I honestly feel Bura is our worst defensive forward. I think Vrana is even better than him. He scares me every time he is on the ice.
And yet, in his first game back in awhile, the Capitals brain trust gives Burakovsky 14 minutes TOI. Apparently for some reason the brain trust is nowhere near as scared of him as you are.
I didn't see the game live last night because we were out with friends (set up awhile back, before the playoff schedule was out.) But looking at the game summary video, it certainly appears that Tampa had significant defensive coverage issues during the game. The type of thing that, if it had happened to the Caps, would be criticized up and down by people here as lazy, inattention-to-detail, noncaring play. The point is that these types of imperfections happen to EVERYONE. Lulls in the pace of play happen to EVERYONE.
The commentary about Caps games seems to follow a pattern for the most part. When the Caps are doing well, they're "finally getting it and playing the way they should." Little or no comment about the shortcomings the opponents might have exhibited. When the Caps are struggling, it's because of their shortcomings, with little attribution given to what might be outstanding play by the other team. And there is very little discussion of puck luck, which plays an enormous role in the outcome of hockey games, maybe more than any other single factor.
Last night the Caps' last two goals, the difference in the game as it turned out, both were a direct result of mishits of the puck by Caps shooters, where Vasi was set to take on the original shot but the puck instead drifted into the slot in both cases, to Caps players who were not well covered by the Tampa defense while Vasi scrambled to try to cover the new direction of the threat. You see mishits all the time on shots where the outcome is that the chance is lost and play goes the other way. Last night, twice, the mishit puck just happened to slide into an open danger zone. That is luck, plain and simple. Now give the Caps players credit for being in front of the net to jump on the opportunities that happened to come their way. But many times players are there but the puck hits someone's skate and goes in some other direction where players are not, or the mishit goes behind the net instead of into the slot, or the mishit simply slides harmlessly to the goalie, or some other outcome that amounts to nothing. When that happens the attitude seems to be that instead of not getting a break, the players were, rather, NOT doing the right things. There are so many times when I have witnessed the Caps trying hard, but the puck is simply not going their way on a particular day. Not all losses and unfortunate outcomes are because of deficiencies in skill, lazy play, or inattention to detail.
