Got home about an hour ago after going to Grimaldis for a little post game pizza. A couple of observations, notably what a PITA it was to get in & out of TMA with all the extra people showing up for the watch parties. The amount of cars had to be more than double. Anyone else notice the amount of drunks in the stands during these playoffs? It's making the environment inside the building really obnoxious.
Was probably my last game of the series & thus the season with my hectic work schedule & a vacation planned. Only the 3rd loss of the year while I was in the house. I think I was 10-3 including playoffs.
Lots of Caps fans in attendance tonight. 5 in the row directly ahead of us in 225. Hard to fault anyone for selling their tix & taking advantage of these high selling prices, but annoying nonetheless.
Anyway, I thought we gave away this game. From ragged defensive zone coverage in the last half of the first & most of the second, the horrible PK & 4on4 sequences allowing those wide open cross ice passes, not to mention the piss-poor execution during the 5 on 3.
The icing on the cake was Tuchsy not burying that one timer. He HAS to score there. Just no excuse, he blew it. I know he's going to lose a lot of sleep tonight, but he needs to bounce back. They all do.
We owned the 3rd period, but we need to stop trying for the perfect tic-tac-toe passing plays. Too many times we get too cute instead of just taking shots. I also noticed D-men at the points trying to get fancy & stick handle instead of dumping pucks down low & letting the forwards cycle. Bottom line, these games are won in the trenches & along the boards. This is going to be a long series. Buckle up.
While we outshot the caps by 13 shots, we should have shot more. The passing drives me nuts too. The cycle back to no one which burns time chasing the puck back and resetting is also really annoying on power plays. After Miller's goal I was hoping for more shots from him, but he seems hesitant. I love his hard shot as players get dinged up if they block it.
After all the talk about Schmidt, he hasn't looked good yet imho. I think he had one good rush, but that was it. We need him to help skate the puck into the zone more as well as breaking up more plays on d.
The top line with the exception early on were invisible tonight. They didn't look good skating with the puck and passing looked worse. Marchy was especially bad. I hope he isn't playing with a concussion. Or maybe the caps were that much more focused on shutting the top line down tonight.
Haula had a few good chances, but he's gotta bury them. He seemed better in the regular season offensively.
The bottom line went from great to looking like a bad 4th line. Reaves took a penalty and none of them looked good except for maybe one possession. I don't expect offense from them like game 1, but I do expect them to wear out the caps by winning the puck battles along the boards.
Was anyone hurt in the 3rd? All of those line changes really threw me off. I don't remember if any of the lines stayed intact. I think I remember seeing Carp on the top line and Smith on the 4th.
If Carrier gets to play whose spot should he take? I was thinking Nosek, but not after his game 1 performance. Carp?
Reaves really needs to fight Wilson. I'm done with his bullshit and needs to be put into his place.
I really hope we take at least one game at their barn. We've never been down after 2 games so I hope we don't get out into a must win situation.
If the coaching staff can get the team to stop the cross crease passes and get turnovers like they did in game 1, we'll be fine for the rest of the series.
