The Morning After the Meltdown

I must be the only person in the world who isn’t surprised that the Caps blew it.  I had a bad, awful feeling about the Habs-Caps matchup going into the series and I came out of it with that same bad feeling.  To put it bluntly, I hated the matchup.  The Habs had given Washington some trouble in the regular season, a bit more so than other playoff teams.  If you recall, it was the Habs who ended the Caps’ 14-game winning streak.  On paper, the Habs had no chance.  They were midgets playing against the league’s top-scoring team.  But they found a way.

Here are some reasons why I think the Caps blew their series and Alex Ovechkin’s Stanley Cup bid.

1 Jaroslav Halak. Yeah, I know, blame the opposing goalie because it makes everyone feel better about the Caps’ meltdown.  But in this case, Halak stole the series.  We really should have seen this one coming ever since he led Slovakia to their stellar fourth-place finish at the Olympics after dethroning the Swedes.  Also, Halak was pretty darn good in the last few games of the regular season.  Jacques martin probably looks like a genius for putting Halak back in.

2. Tomas Fleischmann. While everyone else was blaming the Caps’ struggles on guns, Mike Green and Alex Semin, Fleischmann silently choked.  He had a strong regular season, and I’d expected to see more out of him than he did.  I think he had, like, one lousy assist in the entire series.  To the so-called experts, it’s not all Greenie and Sasha’s faults; you need to blame Flash, too.

3. Lack of secondary scoring. Two of the big guns, Alex Ovechkin and Nicky Backstrom, did their jobs.  Each finished the series with ten points and plus players.  They did their job; the second, third, and fourth lines did not.  Well, let me rephrase that.  Everyone on the second, third, and fourth lines failed to convert except for Eric Fehr.  Fehr had a good series, but his linemates did not.  The only other secondary guy who was decent was Boyd Gordon who was a critical part in two shorties that should have changed the series.  Alas…they did not.

4. An atrocious power play. The really disappointing part of the Caps’ meltdown was that they scored one power play goal in the entire series.  A team that had the league’s number-one regular season power play should not struggle like that.  The Habs were undisciplined at times and they should have paid for it.

5. They fell into the trap. When you have a team that has amazing scoring, but not-so-amazing defense, you get the Washingotn Capitals.   The Caps fell into a trap against the Habs.  Montreal had better goaltending and more consistent defense.  An offensive team is nothing if you can shut them down like the Habs showed.

Bottom-line, the Caps shouldn’t have lost the series.  What they really need to do is get a shut-down defenseman who can get it done for them. Also, a good move wouold be to trade Alex Semin for Mike Ribeiro, but what do I know?  I’m a Stars fan. 😛

Links…

I have some random links and thoughts that just don’t justify a post, so here we go:

First off, Allan Muir of SI wrote a heartbreaking article about Mike Modano.  It’s heartbreaking because it brought tears to my eyes.  Although, honestly, EVERY Modano ‘end of an era’ article makes me about to cry.   I just hate that his is probably his last season.  It kills me.  Read it here.  Watch for the Patrik Stefan reference.

Next, an excellent article about my favorite superstar in the NHL, Alex Ovechkin.  It’s written from the Pittsburgh media’s point of view.

I like the quote from Nicky (Backstrom):

He always gives money from his pocket to homeless people – every time – when we are going to a restaurant or walking to practice. Did you know that?  Nobody tells that story, and I’ll show you why.  Ask him about it

Nick’s a good kid, defending Ovie like that.  He can’t be thaat bad, right?  Of course, Sidney Crosby probably says simialr things about Matt Cooke to anyone who will listen. 

Read the rest here.

Mike Ribeiro will not play in tonight’s game because he missed a team meeting today.  Heika says Ribs will be a healthy scratch tonight.   Ribs is such a punk, but I love him. 😛

Should be a good game tonight.

Go Stars!

What A Joke

Why does the NHL have to epically fail every time they must take disciplinary action on someone? 

Cases in point:

Alex Ovechkin- I’m a huge fan of Ovie and I’ll try to be as impartial as I can, but there’s no guarantees here.  The league suspended Ovie for two games for breaking Brian Campbell.  I personally don’t believe that he was trying to injure Campbell, but it happened and Ovie’s paying the price for it.

To me, it wasn’t dirty.  Ovechkin is a reckless rebel.  He sometimes gets carried away and too forcefully passionate.  While watching the game, I saw the hit and just had a horrible feeling that Ovie would get suspended.

Verdict: reckless and dangerous and definitely not dirty, but the league made the right call.

Steve Downie- To put it bluntly, I hate Sidney Crosby.  However, this was a dirty, dirty hit.  Downie is a repeat offender and a dirtbag.  Guess what his punishment was?  A fine.  What bemuses me about this one is that this was Bettman’s boy who was the victim…I’m just surprised Downie didn’t get, like, a lifetime ban.  Seriously, though, I didn’t like the way Crosby fell.  He’s lucky he’s alright.

