The measure of how razor-thin a margin from failure this Capitals’ team carried with it the past four months in climbing out of its massive season-opening hole was calculated with certainty this weekend: When at long last Bruce Boudreau’s valiant hockey team lost two consecutive games, it lost as well its plausible postseason aspirations.
Mathematically, of course, they’re still in it, and in his post-game press conference Sunday Head Coach Bruce Boudreau alluded to a pre-determined number of victories the organization believed it needed to qualify for the postseason, but going forward “now we give ourselves less chance of error,” he said with resignation. Not long after he arrived in D.C. in late November Boudreau spoke of good hockey teams needing to go “on runs” of six or seven games — and usually, needing more than one of them over the course of the season. His first Capitals’ team hasn’t, and most likely won’t — particularly with a six-game road trip looming in little more than a week’s time.
So much that is so positive has settled in on the Washington Capitals’ organization this season — once the right man for the bench job was put in place. But Sunday was a grotesque reminder that a sordid past with one particular Pennsylvania franchise remains firmly in a curse’s hold.
As if determined by a hockey oracle, newcomer Nicklas Backstrom on Sunday added to the lore of lousiness in this organization’s rivalry, such as it is, with Pittsburgh: He saved his hardest and most accurate wrist shot of the season for the back of his own net, with under a minute left in a tied and must-win hockey game. The Fatal Flub against the Flightless Fowl reared its ugly head again. If you didn’t think Sunday’s game could have had such an outcome, you’ve necessarily sat out the past 20 years of hockey between these clubs.
“That was officially heartbreaking,” Bruce Boureau told the press afterward. “Last night we’ll take some of the blame for ourselves for not making the right [decisions], but that last minute [on Sunday], you get running around . . . I feel really bad for Nick.”
In keeping with history between these clubs, statistical victory bore little relation to Sunday’s outcome. It goes without saying that the Capitals on Sunday enjoyed a healthy advantage on the shot clock (38-26). They enjoyed a nearly 2-1 margin of victory in faceoffs (39-22). They killed off all five Penguins’ power plays and tallied twice themselves while a man up. No matter.
It was difficult to assess the impact this weekend had on the team’s psyche in the post-game locker room Sunday — too many Capitals were sequestered in the trainer’s room — foremost among them Alex Ovechkin — for treatment. Brooks Laich emerged at one point with fat bags of ice affixed to three of his four limbs. This team has made supreme physical sacrifices to crawl into early springtime postseason competitiveness, but one got the sense late Sunday afternoon that there may not be more within them to give. Growing pains of recent weeks have been joined, broadly, by joint, back, and limb ones.
Of Ovechkin’s status, Boudreau would only say, “He looked like he was wincing a little bit, but he doesn’t let you know [when he's hurt], he’s so tough.”
Ovechkin has this season, in hugely heroic fashion, recast the way Washington views the Capitals and hockey. But he has two large, unconquered tasks almost certainly requiring at least a fourth season’s experience: getting the Caps into the postseason and doing something about this madness and mess too often befalling the Capitals by the Pens. On a Sunday like today, the latter challenge itself makes his one hundred-plus million bucks seem like underpayment.
A terribly uncomfortable question we asked of Caps’ management last autumn also re-emerged early Sunday evening: did it act fast enough in remedying a wrong situation behind the bench? As the sun set on a sour weekend of hockey in Washington, that answer appears to be no. A hole believed dug deep was in fact a crater.
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am i horribly wrong to think that all the mistakes/growing pains we’ve seen lately wouldn’t still be occuring if we’d dumped hanlon earlier? would it be a matter of us cracking around the edges in the playoffs instead of right before? was the team going from cellar to cup during the course of one season a little unrealistic? i am not saying we were wrong to proclaim “the rebuild is over”. but i also won’t say i am in any way dissapointed by the bridge that this season has acted as between an unfortunite past and a stanley cup season.
This is what happens when a well-rested talented team plays against a day-before battle-worn one.
I even noted yesterday that the 6-minutes at the end of the Boston game was going to be the difference in today’s. As such… around the middle of the third period, it was obvious to see that after playing well and outperforming (but not outscoring as per normal against the Penguins), the Caps just plain ran out of steam. Players made mental errors, poor passes, and were slow to the puck and to get to the bench.
As per what normally happens against the Penguins, the Caps outplay, outperfrom, out-hit, outshoot, but the Penguins take advantage of the one or two mistakes and win.
The onus of winning 17 games in a row (starting a few games ago) was never going to happen. And only a fool would think that any team in the current NHL would have that kind of run at the end of a season. Will the Caps win enough in the remainder of the season to make the playoffs? Maybe. But to pin all of fans’ hopes and aspirations on this weekend is rediculous though. Any reason(s) the Caps have for not making the playoffs happened long before the games of this month.
