April 28, 2008
Some Capitals Post-Season Housecleaning
Nothing says bad night like watching the Caps' Game 7 heartbreaker, then going back to my room to write a paper due the next day. I think I'm still recovering. Also, it was a tough loss to swallow, but I would expect more out of Caps fans. I happened to watch the game at the Green Turtle with some friends who are Flyers fans, and twice on the way home Caps fans tried to physically fight them. I'm not grouping everyone in there, but in general it doesn't reflect well. As much as it stinks, you've got to have some class.
Now to wrap the season up On Frozen Blog has the top ten storylines of the season for the Caps. While it might usually be tough to come up with ten notable things, this season was a gold mine for headlines for the Caps. Between Ovie's dominance, McPhee's trade-deadline day pickups, new coach Bruce Boudreau, and the drastic improvement of the team, there was no shortage of things to talk about.
Also, their first round bounce won't be the last hockey played for 8 Caps this season. The World Championships are coming up, and several Caps will be participating. Says Tarik at the Caps Insider;
Mike Green (Canada), Cristobal Huet (France), Tomas Fleischmann (Czech Republic), Nicklas Backstrom (Sweden), Alex Ovechkin, Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Semin and Semen Varlamov (Russia) are all expected to play.
They are all standout talents that deserve to play on the international stage. An added bonus is that with 5 nations represented, there's a solid chance that at least one Cap comes back a champion.
A few blogs, like Japers' Rink and The Peerless Prognosticator are doing post-season breakdowns of all the players. I won't be following suit, as they will do a much better job than I, and I don't have the time at the moment. But right now the theme seems to be centers, so I will make note of it.
The Caps seem set with Backstrom and Nylander as their 1 and 2 centers, and Dave Steckel will be back, presumably with the 4th line. Corey has the offseason depth chart mapped out, and it shows Boyd Gordon and Brooks Laich also looking to center a line, while both are Restricted Free Agents. Add to that a few prospects hoping to make the jump, and the Caps are deep at the pivot spot. And I wouldn't mind seeing Sergei Fedorov sticking around, even in a minimal role. His addition late in the season greatly boosted the team's face-off wins and scoring chances.
Lastly, posts may be scarce the next few weeks. With final papers due and finals themselves this week and next I'll be quite busy. So here's looking back at a good season, looking at the rest of the playoffs, and looking forward to the mini-camps and training camps that will signal the start of next season.
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04:11 PM