Quick general statement first:
Liked Ovi’s fight. It’s so rare. Part of that had to be that the youngster was Russian, (if I’m not mistaken)! He mouthed off to a fellow countryman. An older, experienced, BEAST, of a countryman! Lets just say that he was, “forcibly matured”, by Ovi! LOL!
Looked like Ovi was trying to spark our guys, for the physicality, he may have sensed was coming! Good on his part, as Captain, but what I noticed was that although quite a few Caps players, bought in, and got physical, early on, just after Ovi’s fight, there were some key guys, that didn’t show that much interest in going all in, with the ones who WERE!! This always gets my goat!!
Officiating was notably inconsistent tonight, but I’m not a big ref-blame guy! Not saying the case can’t be made for bad officiating, but winning, in the long term, is about overcoming challenges!
What did stand out was our overwhelming, multiple failures on bringing the puck up from our D zone. A very LARGE problem that has plagued the Caps a lot this season.
They started to show signs of real improvement near the end of the season, and into the start of round one, but that “bring-up-itis”, bit us HARD tonite, and the Canes CAPITALIZED!! This is playoff hockey folks!! Carolina played HARD tonite!!
Then at 3-0, we witnessed the “give up” by several more of our guys, with only the two, or three, “always hustle”, suspects, still giving a damn!!
THIS IS MY REAL CONCERN, GOING FORWARD!!
Caps can have a bad game, but this “give up/roll over”, crap only needs a few players to start, and it can get infectious, throughout the bench!! So far Rierden has not been able to correct this issue, when it occurs, and it happens frequently enough, that it must be addressed successfully, or inherit the consequences, joining the ranks of the truly BEATABLE teams!!
Lastly, still can’t understand why Stephenson was brought back from scratchville, to play in the playoffs, when Dowd, Boyd, and Bura, were clicking so well prior to the playoffs. And you all know I’m not a big Bura fan. BUT, I’m also a chemistry fan, and they were getting HOT!
Rierden said that they worked to counter, Carolinas counter, to our successful PP, from the first game. Carolina did answer our PP well, in game two.
Well, Todd, whatever you “worked on”, between last Saturday, and Monday, failed miserably. If anything it’s worse!
Carolina has some well earned momentum going into this Thursdays upcoming game in Raleigh.
I’m EXTREMELY curious as to how and what he, Rierden, will respond with, as head coach!
If this Thursdays game is ANYTHING, it is the best “rubber meets the road”, litmus test, type game, of Rierdens career!! As I end my posts often:
WE SHALL SEE!!
Rush
