May 22, 2013

Washington Capitals: Seasonal Disappointment for Fundamentally Flawed Team

May 16, 2013 by 8 Comments

The Washington Capitals are 3-6 now in playoff series in the Alex Ovechkin Era, and the franchise has yet to advance past the second round in that time. If you judge the success of an NHL franchise in playoff wins and Stanley Cups, the Capitals have not only been a failure, but a spectacular one at that. Of the six playoff series losses since the ’07-’08 season, the Caps have held a two-game lead in three of them, five have gone seven games and the Caps hosted Game 7 and lost four times. That’s not just losing, that’s losing badly.

Of course, you know all this already.

During the Ovechkin Era, the Caps have been eliminated from the playoffs in eerily similar fashion. They run into a hot goalie, and teams game plan to frustrate the Caps’ talented players by blocking shots and clogging up the neutral zone and passing lanes.

These teams: the Flyers, Canadians, the Penguins, the Rangers — twice (the Lightning sweep in ’11 doesn’t count), have simply shown more patience than the Caps and waited them out.  Eventually, and ultimately, the Caps shoot themselves out and their opponent waits and waits and counterpunches when the Caps run themselves out of the building. It’s not unlike a heavyweight boxing match when a lesser-skilled boxer will allow his opponent to wear himself down punching, then sneak in when he gets tired.

It happened in Game 7 again.

Look no further than the number of shots. Not on goal, but overall number of shots taken. The Caps attempted a grand total of 79 shots. 35 made their way to Lundqvist, and yes, he turned them all away. But Washington also had 27 attempts blocked by Rangers defenders and another 17 missed their mark altogether. The Rangers attempted 47 shots, 27 on goal. Five went in.

Every year the Caps are bounced after a grueling series and we hear the same things from the losing locker room. “We ran into a hot goalie.” “We thought we were the better team.” “We’re frustrated with the result.” I could go back and look up quotes but you know them as well as I do.

Here are this years:

“You can see one guy beat us. Of course they have good team, great players, great defensive team, but the goalie out there was unbelievable. That’s why he’s best in league,” said Ovechkin. “In my mind it was Lundqvist. They have great team, no doubt about it, but Lundqvist was unbelievable. Just unbelievable.”

And:

“It’s the same thing as previous years, I would say,” said Nicklas Backstrom. “We came back regular season then playoff came and we’re not good enough. I can just talk for myself and my effort. Not good enough. No excuses. It’s just a bad effort.”

And:

“We threw the kitchen sink at him at times and he stood there and defended,” Mike Green said. “He’s a great goaltender we knew that, we talked about it before the series how to beat him and the times that we did score was what we talked about. At times I thought we kind of got away from that. I’m at a loss for words.”

But it’s much deeper than that. Yes, Lundqvist is a world class goalie. Yes, Jaroslav Halak stood on his head for three weeks that spring. But the real reason these goalies have so much success over the Caps is that the shots that get through are lesser quality — from farther away — and from less dangerous areas of the ice. Look at the shot chart. You’ll see where the goals are scored during the playoffs.

The Caps got a grand total of 226 shots on goal in the seven game series, an average of over 32 SOG per game. That’s good. But they scored just 12 goals, a shooting percentage of just 5.3 percent. That’s beyond bad. It’s also a testament of where those shots are coming from. In the regular season, the Caps had ten players with a shooting percentage higher than 10 percent. In the series, that number was four.

Ovechkin, obviously, led the team in shots with 30 and scored once, for a shot percentage of 3.3 percent. Ugh. Is that the result of suffocating defense? A hot, world class goalie? An injury? Bad luck? Even during the period of Ovi’s toughest struggles the last couple of seasons, that kind of shooting percentage is simply anomaly.

But here’s the kicker: the next three highest shot totals in the series all came from defensemen. Karl Alzner, of all people, tied for third on the team in shots on goal with 19 (he was 15th on the team in the regular season with 39). Those are shots from the deep perimeter that have a very low chance of going in. And a team with Karl Alzner pacing them in shots on goal isn’t going to win very many series — no offense to Karl. He isn’t paid to light the lamp.

