After five games of saying that our goaltending has been solid when needed and spectacular when really needed, it pains me to say this - but it has to be done.
Olie Kolzig was the worst player on the ice tonight.
As a whole the Caps weren't all that bad (although for the love of god if they don't start shooting the puck at the net on the power play I'm going to scream). The majority of the action in the first and third periods was even controlled by the Caps...the second period I could have lived without, but what can you do. I'm not going to dwell on all the bad things because there weren't a whole lot of blatant things wrong, just a lot of little things, defensive miscues and turnovers and the like that hopefully will go away soon. There was enough good stuff that I'm not going to nitpick tonight.
There were some standout individual performances to mention, however. Ovechkin continues to find a whole new level of greatness that boggles the mind. Green is displaying moves that would make some high-flying forwards jealous (and occasionally he even plays defense). Backstrom's feed to Fleischmann was perfection to bring the Caps even and make the game interesting.
Speaking of individual performances, Matt Pettinger had a fantastic game and is quickly becoming one of my favorite people to watch. The highlight of the night was him battling through 3 vicious hits to get the puck into the Islanders zone on the penalty kill, then holding the puck against the boards for so long that it drew all 5 Islanders to him. Smart, stunningly beautiful penalty killing at it's finest by Pettinger.
So why is it that Olie decides tonight is the night to let in not one, not two, but three softies? There's no excuse. There's no reason for us to be cringing and hiding our eyes every time the puck comes near the net. Pucks should not be dribbling through him and under him like that, especially not more than once.
He stormed off the ice at the end of the game and rightly so, because frankly that was one of the worst games I've seen him play in years. He should be angry and annoyed and pissed off, and only at himself. There were some shoddy defensive plays, sure, but he should have had almost every one of those goals. The Islanders had 20 shots and very few of those were quality.
The one good thing about this, the silver lining if you will, is that I know Olie. When he has a bad outing he steps it up the next game. And that's great news for Caps fans because the next game is against the Penguins...
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Zilla Goes Down in Flames
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6 comments:
I'm really happy that my DVRing the Office and Grey's Anatomy kept me from seeing the end of this game...ughhh.
What the Hell? They just tied the score when I had to go p-u my daughter from a school football game. It looked like they really had some momentum going. Then when I get back F-ing 5-2? They were doing so well with Ovie's goal, Backs to Flash for the 2nd & Greenie looking like a vet. Motz was even making sure the ice stayed frozen with all that fanning. Hope things go better when Barney Butt Lips comes to town.
Shelby: Thank god for Thursday night TV greatness, right? My roommate DVRed those for me because I had to sit through that mess live.
Dan, Jr: Believe me, "What the hell?" was pretty much what all of us were thinking. The Caps were going full steam ahead and Olie just dropped the ball...again and again and again.
Oh, and Barney Butt Lips? Very, very wrong...made me laugh out loud, though. :)
I can tell you that seeing this live was no treat. The stats don't really show how bad this game seemed. But the crowd was definitely not happy with the poor officiating, the lack of power play performance, and the missed passes, etc. But even Olie wasn't in peak as you pointed out, with the softies that trickled in. It looked worse on the big screen.
But you really had to be impressed with the energy of the crowd when it started to look like we had woken up from the second period siesta and started playing like the Caps of games 1 & 2. But just as quick the energy lost when the Isles scored their 3rd goal.
And even the Isles fan in front of us was well behaved, and was just as critical of his team's play too, which was different.
If I have any decent shots from the first period, I'll email them so you can pop them up.
Yeah, that was a painful one to watch live, I have to agree - although I remember thinking the crowd was great in the 3rd, too! People were actually *gasp* cheering.
And then...yeah. Another softie goal. I'm blaming this all on Olie because there was a lot of sloppy play but that other stuff can be fixed. If Olie and Johnny aren't there playing at least solid hockey, though, we've got no chance. And to pull that kind of crap when the Caps were actually generating momentum? Not okay.
I couldn't get the energy to take pictures there, so yes, please send any pics along (as long as they evoke good memories and not reminders of dribbly goals, okay?)
Want some more good news?
Benny's starting for the Bears tonight!
(I'm gonna try to get the radio broadcast on the pool sound system, but no promises. Damn this work thing. I may also double-hit when i get home and watch Pens while listening to Bears again. not that that will help the migraine I've been running all day.)
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