Season Wrap-Up

So it is.  My first few months of blogging have come to an end.  I'm glad I did this - as starting a blog has helped me keep in better touch with the team from far away. It has also satisfied some of my journalism cravings.

The highlight of this experience has clearly been my two interviews (Mike Fornes and Charlie Skjodt/Brad Lutsch). Absolutely great to pretend for a few hours at a time that I am a member of the media.

I probably won't add any posts during the summer - as whatever awards/draft/free agency/development camp news there is can be handled by others.

Further, from a personal standpoint, I will be moving and also planning to start a new job.  So it is a time of transition for the Caps Degenerate.

But, next season I will hopefully be able to blog more frequently and in a more detailed fashion.  By fall, the transition period will have ended and I will likely be able to focus on this blog consistently.

Thank you very much for reading.  May we, one day, find out what it feels like to see the Caps win the Stanley Cup.

Oh, and if you happen to have any suggestions for what to include in this blog next season - please email me.

Capsdegenerate at gmail dot com

All too Familiar Feeling

In 2003, when Tampa Bay beat the Caps in 6 games, Ted Leonsis said that Tampa was the better team.  I always disagreed with that.

And I disagree with the theory that Tampa was the better team in 2011.  I will never think that they had more talent than us.

But, in 2003 and 2011 - Tampa proved to be a damn good team that wanted it more.

And they executed while the Caps didn't.  And one could argue Tampa out-coached the Caps too.

The Caps progress in the playoffs has stagnated while Tampa somehow seems like they are on the up-and-up for the second time in the past 10 years.

Any way you slice it, the Caps are done like dinner far too early.

Again.

We now get to watch the rest of the playoffs while coming to grips with the fact that, no, this isn't the year.

We'll get to see another team skate around with that Stanley Cup thing we've been chasing since the beginning of time.

How messed up would it be if while all of this self-promotion in DC was going on, the Lightning won the Cup in 2004 - blew their team up - and won the Cup again before Washington got a whiff of Lord Stanley?

The Caps face a summer of what should be drastic change.  We can analyze who stays and who goes later.  For now, just time to soak in that all too familiar anticlimactic feeling of an early playoff exit.

And unlike the past 3 playoff exits, there are no more excuses.  There are no alternative explanations.

The system - as we know it - is broken.

No spin.  No talk about how long it took Gretzky to win a Stanley Cup.  No asking for more time.  The new iteration of the Caps just isn't getting it done in the playoffs.

It sucks.  But it is time to stop defending them and face some harsh truths.

Not fun.

Yet, watching the Caps get eliminated never is........

No Joy in Capsville

Well, sometimes death comes in an annoying manner and it sets you off into a depression.  That's what happened last year with Montreal.  I couldn't even explain that 1st round exit.

But after watching Game 3 vs. Tampa tonight - I am at peace with the end of the season.  You add it up and this is Tampa's series.

Tampa has enough defense and goaltending to keep the Caps at bay.  They have a lot of talent on offense.  And whatever questions are left, the Caps shoot themselves in the foot to remove any doubt.

The Caps led 3 to 2 after the 2nd period.  And all they needed to do was play 20 more minutes of hockey to get back in the series.

They obviously did not want to do that.  No ref issues.  No dirty play from Tampa. No nothing.  Just the Caps laying an egg when they needed to play hockey the most.

The sad thing is, I have to go back on my last post.  I think Bruce Boudreau is done.  He is a regular season genius.

But, if there is a guy who didn't get it done in his 4 playoffs with the Caps - he is it. Too much talent to just make the 2nd round twice.

The Caps continue to piss on their window of opportunity.  They will soon face issues with losing free agents and determining if there are any "young guns" that need to be traded.

What is that magic system that will get the Caps to the promised land?  It seems as hard to find as that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

So, yes, tomorrow I will wake up and hope for a miracle.  I will watch Game 4 and root for the Caps.  That's just what I do.

