils "bottled" and replicated against the Leafs. A year from now, the wager here is, he'll get it. Now, though, he can't. Likely, he knows this, as does his general manger. That all three of Tuesday's trade dealine acquisitions were north of 28 in age is almost certainly no coincidence. Now, though, they must be introduced and acclimated to their stranger teammates. Some nights (Friday) they'll appear to have been partnered together for two or three seasons, on others (Saturday), like speed dating acquaintances.
How many times Saturday night did a lone Cap attempt to puck-carry past three or four perfectly positioned Leafs? (About 25.) This is precisely what the young and the inexperienced and super-skilled do under duress. It isn't out of selfishness -- the opposite, actually. The supremely skilled but novice desperately want to hero-lead their teammates through the tough times.
"We tried to beat four guys," Sergei Fedorov said afterward. "You need to use everyone."
"We need to get used to each other," he added.
The good news is that there's resiliency and composure among this band of very young brothers. I expected to see a bunch of beaten and downcast Caps in the room afterward. The really young were quiet, but there were no tantrums, no moaning and groaning, no 'woe is us' from a single one. Meanwhile, vets like Fedorov and Kolzig were stoic and calmly, thoughtfully analytic. Ugly as it was, Saturday was merely one night's failing with more than 15 games remaining. A week's slate with high-quality opponents produced four of a possible six points.
The team's coach, however, was appropriately angry.
"We got outworked in a game we couldn't get outworked in," he said. "Today we were all individuals . . . We got what we asked for."
A reporter, noting the brilliance of the night's first power play, had the four thereafter characterized for him by Gabby before he could finish his question -- they "looked horrible," the coach interjected. Insidious individualism -- again cropping up out of good intentions -- had infected the man-up units as well.
More rough returns from hard lessons still be learned: the failed finishings from cross-ice and back door setups -- a Saturday night of seemingly a dozen whiffs: "We've gotta be so hungry to score that we bear down and bury them through the back of the net," the coach reflected.
Sunday will offer no instruction, no meeting room shouting from the head coach. "A mental health day," Gabby announced it.
The effects of stress are felt at every age.
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