The officiating hurts a major conspiracy theory that the NHL controls them for their own purpose. It would be a cinderella story for the Caps to make the playoffs, when they were mired at 14th at the mid season mark.

Ovie is why we are getting national tv coverage. I would think the NHL would like to play that story up with coach Boudreau and all…

That one act may have cost our team the playoffs. If he can’t control himself he doesn’t belong in the league anymore. Everyone is fortunate that his sucker punch didn’t result in injury. This had the potential to be as bad as Bertuzzi/Moore. Sure he didn’t ride on his back or anything like that, but let’s not even think what an unexpected blow to the head like that could have done.

Maybe this’ll help clarify for you.

There’s a difference between an offense being deficient, and one not taking advantage of the situation. If the Caps had taken advantage earlier in the game that might’ve been enough of a buffer –or a game killer that it wouldn’t have mattered if Boston took advantage at the end of the game (which they did).

With the exception of Cooke’s bad call in the second, the game went 36 min and 29 seconds without a call. I have yet to see a game go that long without something being called, or badly missed.

But that being said, after the first 5 on 3 goal didn’t bring a man back on the ice, the guys should have realized that they had to play a more disciplined game. We lost because of stupid penalties, pure and simple.

As for dumping Brash, or stripping him of his “A” that has been one of the more irrational comments I’ve heard in a while. One bad incident does not make him a pariah. I’ve been impressed with Brash’s play this year, his fight numbers are a lot lower than you would expect from a man with his reputation. And it’s reputation that has him on this team and keeps him on this team. I’m quite sure that there have been many aggressors who have had second thoughts about dropping the gloves while Brash was on the ice. And Brash has provided veteran leadership for a team that lacks experience, and will continue to do so.

Hnidy deserved every pound of force that was delivered to his face. But Brash should have done it a lot sooner than he did. Perhaps when Erskine challenged him on the hit on OV. Brash knew he blew it. And you could see how bad and small he was feeling when they showed him leaving the bench at the end of the game. He WILL take this game chalk it up to a bad move on his part, learn from it, and move on. But do not make him a pariah for doing something that almost anyone would have done.

And we can’t look at this as the straw that broke and kept us out of the playoffs. For that we can only lay the blame on the poor performance at the start of the year. The fact that we’ve been able to come back this far is a testament to the players and coaching we have.

Let them have a bad day, they’ll get through it, so should we.

(just my opinion, nothing humble about it)

Instead, the onus in such a superbly competitive game is for the referees to allow the two teams to battle it out until the bitter end — rather than determine it themselves. For whatever reason, today’s assigned crew couldn’t do this, and we ought to be grateful, I suppose, that what we saw today was anomalous: were more NHL games to look like this one in its conclusion, it would surely drive fans away.

Yes, the way the Caps played in the first 50 minutes should have yielded more than one goal. And had it done so, perhaps they would have won despite the refs’ terrible work. But the refs jobbed the Capitals today, no doubt about it.

2. While the call against Cooke appeared wrong to me, I’m not distressed about a 5min.

3. The Capitals penalty kill was actually doing a very good job overall.

4. The refs called what they thought they saw against the Caps. That happens every game to every team. Sometimes it looks like a trip even though the stick misses the falling skater. And I’m not going to argue that the Caps should not have been penalized.

The frustrating part is the lack of calls against the Bruins. I’m not saying phantom hooks or anything like that to balance out — I don’t buy that, but the blatant: a roughing or crosscheck which led to Brashear’s straight left (nice punch by the way) — the play was already whistled dead, players stopped skating; Chara playing with a broken stick — if it’s in his hand when he goes to make a play, even if he’s not using the stick to make said play, it’s still playing with a broken stick; interference several times through the game, most notably at the end.

But… see #1. The Caps had an opportunity to take control when Boston kept taking penalties at the beginning of the game. Crush ‘em then.

So now the Caps have a tired PK getting to play a rested Penguins team.

My non-Caps fan friend wondered aloud why Brashear wears an A. I started to explain about Clark’s long-term injury but stopped myself because he’s got a great point. No question of Brash’s utility on this squad. But those late-game infractions, if not worthy of a scratch tomorrow (a game in which we likely need him to dress), were certainly worthy of losing his chevron.

JUST KIDDING

SQUEAL LIKE A PIG, BOY

As for the end of the third, the Brashear 4-minute high sticking is valid. The two-minute roughing was a thing of beauty, but the way Hnidy got in his face with the stick up high, well it should have been 2 minutes for EACH of them, not just Brashear.

The Erskine phantom hooking was a joke. The Poti penalty was also a stretch, and at most it should have been 2 minutes for him as well as 2 for the Bruins — that messy scrum could have yielded several penalties.

Poti taking that slashing call = STUPID.

What is the point of veteran leadership when this is the example they set?