Thursday, November 16, 2006

Caps Run Out of Gas

Capitals 2, Bruins 3 F/OT/SO (0-1)
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There used to be a time the Capitals loved getting the game into overtime. There used to be a sense of excitement and thrill when the Caps could get their opponent to a shoot out. But those days are hard to come by anymore.

The Capitals continue their shoot-out slump against the Boston Bruins. The Caps have yet to score in the shoot out goal this year. A shocking statistic considering the talent the Caps have. Alex Semin couldn’t move Tim Thomas and just shot it into him, Alex Ovechkin deked himself out and hitting pad on the backhand, and Matt Pettinger couldn’t recreate his shorthanded score in the first that saved the Capitals when they were down 2 -0.

Olaf Kolzig didn’t have to stand on his head for this one, but he was tested a lot more than his counterpart late in the third. The shots came out even for both teams at 35 shots a piece. A bright spot for the Caps is their special teams. The Capitals’ penalty kill is starting to get some attention and is ranked 18th in the league and rising, and the Caps were able to sneak a power play goal to tie it all up at 2 in the 2nd.

Overall Grade: C

There were some pretty exciting moments in overtime where the Caps could have put this game away. But it was an extremely long shift at the end of the third where the Capitals just couldn’t get off the ice to save their lives after some bad dumps that turned to iceings. That may have emptied the tanks for the Caps in OT.

Caps have to shake out of this and look to rebuild against the visiting ‘Canes on Friday. They may want to try to win this in regulation.

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