The Capitals are, essentially, a perimeter team. Ovechkin prefers to carry the puck and rush at the goalie, or get fed for one-timers at the face-off dot. Green shoots from the point. He has a wicked shot, but it’s from outside the circles, nonetheless. During the regular season, when defensive players are less apt to “sell out” to block shots during a grueling 82-game schedule, they have success shooting from their outside spots, with talented finesse playmakers like Nick Backstrom and Mike Ribeiro setting them up.

But during the playoffs, the book is out on the Caps. If you clog up the box, put all five skaters inside the circles to jam up the shooting and passing lanes, the Caps will get frustrated. Oh, they have a modicum of success early in the series, winning games early in the series until the opposition realizes the deal and really buys into it. But as the games creep closer to elimination, it works without fail.

There’s not enough room to operate between the circles. That’s one of the big reasons players like Backstrom and Ribeiro are neutralized in the playoffs. That’s often why you see players like Brian Boyle score in the playoffs: they’re willing to go to the net. But the Caps lack enough of these types of players. Just look at the shot totals from the series from the forwards on this team not named Ovechkin. No forward had more than one goal. Jason Chimera was the next highest forward in shots with 15. That’s barely two shots per game. And he was the best of the forwards named Ovechkin.

Look at the goals from the games the Caps won in this series.

– Game 1: Ovechkin scored his only goal of the series on a put-back off the back wall. Marcus Johansson on a breakaway on a great spring pass and defensive breakdown. Jason Chimera though a screen.

– Game 2: Mike Green on the power play in overtime from inside the top of the faceoff circle.

– Game 5: Ribeiro, at the top of the crease.

Only Johansson’s can be called a “pretty’ goal, and that was caused by a spectacular breakdown by the Rangers defense.

Philadelphia. Montreal. Pittsburgh. New York. These are all series where the Caps had home-ice advantage and lost Game 7. They all used the same script against the Caps. It matters not when the book is so clearly out on these Capitals. Stuff the box and they have no other way to score. And the Capitals will be moving into a division with three of the four next season, along with New Jersey and the up-and-coming Islanders. Their path to hockey’s holy grail just got infinitely more difficult.

I’m not advocating the Caps go back to playing Dale Hunter hockey. Far from it. These teams that play hyper-defensively do it because they don’t have the offensive capabilities of the Capitals. You don’t win a Stanley Cup playing that way, you’ll eventually run out of energy or bodies. You need to have a balanced approach, be able to make adjustments when presented with challenges and be willing to sacrifice both in the defensive and offensive zones. The Caps, simply, don’t have enough of those players yet.

The other part I want to mention is the whole “woe is us” mentality following these playoff ousters. Ovechkin’s comments about the officiating, the lack of calls in Game 6, and someone wanting to see a Game 7 were ridiculous and smelled of sour grapes.

“The refereeing… You understand it yourself. How can there be no penalties at all (on one team) during the playoffs?

“I am not saying there was a phone call from (the league), but someone just wanted Game 7. For the ratings. You know, the lockout, escrow, the League needs to make profit… I don’t know whether the refs were predisposed against us or the League. But to not give obvious penalties (against the Capitals), while for us any little thing was immediately penalized…”

For his part, Ovechkin also said that he, the other stars on the team, and the team in general simply didn’t play well enough, but offered no specifics in how or, more importantly, why.

GM George McPhee backed his superstar in his comments to the media Wednesday.

“I don’t think there’s a league conspiracy but it sure didn’t feel right. Alex wasn’t wrong,” McPhee said when asked directly about Ovechkin’s comments. “I talked to them during the series but at some point you stop. They’ll referee the way they want to referee.”

“I didn’t like the refereeing, but if you complain about it during the series and you’re accused of trying to gain an edge. If you complain about it after a series is over, then it’s whining and sour grapes.”

But Ovechkin’s not the only one wondering what happened. Here’s Eric Fehr, talking about both the points I’ve been trying to make.

“The Rangers must have blocked a hundred shots. It was crazy how well they kept us on the outside,” veteran Eric Fehr said. “They do a good job of it, and they are allowed to do a very good job . . . Holding and pushing, they are allowed to do pretty much whatever they wanted to do in front of the net.”

