I have to admit that I'm surprised that the Caps could pulled that one out, especially in light of the play of our defense in our own end. Our guys either 1) Fail to engage the puck carrier or 2) Fail to cover anyone else the puck carrier may pass to. They also routinely get beaten one on one. The Pens third goal was a great example. Orlov was completely passive and then when he had to engage Guentzel he was undressed and ended up looking like he was doing an Irish jig. It was embarassingly bad. Niskannen, for his part, stood right in front of the net covering nobody and stopping nothing. He was in good position to retrieve the puck from the net, though.
Regardless of how far this series goes or what happens, this team must address the defense and if management doesn't see that then there isn't much hope for the future. Having given away Schmidt and let Alzner walk, I'm not that hopeful. You look at other teams and you see big, mobile defenseman in many cases, guys who can both skate and hit. Instead, we have mostly slow guys or midgets who get muscled out of the play. I also have to give special mention to Carlson as maybe the dumbest guy on the team. He had a glorious scoring opportunity after we were down 3-2 and instead passed the puck back to somebody (Ovie I think) practically past the net. Then, late when we were trying to bleed off the last 30-40 seconds, he ices the puck bringing the faceoff back to our end. Add in his defensive lapses and I honestly don't care where he goes in the offseason.
I also find the rest of the crew to be just above useless defensively, regardless of what they may add on offense. The whole bunch should really be replaced. assuming we have anyone capable of identifying the type of talent required.
