Sorry. Had to cheer myself up somehow. (Photo credit: Macaulay Culkin)
Did you think Wednesday’s shutout loss to the Lightning was the nadir of the Washington Capitals’ season? Or maybe it was the 7-0 loss to the Rangers? Tonight’s defeat at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks might give those games company in the Awful Game Pantheon. Friends, these are the dark days. Feel free to stop reading now. Won’t hold it against you.
Matt Hendricks turned a great pass from Boyd Gordon into the night’s first goal. The Canucks combined Alexander Edler’s slapshot with a few screens to even it back up. On the power play, Christian Ehrhoff found an open spot in the slot to give the Canucks the lead, which they expanded via a giftwrapped breakaway for Daniel Sedin. Marcus Johansson gave Caps fans a fleeting delusion of optimism halfway through the third period, but the Caps didn’t catch up. Daniel Sedin snatched an empty netter, and that was it. Canucks beat Caps 4-2.
Man, this post-game press conference with Bruce Boudreau is like a funeral.
We joked about panicking before, but now I’m not so sure. Neil thinks some personnel changes need to be made. Mathieu Perreault ought to return to Hershey [UPDATE: I misinterpreted Neil’s comment. He suggests trading MP85 after bundling him with another HBH-er. I’m sorry for the error. – Peter], and some fresh blood among forwards is needed. I don’t disagree with him. He’s probably right, but I can’t imagine the team having any lasting success until Nick Backstrom, Alex Ovechkin, and Alex Semin shake the troop of monkeys off their backs.
February is a gauntlet: Montreal, Tampa Bay, and San Jose twice. If the Capitals can’t get their asses out of their heads ASAP, the season might be over sooner than any of us want to say.
Additional reporting by Neil “venison” Greenberg.
Post-script: Let’s do purge this game from our memories. In my opinion, R. Kelly’s “Bump n’ Grind” usually does the trick.
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