Rapid Rewind: Caps Stink Up the Joint

The Toronto Maple Leafs are one of the worst teams in the NHL.

They are only three points out of last place in the East.

And the Washington Capitals found a way to lose to them.

The Capitals opened the scoring with a Mathieu Perrault tally 3 minutes into the game on a nice pass from Tom Poti.  But the Leafs tied the game on a Clarke MacArthur power play strike nine minutes later.  Mike Knuble scored a power play goal of his own to break another lengthly scoring drought three minutes after that to give the Capitals a 2-1 advantage heading into the second period.  In the second frame, the Capitals took control of the contenst (or so it seemed).  Perrault scored another goal on a nice spin move to make it 3-1 before Alex Ovechkin roared down the wing and scored a beautiful goal that rang the iron before finding the back of the net on Gustavsson.  The Caps kept their lead until five minutes into the third period when Mikhail Grabovski scored on a shot from the slot.  The Caps managed to generate many chances in the rest of the period but were simply unable to finish, setting the stage for an improbable comeback.  The wheels came off inside the 17 minute mark when Tim Brent (WHO THE HELL IS TIM BRENT?) and MacArthur scored again within 59 seconds of each other to tie and silencing the Verizon Center crowd.  In overtime, the Capitals were flat and lazy are were lucky that the Leafs didn't convert on any of their many chances.  Grabovski scored again on a beautiful move in the shootout and all three Capitals shooters were stoned to send the home team to the showers with a bitter, bitter pill to swallow.

Observations:

YUCK.  Your Washington Capitals are playing lazy, passive hockey and they are paying the consequences in spades, with three consecutive losses to poor or average teams.  They are waiting for the game to come to them if they get a lead, not going in for the kill like they did last year.  This is the NHL...you should be able to run up the score, Bruce.

This is starting to make me really, really nervous.  The Capitals, top to bottom, are clearly the class of the NHL on paper and are simply not getting it done.  Top of the East or not, the fans and the team has come to expect more, and right now, it's just not happening.

Alex Ovechkin has got to step it up.  I don't care if he scored a nice goal, he should score three nice goals.  This is the best offensive player in the world over the last 3 seasons, and he is nothing short of mediocre at the moment.  I thought he was coming out of his slump 2 weeks ago; I was wrong.  It's really disappointing to watch.

The Caps have three days to let this one stew before taking on the Panthers on Thursday night.  If they lose that one, somebody gonna get a hurt real bad.