Nothing Worse Than Being Shutout

I promised to put up all of our goals from every game for the rest of the season but after last nights game, there are unfortunately no additions.

Before I talk about the game last night I have to ask a simple question, WHERE THE HELL ARE THE HOCKEY FANS AT?  Our team is surprisingly good, and the best team in the league came into our building last night, and the arena was less than half full.  The fan turnouts for most of the year for that matter have been awful at best.  Don’t get mad when the owners are forced to trade a Marty or a Ryan Malone because you’re not showing up to the games.

OK….enough of that whining.  The game was pretty evenly played until the Caps first goal, an awful turnover at our blue line, something that is essentially a death warrant against a team with skill players like the Caps.  Alexander Semin made a nice sauce pass to Alexander Ovechkin who one-timed the puck into the net.  We never seem to fully recover after that point, turning the puck over too much, and getting outshot the rest of the game.

Mike Smith played quite well in the lost in my eyes.  Two of the goals that he gave up he had no shot of stopping, and he made some pretty saves on shots from Ovechkin and Semin (they both had 7 shots a piece) throughout the game.  I thought our best player of the night though was Andrej Meszaros who continues to blossom into one of the best young defensemen in the NHL.  His play this season hasn’t really been talked about enough, and it should be.  He is a force both offensively and defensively for this team, and an integral part of our future in my estimation.

Ryan Malone also doesn’t get enough credit for all the things that he does for this team.  He is easily the heart of this hockey team.  His gritiness and toughness is what makes teams into champions, and I think this team has championship potential, call me crazy if you want to.

Before I go, I have to complain some more.  The officiating last night, was horrendous at best.  NHL officials are pretty awful as a whole, but last night they were in rare form.  A funny poster last night from a fan in front of me said, “Hey Ref, you must be pregnant because you’ve missed 2 periods!”  Classic.  The two penalties on Steve Downie in the 1st period were garbage, and the penalty that they called on Downie in the 2nd period was laughable at best.  It drew quite the ire of the crowd.

By the way, Semyon Varlamov, the Caps 21 year old goalie is a stud.

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