Verdict:  dirty all the way…Sid didn’t even have to dive on that one, it was so dirty.  The NHL got this one wrong

Matt Cooke- This is the one that really makes me angry.  Cooke is a repeat offender who deliberately tried to injure Boston’s star player.  It was obviously dirty and yet the league didn’t suspend him.  Oh sure, it’s not technically illegal, but that shouldn’t matter when the intent to injure was there.

Verdict: dirty, dirty, dirty, dirty, DIRTY.  Completely wrong call by the league.

For Your Entertainment

What an entertaining game against the Caps.  It went so perfectly by mystandards.  I wanted the Stars to win, obviously, but I heart Alex Ovechkin and I wanted him to regain the goal lead, which he did.  It was so perfect.

The story of the game was obviously Marty Turco.  He had new career highs in saves and shots.  I think it might just have been his best regular season game ever.  See, 49 saves against Washington is much different than 49 saves against say, Anaheim.  With the offensive talent Washington has, they should have had more than three goals, but Turco was brilliant.

I loved the Ovechkin-Robidas matchup.  Robi did a heck of a job keeping the best player in the world under control.  Yeah, I know Ovie scored.  Twice.  But it’s Alex frickin Ovechkin. OF COURSE he’s going to score, but to limit him and take some chances is a great job.  Did you know that AO weighs 40 pounds more than Robi?  He did a great job.

How hilarious was Turco’s reaction after Semin biffed it?  I lol-ed at that one.  Sasha’s so adorable.  He reminds me of a puppy with his mannerisms and such.  Plus, I’ll never forget the bongoes. 🙂

Sasha biffs it.

B-Rad’s shootout goal was a beauty.  So was Loui’s.  Ribs tried to go all Jussi on Varly, but that move only works for my boy, Juicy.  Sorry Ribs, keep inventing your own moves. 😛

I just wanted to say that I loved this game so, so much.  Ovechkin is one of my favorite players and I’m also a big fan of Nicky and Sasha, Ovie’s BFFs.  It was fun to see my two teams deke it out and my favorite come out on top.

Next Up: Olympic hero, Ryan Miller, and the Sabres.

Let’s do this.

The Aftermath

They might want to call the Vancouver Games the “Upset Games.”  At least that ‘s what they are in terms of the hockey tournament going on.  Slovakia over Russia.  America over Canada.  Czech Republic over Sweden.  WHAT IS GOING ON?  This is crazy, just crazy.  

I’m upset right now because of some of these upsets.  I wanted the gold medal final to be between a combination of Russia, Finland, Sweden, and America.  Now two huge hockey powerhouses- Russia and Sweden- are out.  How the heck does that happen?  Thirty years after the biggest upset ever (that’s the Miracle on Ice, if you didn’t feel like figuring it out), there are upsets aplenty at these Olympics.

Now, I have some words to say to some certain individuals, some good others bad:

To the Russian GM…

Dear Vladislav Tretiak, 

How does Sergei Zubov sound now that Russia’s out of the tournament?  You could have really used a defenseman like him to calm your team down and actually make them look put together.  Russia looked frantic and like they had no plan whatsoever.   It didn’t help that your coach, Vyacheslav “Slava” Bykov, didn’t look like an adequate coach.  And Mr. Tretiak, I just wanted to say that I was right.

To Alex Ovechkin…

Dear Ovie, 

Once again your team didn’t show up when it mattered most.  I’m sorry for that.  You’re awesome, you’re perfect, don’t change a thing.  Just keep being yourself and someday you will be rewarded.  Ovie, you’re one of my favorite players in the NHL.  To me, you are the epitome of my ideal hockey player- exciting, skilled, and has a personality.

When some call you a jerk, I call you a bad-ass.  When they call you dirty, I call you forcefully passionate.  When they call you non-traditional and cocky, I call you a rebel.  More than anything, Alex, just keep doing what you’re doing.

To Team USA…

Dear Americans,

What.  A.  Game.  Way to relive the Miracle on Ice and stage a miracle of your own.  I’ll admit that I was uncertain how such a young team could possible medal.  Thankfully, I was wrong.  I cheered the way I only cheer during the Olympics, if that makes sense.  When Ryan Kesler scored that empty-netter, he was no longer a dirty Canuck.  I didn’t care that Bobby Ryan was a Suck and a Mike Modano-wannabe.  I didn’t care that Brooks Orpik was a teammate of Sidney Crosby.  They were all Americans.  And that is what the Olympics does to a person.

To Sidney Crosby…

Dear Sid,

I don’t like you even more if that’s even possible.

To Brenden Morrow…

Dear Brenden,

I am not about to compliment you on your superb play for Canada.  Rather, I’m about to chew you out for it.  