Every year teams complain about the officiating. It’s an NHL tradition as think as growing playoff beards. At some point though, these Capitals have to stop feeling sorry for themselves and take matters into their own hands. The way they collapsed after the power play ran dry at the start of the second period of Game 7 was palpable and disheartening.

The biggest difference between the Caps and the Rangers was evident in the third period. After the fourth goal, the Caps were skating at half speed, trying to get off the ice as fast as they could, and the Rangers were still blocking shots with a four, then five, goal lead.

I think Adam Oates has a pretty good idea what constitutes good hockey. He’s lauded as one of the smartest guys to ever play in the league. It took a little while this season, but he was able to find the way to rejuvenate Ovechkin and get him to play his best hockey in years. And not just scoring, but all-around. He was a better playmaker this year. He brought his physical game back. He skated better. Will that be sustainable? Caps fans have to hope so, because the success of this franchise is directly tied to Ovechkin being the “Great Eight”, not the mediocre or league-average Eight.

I also think that Oates still doesn’t have the roster he wants or needs to be successful. After Ovechkin and Backstrom, there’s a serious drop-off in talent. There’s also a significant lack of power forwards on the team. Why did the Caps turn to 19-year old Tom Wilson in Game 5 of the series to make his NHL debut? His size and willingness to play in front of the net. There is a dearth of that on this team. The Caps hope and pray Wilson turns out to be their Brian Boyle or Milan Lucic, and could stand to add another player or two like him.

This column might sound like I’m down on the Caps. I’m not. The last 35 games of this season showed that they can be a force to be reckoned with in the NHL. They didn’t do it with smoke and mirrors, they did it by outplaying the teams on their schedule. But there are significant holes in the roster. Their level of competition will get higher next season. And they are fundamentally flawed when the ice gets shorter in the playoffs.

The Caps have a little under $6 million available under the cap for next season, and that’s before trimming some dead weight off the roster and evaluating their own free agents. We’ve said this for a while, but it’s a crucial off-season for GM George McPhee. Coming into this year, it looked like the Caps weren’t counting on having a season at all with the lockout. The turnaround showed promise after the near-fatal start, but there’s lots to do this summer.

The almost-free path to the playoffs that the Caps’ Southeast Division schedule afforded them is gone. That playoff revenue is critical to the Capitals organization, and it just became much more difficult to obtain.

Oh, and I didn’t even mention the goaltending, which I’m not completely sold on. But that’s a post for another day.

Filed Under: Caps/NHL Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

OPINION: Why do you root for the Washington Capitals?

May 14, 2013 by 7 Comments

Why do you root?

Do you root for the Washington Capitals simply because they are the home team? Do you root for the specific personalities on the team, and will stop rooting for the Caps when they no longer wear the sweater? Do you follow the Caps because you’re a fan of the NHL and they are the local team?

Do you root for the Caps because you expect them to win?

The Washington Capitals certainly test the limits of fandom. For those of us that have been around since the beginning, the answer might be different than the newcomers that have been rocking the red only since the coming of the Ovechkin Era. Judging by the reactions to Monday night’s collapse against the New York Rangers in yet another Game 7 loss, there’s a lot of anger– maybe even a different kind of anger — than in year’s past.

The situation is the same: Caps take an early lead in the series, fail to close it out early, and allow lesser known role players to beat them when the stakes are highest. Joffrey Lupul. Jaroslav Halak. Arron Asham. The names don’t matter any more. It’s been happening for close to a decade now. No one can be blamed for accepting a defeatist attitude around these parts anymore. It almost seems as much a sign of spring as the cherry blossoms.

In years past, fans have expressed disappointment, frustration, anger. But something’s different this year. The reaction borders on outrage. It’s as if for a certain segment of the fan base, the fact that the Caps lost was a personal affront to their well being, livelihoods or family security.

I get disappointment. We all want our teams to win. I understand frustration, especially when it seems like every year they’re one goal away from advancing. But anger? Outrage?

Maybe the lingering resentment of the lockout is subconsciously fueling this new reaction to getting dumped from the playoffs. Maybe the continuing sameness of the manner in which the Caps exit the game’s biggest stage is to blame.

