After a putrid display of what I guess we can call an attempt to play professional ice hockey from the Washington Capitals, the Carolina Hurricanes are now right back in this series after their Game Three victory. Forewarning, I am not going to be a happy camper in this post and that means less numbers more words.
The Canes out-shot the Caps 45 to 18.
- 45 to 18 in shots? In a playoff game? There are many expletives that I want to so badly use to describe how I felt about that stinking pile of horse manure that I guess we can call an “effort”. And I know I’ll probably get called out for overreacting about one game and told how Carolina’s first home playoff game in forever was always going to be a challenge, but frankly I do not care. Champions shouldn’t care either and that team out there in white were champions last season. They need to get their act together and look like it or get laughed at like Tampa and Pittsburgh (yes I know the Caps aren’t in a 3-0 hole). They didn’t take a beating like this once all playoffs in the Cup run.
- Lets get to the main highlight from this game. I love Alex Ovechkin, he’s my favorite hockey player of all time and forever will be. Him getting into that fight and taking himself off the ice for five minutes in a playoff game, in which his team is losing, is just not smart. “But the momentum, but the sticking up for his teammates, but my good ole hockey boy cliche”. Stuff it. I played hockey, none of that stuff is actually real and it’s especially not real when you cant get the puck out of your own zone for an entire period. Yo, but Ovi totally dummied the kid though. Come for the King, ya best not miss.
- I am of the opinion that Todd Reirden and company have almost completely ruined Christian Djoos for the time being. He’s completely out of rhythm, coming off the bench ice cold, and has seemingly lost all confidence and poise on the puck that we saw from him all last postseason when he was played an amount of minutes that a regular adult NHL defenseman is played. He needs to come out and Siegs needs to come in.
- I’m also just going to call a spade a spade here. There’s a topic that I think a lot of Caps media folk and fans have been skirting this entire season. Evgeny Kuznetsov has been an utter liability and he is virtually useless at five-on-five. It’s to the point where I think he needs to be moved further down the depth chart so that wingers like Jakub Vrana and TJ Oshie can play with a center that currently has at least an iota of a clue on the ice.
- The Caps power play hasn’t changed for almost a decade at this point. You’d think by now they’d have come up with an alternative to the slingshot entry when it’s clearly not working. Even when they enter the zone successfully, why do they look clueless when Nicklas Backstrom or John Carlson are pressured immediately upon receiving the puck. It is very clear that the Canes know the entire power play revolves around one of those two quarterbacking the entire two minutes. Figure something out.
- Okay, I’ve vented. The Canes 5-0 win counts the same as if they had won 1-0. The Caps are still up in the series 2-1. I wrote a very similar post to this one when the Caps went down 2-0 to the Blue Jackets last season. The world isn’t ending…yet. Have a nice Tuesday, lets hope this post is much happier after Game Four. Sorry about the mad online, ranting nature of this. I wrote it literally ten minutes into the third period. And breathe.
Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.
Full RMNB Coverage of Game Three
Headline photo: Grant Halverson