Brenden, why is it that you look like you care more about Team Canada than the Dallas Stars?  Why is it that all year long you’ve wanted to make Canada’s Olympic team than you wanted the Stars to make the playoffs?  Why can’t you play for the Stars the way  you play for Canada?  Do we not give you good enough linemates on the Stars?  It’s funny, because Jamie Benn, Steve Ott, and Mike Ribeiro aren’t exactly Mike Richards and Jonathan Toews, but they still get the job done.

We want Brenden Morrow, circa 2006-2008.  Where’d he go?  Do we need to find him for you?  Where did our heart and soul of the team Morrow go?

Brenden, make itlook like you care, even if you don’t.  Please do that much for me…

In Other News:

Alex Auld has been waived.  Looks like we’re keeping Turco, huh? Of course you never know with GM Joe…

Finally, I just wanted to share this amazing gif that some wonderful perosn over at the Caps’ blog, Japer’s Rink, made.

No offense to Jaromir Jagr, but he was Ovechkin’d.

While We’re Waiting…

While we’re waiting on the decisions of Jonas Gustavsson and Sergei Zubov, here’s my favorite YouTube discovery this week:

In other news, our midget, Chris Conner has signed with the Pens.  I think I’ll miss him.

Oh well.  Have a nice Monday.

Grading the NHL Awards Fashion

I feel like being a critic, so I’m going to grade the guys’ fashion from the awards the other night.

First up, is Alex Ovechkin:

I like this one. 🙂

I love his tie.  I just like his entire outfit.  It’s an improvement from last year’s red tux thing.  I love that little smirk he’s got.  It makes him look even more studly than he already is.  I’m glad that he took home the Hart.  Is it just me, or did Geno look a litttle mad that Alex won the Hart?  I don’t know what that’s about, so whatevs.

 

Ovechkin Wins the Hart

So Ovie’s keepin’ the Hart.  Can’t say I’m surprised.  I thought it was a great show.  I thought it was hilarious how that big-time Mike Modano-wannabe, Patrick Kane struggled to open the envelope.  Poor kid looked really flustered.  I also thought it was funny when Tim Thomas asked Manny Fernandez if he should thank his wife for him.   I loved when Ovechkin said that Malkin’s English is better than Pavel Datsyuk’s.  Classic.  Datsyuk was hilarious as usual.  I know I should hate Datsyuk for being a Wing, but I love the guy; he’s a total stud.  I think it’s because he’s Russian.

Anyway, here’s the list of winners:

Hart- Alex Ovechkin

Lester B. Pearson- Alex Ovechkin

Selke- Pavel Datsyuk

Lady Byng- Pavel Datsyuk

Norris- Zdeno Chara

Adams- Claude Julien

Calder- Steve Mason

Vezina- Tim Thomas

And I think that’s all the important ones.

I thought it was silly of Ovechkin to say that the Caps would win the Cup next year when the Stars are obviously going to be the 2010 champs. Wink, wink. 😉

The End is Near…

Not that end, but the end of the 2008-2009 playoffs.  I don’t know what I’ll do with my life when there’s no more hockey. 😦  I gotta say, though, that these playoffs rocked.  A lot.

I LOVED that my favorite former Star, shootout assassin, Jussi Jokinen had an awesome postseason.  I love his nickname, “The Finnish-er.”  I almost passed out after I watched the last minute and a half of that Game 7 with New Jersey.  I definitely did not see that one coming.  But it rocked.  I wanted Carolina to win that series because of Juicy, but also because that was the only way we’d see the ultimate series:

Crosby vs. Ovechkin.

Before the playoffs even began, I figured out the only way that we could see Washington play Pittsburgh, and miraculously, it happened.  And that series is one I’ll never forget.  I triple-loved Game 2 when Ovechkin and Crosby both netted hat tricks.  “Anything you can do, I can do better…”  I rooted for the Caps to win the series, and I was initially heartbroken to see them lose the series, but it just wasn’t the year.

Then, of course, we got to see the league’s professional choke artists at their best.  Yep, after winning the President’s Trophy, the Sharks bowed out of the first round to the Sucks.  Gawd I hate Anaheim!  But I wasn’t all that surprised, honestly.  The Sharks just can’t raise their game when it matters.

In the West finals, I loved seeing Detroit own Patrick Kane and the Hawks.  I hate that kid.  He’s such a Mike Modano-wannabe.  Him and Bobby Ryan.

And in the Cup final, we’ve gotten to see a rematch of last year’s and the irony of ironies in Marian Hossa.  The series has been so intense for me, that I haven’t been able to eat on game day, and I’m shaking during the game.  I don’t even want to know what I’ll be like tonight in a winner-take-all Game 7.

It’s been  a great playoff year, and hopefully next year will be even better with the Stars involved and going far.  Stars for the 2010 Stanley Cup! 🙂