OT: CAPTASTROPHE

[Benjammin]

Despite a minor comeback by the Caps, this has to go down as another chapter in the annals of the Caps as the preeminent choking dogs in the playoffs. To be the most dominant team in the regular season and to be up 3-1 in the series and lose to an 8th seed is completely pathetic. I have nothing but contempt for this team at the moment. Mike Green was especially bad tonight.

[breaker91]

That's the nature of hockey. A strong goaltender makes all of the difference, especially in the play offs. The Caps regular season record was a bit fool's gold anyhow. They played in a very weak division and in the weaker of the 2 conferences. They have a bunch of great players, but really need a better goaltender and some more defensive minded defencemen.

[Benjammin]

We've heard those same arguments for over 20 years. I understand the nature of playoff hockey that the goalie makes all the difference, but this is still an incredibly devastatingly poor performance. I agree they need more defensive minded blue-liners, but I think Varly can be good enough to win with if you give him some help in front of him.

[P'Oed]

the city needed some extra embarrassment this year

[closg00]

I guess the curse has been extended to all Washington sports franchises.

[Rafael122]

The goaltending isn't the problem. The defense, to put it bluntly, is ****. Bad defense = bad goaltender.

Green needs to be traded. The guy is just AWFUL on defense.

Changes need to be made. Not wholesale changes, but McPhee needs to tinker with this team because it's not working. Semin, for all the talk of him getting paid big money, didn't do squat in this series.

[Wizards2Lottery]

This is my F you to everyone who ridiculed me two years ago when I said George McPhee is a FAILURE OF A GENERAL MANAGER. At that point I was told that this team was young and they needed experience.

McPhee **** sucks. Has no eye for defensive talent. If 90% of our fan base wasn't people who jumped on the wagon when **** got good, there would be mass callings for McPhee's firing. He's a joke.

[Rafael122]

I think out of all the fanbases we have here, the Caps are probably second behind the Skins in terms of hardcore fans. Anyone with a good pair of eyes can see defense has been, is, and will be a problem until it's addressed.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

Or maybe we shouldn't panic. The nucleus is really good and really young. Varly will develop into the kind of gt that can win a series by himself. I just have two beefs with the way the season went... Boudreaux should have taken his foot off the pedal earlier... Rest some guys and INCREASE the intensity when the playoffs started... And I don't think corvo is a great fit...we needed another puck moving shot blocker more than we needed another green... Nonetheless, I feel like jumping off a building right now... I've been a caps fan since I was a little kid listening to games on my little clock radio... There have been many, many dissappointments, but few if any as big as this one.

[Pollinator]

I think this calls for several thousand sympathy ping pong balls in the NBA draft lottery for the Wiz.

Heck, they should just give us John Wall and Evan Turner now.

And that still wouldn't be totally adequate compensation for the cruel and unusual punishment it is to be a Wiz and Caps fan.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

I think this calls for several thousand sympathy ping pong balls in the NBA draft lottery for the Wiz.

Heck, they should just give us John Wall and Evan Turner now.

And that still wouldn't be totally adequate compensation for the cruel and unusual punishment it is to be a Wiz and Caps fan.

Preach brother!

[Pollinator]

It does at least seem like the perception of the Caps has changed, now that Ovechkin and Backstrom are here, and that hockey players actually want to come to DC- which they didn't for a long time.

There have to be a bunch of good D-men out there thinking, if I went to the Caps, I'd really have a shot to win the Cup. Ted just has to go out there and get them.

[Dat2U]

I'm no hockey expert, but to the naked eye, Green looked horrifically bad. He seemed to be the main goat IMO. Considering he was awful last year too, I think it does seem like its time for a trade.

Montreal's goaltender was incredible but honestly this seems like it happens far too often. Every year we face a hot goaltender. At some point we've got to realize its just more to it than that. The team just isn't built for the ppstseason. We need to exchange some of the dynamic offense (that disappears in the playoffs) for some tough minded grinders. And Boudreau also showed no ability to make adjustments until it was too late. I'm not sure the Caps shouldn't look in a different direction there too.

