NHL's Worst

Capitals 2, Devils 3
Scoresheet - Wash Post

What can one say? 5 days off, fresh legs against a team that had to come from behind the night before, and the Capitals come out sluggish. That to me, makes zero sense. The Caps get burned early in the first and shut down the Caps. How? Bad turnovers, lazy plays, bad penalties. You name it, the Caps are experts in all those areas this year. Hanlon shouldn't have been fired, 20 other guys should have lost their jobs.

Instead of going through the game, I am just going to post some of the quotes out there on players reactions to the game. Maybe it will give you a better idea of who really is at fault.

From the Washington Post:

"We didn't play good enough to win, or we would have won. That was a horrible giveaway for the first goal, and Olie should have had the save. He's too good a goalie to let those things go in." - Bruce Boudreau

"We weren't moving our legs in the first period. If you look at it, the first period was the difference in the game. We had no reason to come out sluggish." - Brooks Laich

"We can sit there and look for positives all we want. But the bottom line is we didn't get the job done. In this league, you have to play for 60 minutes at the top of your game." - Bruce Boudreau

"There's not much you can say about that [injured players]. That's the hand we were dealt. We made a valiant effort at the end, but it wasn't enough." - Olie Kolzig

From the AP:

"We're a team that needs 20 guys to go. As I told them after two periods, you can't rely on No. 8 (Ovechkin) to win every game for you." - Bruce Boudreau

Alex Ovechkin didn't score, but he did get an assist and got hit akwardly into the boards by former Cap Danius Zubrus. No penalty was assessed. Alex Semin scored only his second goal of the season and the his wrist shot looks better than ever, now if only that ankle would heal all the way. Brooks Laich scored another goal that gave the Caps some life, but these guys can't play the game in the last 3 minutes.

Bruce Boudreau's comments are a welcome relief to the happy go lucky face Glen Hanlon sometimes would put on. He is laying the blame exactly where it belongs, on goaltending, on scoring, on defense, on this team. This team has to preform at an elite level to win games in the NHL, and right now they are no where near it.

The Capitals don't have much time to dwell on this lose as they have to jump back down to the Verizon Center to Atlanta. I am sure the building will be even more empty. Just another day at the office for the league's worst.