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The Caps have been a rut team lately, not scoring, and not doing much of anything except losing. Last night they had some sort of flashback to the team they used to be, squeaking out a win in a scoring bonanza with the Ducks 7-6. I'm pretty sure they haven't scored 7 goals in all of their games since the start of 2011. That makes two goals in three games for The Great Eight. Semin, back only a couple of games, has made is return known as well. He scored the other night, and then racked up his 7th career hat trick, giving him four on the season tying him for the league lead in that category. Some hockey prognosticators have wanted to label this a sign of a return of the Caps of old, but I'm going to flag it as a fluke more than anything. Unless Boudreau has given up on his "new system," which I doubt he has, I think this was an exception and not the rule.
I actually snoozed through much of the game because I strained my neck the other day and was "relaxing" on my heating pad on the couch, which resulted in a drowsy Jennifer. I fell asleep after Ovechkin's goal that tied the match 1-1, and woke up during the second period to find it tied 4-4. Then it seemed like no one scored for either team unless I was out of the room or otherwise not paying attention to the TV. So, I can't really speak to what went right or wrong in that particular game, but I expect to see the Caps continue to flounder their way to the end of the season, and maybe into one of the last playoff spots. They currently sit in 5th, only 2 points behind their Division leader Tampa Bay. Even though the 4th place team (Shittsburgh) has 76 points, they only need to surpass Tampa to jump into 2nd or 3rd. Additionally, 8 points separate them in the 5th spot from the 8th spot currently held by Carolina. So, there are less hurdles ahead of them in the standings and plenty of room behind them.
As for the Preds, losing had become the norm again. After putting up one hell of a fight against the Sharks on Tuesday they lost in OT on a major facepalm play by their defense. It was an inexcusable and epic breakdown of their defense that led to the GWG, and since I didn't see the game I can't really discuss the overall play of the team in this instance. I do know that Trotz scratched Dumont to "send a message" but I'm not clear on the message he was trying to send? He's always loathe to bench his "stars" so when he does, it means someone's in the dog house, but I'm not sure Legwand will get the message by benching Dumont. While Dumont's play has been nothing to write home about, I can specifically remember him contributing on more occasions recently than Legwand. I know I'm hard on Legwand all the time so it's probably easy for me to overlook what he might be doing right, but after hearing his combined stats for the past three seasons on the radio the other day he had not managed to make it off my shit list.
More than anything the Preds seem to be suffering from bouts of bad luck when it comes to scoring. I can't describe it any other way. They've had plenty of games in recent weeks where they are actually taking shots and getting in front of the net, but nothing seems to go in. I don't know how you fix that problem. They do seem to be reverting to a passing game again, however, and that's never been (and probably never will be) this team's strong suit with the players they currently have. If they focus on puck control by way of short passes and maintaining control in the neutral zone, they can win games. One notable trend I've noticed in the games where they've struggled and/or loss, is the inability to maintain any semblance of composure in the neutral zone.
I'll let "The Coach" explain the neutral zone, since he does it better than I do:
Unlike the Caps, the Preds aren't going to be able to flounder and coast into the post season. The Eastern Conference is tight, but not anywhere near as tight as the Western Conference. As of this morning, the Preds are sitting in 4th place with 68 points...but all five teams from 4th-8th have 68 points!!! A measly 6 points separates 4th-8th from 12th right now. Nasvhille is also 6 points behind Division leading Detroit, so it's still within reach to win the division and vault into 2nd or 3rd. All that to say they need to get their shit together because every single game from now through the second week of April MATTERS.
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