I'm numb to it all though. I watched the whole game expecting it to play out like it did., because its a movie I've seen way to often from this franchise. And for some reason its totally unexplainable. That level of choking we saw 10 & 20 years ago could go on to this day with a totally different cast.

[LyricalRico]

Didn't Semin(sp?) also fail to show up for like the second year on a row? At least the Wiz were injured when they were getting knocked out in the first round. No excuse for the Caps.

[verbal8]

I think out of all the fanbases we have here, the Caps are probably second behind the Skins in terms of hardcore fans. Anyone with a good pair of eyes can see defense has been, is, and will be a problem until it's addressed.

I think the Wizards fanbase is pretty hardcore because whoever isn't a hard core fan is ignoring the team.

I think next season will be a good indication of the state of Caps fans. I think there are a fair number of fans who jumped on the bandwagon hoping to cheer on a championship team. However I think the increase in fans is also due to people becoming interested in the team.

[Silvie Lysandra]

To piggyback on what W2L is saying:

You now realize that if McPhee isn't fired, then most likely your GM of the Washington Wizards going forward will be Ernie Grunfield.


i'm doing a crash course on hockey atm, and if leonsis likes mcphee, then he's going to LOVE ernie.

they are pretty much the same executive, just different sports (offense first, cannot scout defenders worth crap, will overpay players though he has a mandate NOT to do that this year, will stick with bad coaches).

In fact, if we land Wall and he lives up to the hype, we'll probably be with the Wizards where the Caps are right now - losing an early game 6 or game 7 to the Bobcats or Bulls or some other gritty defensive team with less talent but more heart.

[Wizards2Lottery]

Boudreau gets one more season. Some people are already calling for his firing but this in essence was only his 2nd playoff series. So far he has shown a lack of ability to adjust his system to suit playoff hockey. It's pathetic that he's had the league's MVP and a 100 point center and he still can't finish off mediocre teams. He deserves another chance but last year should be his last one. The lack of adjustment and his awful line shake ups really **** everything up.

[BanndNDC]

It was a major disappointment yes, but god knows we've been there before. i'd give bruce another year, the goal was reaching the finals next year anyway, and as much as i despise green and semin right now i dont think it;s a good idea to dump them (larry murphy larry murphy).

our needs are the same as last year. a 2nd line center and a stay at home defenseman. dont know enough about the NHL cap and our situation but i hope that clearing theo's salary and trading flash will be enough space to sign that dman (volchenkov?).

time to commit to alzner/carlson and varly/neuvirth. if we play as well next year as this year (regular season) than look for a top flight goalie at the deadline.

green/schultz
carlson/alzner
poti (or corvo)/volchenkov
erskine or jurcina

would be a good 7 man rotation with a mutli year window. attract a veteran center looking to win and we should be good to go.

[BanndNDC]

Looking at the cap figures from cap geek this is gonna be tough. we have $20m in cap space but only 13 fully signed players.

estimating $15m for neuvirth, alzner, backstrom, schultz, fehr, flash and bradley

giving us:
ovechkin/backstrom/knuble
laich/????/semin
chimera/bradley/fehr
steckl/gordon/flash
green/schultz
alzner/carlson
poti/erskine
sloan
varly/neuvirth

with $5m in cap room but an almost $5m albatross nylander unaccounted for. eek. not looking good. the expiring contracts basically just give us enough to sign our restricted free agents. trading poti, nylander and flash seems absolutely necessary.

[Donkey McDonkerton]

I am a local fan, i support all the local teams...I was watching the caps really rooting for them, and im upset they lost BUT the only silver lining I can take from this is that I can now shut the fans up who talk **** about the wiz and say how much greater the caps are than the wiz.

I remember one day i was walking through the streets and these two guys had on caps jerseys making fun of the wiz....why cant you root for both? Why so many haters?

HATERZ