Grooven, a lot of folks outside this blog thought this week — particularly this weekend — positively crucial to the team’s postseason hopes. Beginning with the team owner himself, who after Monday night went on TV and declared that the team need to win two of the week’s remaining three — primarily, of course, because it looked to be the toughtest set bunched in a week here on out. Peter Laviolette, incidentally, might one “fool” who believes his team capable of winning 17 in a row. So do his players.
That Game itself was as classic as the previous meeting between the two clubs was. The Capitals dominated shots and faceoffs yet the game was a deadlock until 19:33 of the third period. Great Game by both teams.
Difference between thinking and believing. When one is playing on a team, you have to believe, because if you don’t have that, then you let down setting up for failure. But just as they believe they’ll do it, they don’t genuinely expect to (that’d be the thinking part).
Of course Leonsis declared that. Losses now make reaching the playoffs that much harder.
And while saying that this weekend is crucial to playoff hopes, that’s a slapdash fix on an abyssmal start. Does that mean give up? No.
But to pin playoff failure on two games at this point in the season is to overlook the first months of the season, or the losses to Carolina and Florida last month. There’s a reason the entire season is played. Or does everything before this weekend not count? Something referenced in the original filing… the crater as opposed to the deep hole.
Ok so here is my question that probably every other Cap fan in the world wants to know….what exactly happened to Ovechkin today. Is he hurt if so when did it happen? I can accept him having an off game here and there God knows he deserves it every now and again, but what I want to know is he hurt, and if so how bad is it? Because that scares me more than what happened yesterday and today.
Puddin_an_Semin: If I had to guess, I’d probably say AO is suffering from a broken heart. If the game had a different outcome, he wouldn’t feel any pain.
As painful as this is; As much as I wanted to punch the guy next to me in the face; As much as I feel our organization is cursed against ‘them’; I feel yesterdays painful loss will make this team hungrier in the future. I think they’ll do some damage in the next few years, and it is because of the battle scars they are earning this year. And whenever we make our run to the cup, we will have to earn it by going through western pa. Karma’s a funny thing.
The rebuild is over and that’s why this hurts so damn much.
Puddin_an_Semin: I don’t know what happened, but I remember seeing AO look like he hurt himself during one of our third period power plays (the last one?). He was manning the point on the far side of the ice (near the Pen’s bench) and I don’t know what happened but suddenly he looked very uncomfortable and just skated right off the ice. It was really noticeable since we had the puck in deep and there is no way a line change would have been called.
Again, I don’t know anything for sure, it’s just what I remember seeing yesterday. Maybe someone who tivoed it could take a look and see (if you can bring yourself to watch even part of the game again).
As a fan since the late 1970s, I have to say the two games this weekend are right up there with heartbreaking moments in this largely underachieving franchise. And that’s because the team is so good, and is working so hard. The potential is there, which makes not even making the playoffs — again — so disappointing. Think about all the people who say Crosby is better than Ovie because his team is more successful. Or that Ted can’t buy success with a fat contract to one player. I don’t agree with the critics, but I anticipate a LOT of I-told-you-so’s. I wanted to shut them up, but this weekend doesn’t help. Sigh.
Usually I’m all against rushing players back from injury, but in this case I would make an exception. The Caps need their Captain now, even if he is not at 100% per cent. Getting one of their leaders back on the ice could provide a much needed boost for this team.
Right now the playoffs aren’t totally out of reach but they soon could be. If Clark doesn’t return this week he might as well sit out the rest of the season.
Attending that game was simultaneously thrilling and excruciating. The atmosphere was electric. Had it ended on a Penguins goal, rather than an own goal, it still would have been painful but somehow not as bad. This was a spirit-breaking weekend — hopefully not for the Capitals, but for most of the fans in attendance.
Surprisingly the smack-talk exchanges with Pittsburgh fans were mostly fun during the game and between periods. Not so much after the game. But early on, it was a pretty even give-and-take, much like the game itself. As one Pens fan scoffed at the Caps’ Fedorov deadline acquisition, I retorted “How’s Hossa working out for ya?” to OK, you’ve got us there admissions.
But walking out of that building, it felt like walking out at the end of a season. And it may have been exactly that. Oh I’ll still attend every remaining game, and cheer my throat raw, but without post-season expectations.
Folks, while I hate to sound like Pollyanna, it is not impossible to run off a 9 or 10 game winning streak in the NHL. The New Jersey Devils do it all the time (including this season). The Caps have most of their games remaining against, frankly, the weakest division in the league. So, it is not completely out of the question. The improved goaltending of late also suggests that it is possible.
I notice a lack of fans bashing Huet for the losses? Our 40 game consecutive streak of not losing in back to back regulation games was broken. Note here Olie and Johnson were the goalies during that streak.
Huet played well in both games, but it wasn’t his fault we lost in either game this weekend. Rest assured when our group of rookies mold into veterans, they will learn how to patiently close out opponents.
Next year when we start out 14-6, and not 6-14 even the hockey snobs in hockey towns will have to take notice. For Pens fans who can’t add, that is a 16 point difference. We’d have 86 point now all other factors remaining equal.
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