Sports entertainment is supposed to be an escape, a release from the mundanity of day-to-day life. It isn’t supposed to add to the misery. Fan bases take a different personality in each locality, especially on the east coast. New York fans have an arrogance about them that mirrors the attitude of the city. Philly fans have that special brand of obnoxious that comes from the collective inferiority complex from being wedged between New York and D.C. Boston fans have an insular pride that can only come from Boston.

In Washington, though, a certain segment of the fan base has a sense of entitlement, like they are owed something. Maybe that’s an extension of the over-achiever personality that draws so many to D.C. in the first place. For a city that’s main industry is politics and law firms, I guess that’s not too hard to understand. If you’re accustomed to always getting what you want, and what you want is out of your control, I suppose I’d react with anger when I couldn’t get it as well.

This social commentary isn’t aimed at the fans of hockey. It’s aimed at the fans of winning. Hockey fans know that hockey is hard. Only one team wins every year. People complain the Caps haven’t yet won the Stanley Cup in their almost 40 years of existence. The Rangers have won once in the past 70 years. Seriously?

If you’re angry that the Caps lost again, that’s your right. And I’m not here making excuses for the team. I’ll have a column very soon about my feelings of how the team is constructed and their elemental flaws. But I’m a hockey fan. I enjoyed watching the Caps this season rebound from a seemingly disastrous start to win the final Southeast Division title and the third seed in the Eastern Conference. I enjoy the personalities that make up this team. I enjoyed watching Alex Ovechkin rediscover himself this season.

Maybe I’m just too numb to the losing, I’ve been watching it for almost 40 years.

Am I disappointed the Caps didn’t advance? Sure I am. But am I angry they lost? No. It’s part of hockey.

I’m a fan of hockey, not a fan of winning.

Filed Under: Caps/NHL Tagged With: , ,

OPINION: For Washington Capitals, history serves as no lesson

May 7, 2013 by

I’m sure you’ve seen the numbers now. The Washington Capitals have never won a Game 3 after taking a 2-0 series lead in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After Monday night’s penalty-filled loss to the New York Rangers, they still haven’t. The rest of the numbers aren’t much more encouraging.

The Washington Post’s Sports Bog did us the favor of looking up the Caps record in each game of playoffs. The Caps are 12-25 all time in Game 3s. 10-20 in Game 5s. 3-8 in Game 7s. Is that interesting? Is it informative? Is it predictive? It all depends on your point of view.

Are you fatalistic? Do you want to believe in some sort of curse? Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Seriously, I said it last year, and I’m here to say it again: The Caps previous history is not predictive of future performance. They will win or lose this series on their own merit. To think otherwise discredits the talent, passion and dedication of the current players and coaches.

The opinion piece I wrote last year (and linked above) was in advance of Game 7 with the Bruins in the first round. I needn’t remind Caps fans of how that one turned out. Since this franchise is obviously incapable of winning Game 7s by evidence of their all-time losing record, the Caps obviously lost that Game 7 to the Bruins and were knocked out in the first round.

Wait, what?

Here’s what I wrote, in case you don’t want to click the link to go back and check.

There’s been plenty of disappointment to go around through the years. But you know what? None of that history was made with this group of players and this head coach. Sure, there are some very important similarities, but there are enough elements changed in the construction of the roster and the management thereof that any comparison to the Capitals previous Game Seven results is rendered moot.

Then, the Caps went out and won. They “beat the odds” and changed history! Until, of course, the next Game 7 when they didn’t, which reinforced all the ridiculousness that this organization and fan base is “cursed”.

A large segment of the Washington Capitals fan base likes to think that they have been tortured for their sins worse than that of other hockey fan bases. I’m here to tell you all something. You’re not that special.

You want tortured? One need to look no further than the Caps current opponent. The Rangers have won exactly one Stanley Cup in almost 70 years! 70! That makes the Caps wait since 1974 look like a drop in the bucket.

Winning championships in any sport is hard. Like, damn hard. Only one team wins every year. Winning is the result of good planning, strong effort, good health and luck. In hockey, the luck factor plays more heavily than in the other sports, which I suppose is why some folks start to believe in “curses.” Like an 0-7 record with a 2-0 lead is anything more than coincidence.

Alex Ovechkin had nothing to do with the Caps falling in Game 3 against the Penguins in 1992 or 1996. Adam Oates wasn’t a factor in Game 3 against Tampa Bay in 2003, as he was toiling for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (forgot that one, did you?). Karl Alzner and John Carlson had no impact in the 2009 Game 3 loss to Pittsburgh.

