Caps Take Night Off Against Tampa!
By Rodger M. Wood
I’m tired seeing our Caps get pushed around, beaten up, and bullied. I'm starting to believe they’re not tough enough to beat teams that rough them up.Little 5-11, 191 Steve Downey, Ryan Malone, and Mattias Ohlund intimidated and beat our superstars last night at Tampa 3-0, in what was not a contest. The loss put the Caps two points behind the upstart first place Lightning in the Southeast Division.I don’t care that the Caps played the night before at Florida. They took half that game off too, having to come back from 3-0 deficit, only to lose 4-3 in overtime.In the Tampa game, Alex O. broke five sticks, fell down twice on breakaways, was knocked down by Ohlund a couple times, and generally looked like he should be on a life support system, and he did't look much better the night before against Florida. There’s something wrong with our hero, he’s too unexplainably inconsistent in his play this season to be at peak strength.
With John Erskine a healthy scratch against Tampa, the Caps bite was up in the stands wishing he could help out his teammates. Matt Bradley and DJ King are hurt, which doesn’t help either.Coach Boudreau has tied everything. He’s shaken up the forward lines. Now he should damn the torpedoes and go full speed ahead giving the hard working Matt Johansson, Matt Hendricks, Dave Steckel, Jay Beagle and Eric Fehr the lion’s share of the ice time. Reward those who give you a 100 % and produce on the ice. Maybe the other players will wake up.In the meanwhile, GM George McPhee should see if he can trade for a few players with the heart to make our guys tough enough to regain their focus on a Stanley Cup run, if that is still possible now. He missed the boat not getting Dwayne Rolanson from the Islanders for a 5th round Pick before he shut out the Caps Twice in successive starts forTampa.
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