A pretty disgusting game to watch as well as be at.
The Capitals seemed to be all over the Panthers. You know, hungry for victory. The Panthers, not so much.
Let me first apologize for the lateness of this post. With that I’ll actually cover both last night’s debacle and tonights game all in one post.
A tale of two teams last night with both heading into the game going in different directions. The Capitals were on a three game losing streak playing without Alex the great, and the Panthers were coming into the game on a three game winning streak. The end result a Washington Capitals victory over the Florida Panthers by a score of 4-1.
The Panthers were clearly outplayed by Washington. The Panthers came out flatter that Aunt Jemima’s pancakes and played as though Ovechkin was on the ice, and continued the slow pace for the entire game. There was virtually no speed, no grit (as usual), and not enough quality chances for the Panthers, who must have been afraid to make any bodily contact against an opponent that they will face the very next night for fear of retribution.
Observations:
Tomas Vokoun-I feel sorry for you. Your team should have played alot better in front of you. I’m not blaming the loss on you at all. 21 saves, but too many quality chances, and that goes to poor defence.
The Weasel, Stevie Wonder – would it fucking kill you to check someone for a change. My god you have absolutely no grit at all EVER. That gay kid from “Glee” has more toughness than you! This isn’t ballet.
Cory Stillman– the scorekeeper forgot to give you an assist on the Tyler Sloan goal, as it was your pass back towards the blue line while in the Caps zone that allowed Sloan to catch the outlet pass and score.
Bryan Allen– I feel for you. You’re showing alot of determination, but I think you’re knee is not 100%. If this is the case, please take some more time off and wait to come back. This club isn’t going anywhere, and you should’nt risk your career for this team. Not this season. You play alot of games this month. Take a week off and see how things go. Please!
Panthers– Once again displaying their lack of toughness when Shaone Morrison of the Caps was called for a 5 minute boarding call on the Panthers Kenndal McArdle in the third period. The Panthers as usual not only didn’t show any toughness of their own, they also did not score during the 5 minutes. That cost them the game. Look up desperation in the dictionary. Try to display some tonight for a full 60 minutes. Stop resting on your laurels of a 3 game winning streak. It’s not enough.
Washington– You came out hard, and you came out looking for a win, and you played that way the entire night. Never a doubt that you were in control. As Panther coach Peter DeBoer said, “They were a desperate team. They lost three in a row and had some players out. We’ve been on the other end of that. They were hungrier in the tough areas. There’s no excuse for that”.
Righto PDB. No excuses. Just reasons. And those reasons are too long to list here, but the Panthers have a history of doing this to themselves.
Tonight they are right back at it. Back to back games are not the Panthers specialty. Alex Ovechkin once again will be out of the lineup, and possibly so will Mike Green who left Friday night’s game with an upper body injury. Two key players that many teams would struggle without, however when playing the Panthers, it doesn’t matter. As long as the rest of your group is willing to pay the price and pick up the slack.
It’s still early in the season, but you cannot let things slip away. If Florida can’t beat Washington on home ice while Washington has Ovechkin and Green out of the lineup, why would anyone think that they could beat them when they come back?
I smell another loss tonight.
Enjoy the rest of today and tonight. 13 games to wet your hockey loving appetite as well as some pretty good NCAA football.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers