NHL Playoff Roundup

Just two games last night, with nothing decided. Have the Canucks come back to life? And are we staring hard at another instance of "Same Old Caps"?

Canucks 5 Blues 3: Todd Bertuzzi and Brendan Morrison wake up, but is it in time to save the Canucks (for the sake of my pre-playoff predictions, I hope so)? Game Six is tomorrow night in St. Louis. Blues lead series 3-2.

Lightning 2 Capitals 1: I want to find a reason, any reason at all, to believe that the Washington Capitals can win this series now. Sure, they wound up on the wrong end of a bad call last night, resulting in a 4-minute power play where Tampa Bay scored the goal that gave them their margin of victory, but the Caps really have nobody to blame but themselves. As head coach Bruce Cassidy said:

"The message we sent to our players afterward was: 'Whatever [Tampa Bay] created tonight was a product of our bad decisions with the puck,' " Cassidy said. "I thought we played a pretty solid hockey game and we controlled the tempo for the most part . . . [But] we can't break down. Those are mental mistakes. You can't do that stuff in the playoffs. We have to figure that out in a hurry, because if not for those chances I don't know that [the Lightning] had any on their own."

The Caps have blown a 2-0 lead in the playoffs three seperate times since 1992. Living here in Washington, I've seen them all. Over time, the effect on the franchise has been corrosive -- something Caps owner Ted Leonsis has been fighting tooth and nail since he took control of the team before the 1999-2000 season. At the end of the day, fans, both passionate and casual, just don't believe the Caps are going to get it done. You can feel it in the arena, and you can see it at the box office. Game Six is tomorrow afternoon in Washington. Lightning lead series 3-2.

Eric 11:28 AM

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.ericmcerlain.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/1956

Comments

Post a comment