Thursday, March 20, 2008

Blackhawks Dominate Caps

Capitals 0, Blackhawks 5
Scoresheet - Wash Post

The Caps couldn't match the intensity of the Chicago Blackhawks. Knowing the Capitals had played the night before they push the Caps to the brink and over. On Tony Esposito night, you know goals were going to be tough to come by for the Caps. Throw in a late whistle, a bad penalty and two goals Olie Kolzig should have had and the Caps get a can of whoop ass opened up on them.

Olie should have been replaced after the 3rd goal, and why they continued to keep him in I am not sure. The Caps were pretty worn down from the night before and it was evident in the second and third. The pace of the game drop drastically, and played right into Chicago's hands. After that they sat back and played strong defense. Alex Ovechkin had a guy in his back pocket for the entire game and the Caps had no answer for it.

The Caps offense took a bad night off. They only produced 6 shots in the first, and 25 for the game. Compare that to the Blackhawks 42 shots on net. Playing games back to back on the road took an extreme effect on the Caps. They just couldn't match the Hawks' intensity. It couldn't have happened at a worse time either.

Buffalo retains their ninth place position by beating Tampa Bay and Carolina won their game over Atlanta. The Caps fall back to tenth in the Conference and drop to 5 points behind Carolina. Now the Caps face off against divisional foes for their rest of their road trip. If they are hoping to reach the playoffs, they must get wins against their division. The Caps have little room (if any) for mistakes anymore. One can hope a lesson was learned in Chicago.

1 comment:

asnowballschance said...

honestly, did kolzig need to start this one? the entire team was flat and after it was 2-0, i turned off the tv b/c i felt that it was going to get worse. just hope that the next game that they actually show up to play (and win too)!