The Washington Capitals are off to a much better start to this season than last, moving through the campaign as a front-runner instead of one of the teams giving chase.
Still, these Caps have shown they are susceptible to an occasional blowout at a more frequent rate than the 2007-08 edition - even though Washington was one of the league’s worst teams in the first half of last season.
The latest was a 7-1 loss Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia. It was the third time this season the Caps have lost by at least five goals - something that happened only twice in 2007-08.
“When you lose 7-1, it is pretty tough on everybody,” Caps center Boyd Gordon said. “We had a good first period, but then we made a few mistakes, and they took it to us. It is one of those things that you can’t forget because you don’t want it to happen again. I think we have to be more consistent. In a game like that, we’ve got to find a way to buckle down and get back in it.”
With this team, there are a few reasons to consider. The first problem that normally gets pointed out after any decisive loss is shaky goaltending.
Washington has had its share of inconsistency between the pipes this season. Free agent acquisition Jose Theodore has struggled as much as he has shined and has been losing playing time to Brent Johnson.
“We’re waiting for one to come up and say, ’Hey, listen - I am THE guy. Go to me all the time,’ and that only comes with the way you play,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said of his fluid goalie rotation.
Johnson has had more moments of steady play this season and likely will be in goal again Tuesday night when the Caps play the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden. But he too has been unable to avoid an occasional bad game - he was in goal for the team’s 7-2 loss in San Jose last month and started Saturday’s game.
Boudreau pulled Johnson after 40 minutes against the Flyers, and the goalie couldn’t fault his coach after the game.
“That wasn’t the outcome of the game,” Johnson said. “That 7-1 score wasn’t the way the game was played. That’s all I can say about that. We played really well the first two periods, but we couldn’t get it by [Flyers goalie Antero Niittymaki], and they capitalized on theirs.”
Still, there is more blame to go around than for just Theodore and Johnson. There have been nights this season when the Caps yielded lots of goals, and their netminder was one of their best players.
Some - and in some games most - of the problems have been breakdowns by the other five players on the ice. Boudreau’s aggressive system can lead to ample opportunities for the opponent if not deployed correctly. There also have been a few games in which players haven’t been able to help the goalie out in front of the net, leading to goals from in close that could have been prevented.
There were a few instances of both in the third period Saturday at Wachovia Center.
“I think we got frustrated, and in the second period we made a couple of mistakes,” defenseman Shaone Morrisonn said. “Then it seemed like every time we made a mistake it was in our net.”
There also has been a litany of injuries, and losing minute-munching defenseman Tom Poti early in the first period against Philadelphia didn’t help. The Caps also were banged-up in the bad loss to San Jose.
Then there is the unpredictable nature of the league, which has been a developing theme this season. There seems to be a clear divide between the haves and have-nots in the Eastern Conference - the top six or seven teams look superior to the rest.
But that hasn’t stopped some of the elite teams from having forgettable nights. In the past five weeks, the Rangers and Flyers were both defeated soundly by Montreal, the Canadiens were crushed by Boston and Pittsburgh was blown out at home by Toronto.
Even the No. 1 team in the NHL (San Jose) couldn’t escape a 6-0 beating by Detroit last week.
“That’s hockey. Those games happen a lot,” Johnson said. “You look around the league, and every night you see a 6-3 or a [lopsided result]. Sometimes the puck just goes in the net.”
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