And there is still that 2% chance that this post will become a quasi-collector's item.  After we go on to win the Cup, we will just laugh at how we felt when the Caps were down 3 to 0 to Tampa.

Like any Texas Hold'em degenerate clinging to one out to the river - there is always hope.  You're not dead until you are drawing dead.

But really, the straight flush never hits.  It certainly won't hit the Capitals.  Not Wednesday night.  Not this series.

One more hockey game before some very tough questions hit this franchise.  This promises to be a very depressing off-season for the Caps.

The media is getting behind the Caps.  The fans are getting behind the Caps.  The league is getting behind the Caps.

They just aren't getting it done.

It's not Mike Wilbon's fault. It's not Tony Kornheiser's fault. It's not ESPN's fault. It's not Scott Burnside's fault. Or Mike Milbury's fault. It's not Sidney Crosby's fault. It's not Canada's fault. It's not the Southeast Division's fault.

It's the team's fault.

At least I'll be clean-shaven and have a fresh haircut to deal with whatever fallout comes after Game 4.

Margin of Error Exhausted vs. Tampa

This has been a busy week for the Caps Degenerate from a personal standpoint.

It has also apparently been a busy night for our country, with President Obama announcing the death of Osama bin Laden.

So, blogging has taken a backseat over the last few days.

That said, the hockey has continued. I'm still a little upset they didn't postpone the games and make sure I was ready to go :).  I keed, I keed.

As we all know, the Caps lost Games 1 and 2 at home to Tampa Bay. The season could be over by Wednesday.

Then again, in 2003, the Caps won Games 1 and 2 against Tampa Bay on the road -- only to drop the next four and lose the series.

So, maybe this weekend just sets up some Triple-OT goal the Caps will score in Game 6 to end the series. You never know, right?

Thus we try and explain the mood that I'm in following the pair of losses handed to us by the Lightning.

I obviously hate losing. The Caps have taken stretches of each game off -- and that is unacceptable. And our power play sucks. I mean, it's just horrendous.

I honestly think the Caps would be better off declining the man-advantage whenever a penalty is called on the Lightning. Can they do that? They should!

You also have to give credit where credit is due. The Lightning have established a maddeningly smart pattern of playing just enough defense and getting (much more than enough) goaltending to keep the Caps from opening the scoring floodgates.

Then, they come down the ice - and they use their finishers to finish. I don't think Neuvy is playing all that bad.

But, Tampa is getting goals from their goal scorers -- or the Capitals defensemen. And they are scoring with less effort than the Caps.      

At the end of the day, that makes a huge difference. Tampa is capitalizing on its chances, Washington is not.

So, there is some luck involved - and there are some tangible reasons why the Lightning are up on the Caps 2 games to 0.

I think the good news is that without question -- the Caps are the better team in this series. And if they tighten up their game a little bit and finish their chances, they very well could win this series in 6 games.

The Caps still should win the series in 6, in my humble opinion. But, emphasis on "should" (not "will").

The Caps also very well could be telling the starter at the first tee on Thursday morning that they were clearly a better team than Tampa.

Where does that get the franchise?

My friend, who was kind enough to let me watch on his HDTV, asked me if Bruce Boudreau gets shitcanned if the Caps lose this series.

I said probably not. I don't think there is any shame in losing to this Tampa team. I think Stevie Y. is a genius and the Lightning are going to be contenders for years to come -- including this year.

But really, the window is closing. The Caps reign over the SE division is coming to a close (see Tampa). And so far, all this reign has gotten the Caps is two trips to the second round.

Maybe this year is better than last year. But, it's still not enough.

Which is why the Caps have to get back in this series before it actually is over.

Whatever urgency the team has played with needs to be quadrupled. Fuck next year. Fuck thinking long-term. Now's the fucking time.

The Caps have to act like the world ends in July and this is their last chance to win the Stanley Cup. They need to kick the shit out of Tampa in Game 3.

Not just win. Send a powerful message.

This series is by no means over yet. The Caps can and should win the series in 6.

But will the Caps make it happen?