Insert Obvious Joke Here

- Yesterday the Caps participated in Tees for Tots, a charity event held at the TopGolf Game Center that raised $12,000 for The Children’s Inn at the National Institutes of Health and Washington Capitals Charities.

You have to love anything that combines charity and preparation for the postseason. That's our hard-working team!

- Is the surprise that Semin can't tie his tie?

- I love the picture that's being featured on the Caps website to announce Brashear's new contract. Shanahan looks like he's about to wet himself. Ah, I think I've just found my new screensaver...

- It's been a rough weekend. Preceded by a rough week. And another rough week. And a rough month before that. Let's look at where we stand, shall we?

The Caps continue to be unable to string more than two wins together, let alone two good performances in a row. They're quickly dropping further out of the playoff picture every day, with matchups looming in the next few weeks against teams all having over .500 records (the exception being the Panthers, and...yeah). And the latest news out of CapsLand is that Olie Kolzig has gone down with a knee injury and will be out for at least three weeks.

But other than that, everything looks rosy for the Caps. Playoffs, here we come! Right?

...RIGHT?

Nope. I'm calling it right here, right now - time of death, 2:38 pm.

If the Caps hadn't stumbled into the All-Star Game, if they hadn't continued the slide after the break, this latest boo boo wouldn't sting so badly. But they did and it does, and no offense to Johnny, but losing Olie means the end of even the faintest glimmer of hope remaining for the postseason. It's not Johnson's fault, either. Despite somewhat inconsistent play of late, he has actually held it together fairly well between the pipes for the Caps. They just don't return the favor...ever. His run support is flirting with negative numbers - that's how often they score when he's in net.

So the most optimistic Caps fan ever (hi, nice to meet you!) is throwing in the towel, barring some miracle that finds Johnson playing like Olie and the Caps playing like...any other team in the league at this point. Oh, and every other conference rival suddenly losing every single one of their final games.

With the trade deadline looming you have to wonder what GMGM has up his sleeves now. This is the team that's supposed to be on a continuous upswing, improving every game regardless of whether they win or not. In order to justify keeping this same crew together, then, every single person has to be playing as though they see the playoffs in their near future.

They've given up, though. You can see it on the ice every night, the fire just isn't there. The little things they were just starting to do right are all being done wrong again, and they've picked up like 17 new bad habits. Teams don't just self-destruct for no reason, and I don't believe the first half of the year was an illusion or simply a result of overachieving. There's young talent here, in various stages of development, and there's just no excuse for the product that's being put on the ice right now. We've seen too many good performances to have it all fall apart so suddenly. And not being in the locker room myself, I can't say what it is, but the coach and the team's chemistry are the easiest targets.

No particular reason behind that logic - we just need someone to blame. Scratch that. I need someone to blame. Pointing the accusatory finger (as opposed to another choice digit I could think of) is what I do.

Let's just say this - Olie's injury will take us up to and beyond TD day. It will be interesting to see how this team responds to this enormous adversity, which may ultimately determine how much noise the Caps make on the open market.

I'll tell you one thing...I wouldn't want McPhee's job right now.

*Sigh* It's a sad, sad day.