Mike Ribeiro, Troy Brouwer, Joel Ward, Martin Erat, Eric Fehr, Jack Hillen and Steve Oleksy — more than one-third of the players that dressed for the Capitals Monday night — were not on the roster of the team just two years ago that dropped Game 3 to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, site of last night’s apparent pre-ordained loss.

I suppose if you want to believe in fate, or curses, or some other interference from the Hockey Gods, I guess there’s no stopping you.

But here’s an idea: how about giving some credence to the thought that the team that’s trailing 0-2 in a series is the more desperate team and therefore has a natural inclination to come out and play harder in Game 3, to fight for their playoff lives. Or the fact that of the seven losses by the Caps after leading 2-0, five of the Game 3s were played in the trailing team’s home arena?

Nah, that has nothing to do with it. Cause the Caps are cursed, that’s all.

If you want to ignore the fact the Caps took six minor penalties, go ahead (I’ll acknowledge that a couple of them might have been dubious calls). If you’d rather not credit the Rangers for coming out and defending their own ice and instead believe the league and the refs had some sort of conspiracy to keep the Rangers in this series, that’s on you.

For me, I saw a Caps team last night that played well in spurts, but had too many defensive breakdowns in their own end that led to Brian Boyle (2 goals in 38 games) and Aaron Asham (2 goals in 27 games) scoring goals. I saw a team that was pushed around physically at times. I saw a team that has taken too many undisciplined penalties all series continue to do so. I saw a team that was trying to be perfect on a 6-on-4 advantage instead of trying to create havoc and look for an opportunistic bounce.

I saw a team lose on the road to a team that was one point behind them in the season standings.

That wasn’t the result of a curse, or demons, or the Hockey Gods frowning on the Caps. It was hockey.

Filed Under: Caps/NHL Tagged With: , ,

OPINION: Left for dead, Washington Capitals head to playoffs with new lease on life

April 29, 2013 by

No one thought we’d be here 11 games into the season. No, we were all writing the obituary of the Washington Capitals for this season, and some went so far to declare the Ovechkin Era Caps dead altogether. You know who you are.

For my part, I certainly had my doubts whether the team GM George McPhee put together this season for new head coach Adam Oates was built to succeed. Really, in the beginning, it looked like the team was incapable of competing — players cobbled together as a contingent if the lockout didn’t ravage the entire schedule.

They looked old and inexperienced all at the same time. There was little perceived direction. Systems looked out of whack. The power play and penalty kills were both atrocious.

And their best players, including Alex Ovechkin, looked lost, uninspired and past their primes.

Bloggers and pundits alike called upon the organization to “blow things up.” Trade anything that wasn’t nailed down for prospects and draft picks.

The players, the coaches, the general manager and the owner were all subject to criticism, from local press and bloggers to the national and Canadian media.

On Jan. 30, I wrote the following:

This franchise’s future is tied to Alex Ovechkin. This team takes its cues from their captain and they are only going to be as good as he lets them. If Ovechkin can’t figure how to lead his team and inspire them to win, things could get ugly quickly — and for a very long time.

A week and half later, Feb. 7 to be precise, the Capitals hit rock bottom. With a 5-2 loss to the arch-rival Penguins in Pittsburgh, the Caps fell to 2-8-1 in their first 11 games. Back at Kettler the next day, McPhee made a rare, non-transaction related appearance before the media, addressing some of the things he saw as problems in the early season.

“With respect to the way we’re playing [with regards to] systems, I like the way we’re playing,”  McPhee said.  “I think if you’re watching, our team has really adjusted to the system pretty quickly — we wanted it right away, but it’s quicker than we were hoping for.

McPhee added, “We’re going to make good decisions. We’re not going to do anything short-term. We’re not going to blow anything up.”

Bold words from the architect of the team that at that point was dead last in the NHL.

Since that day, though, the team’s play has backed up McPhee’s opinion of them. All they’ve done is go 25-10-2, a regular season pace of 115 points, to earn the final Southeast Division banner and the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference. Casual fans may still be wary of the quality of the Capitals as champs of the “Southleast’, but learned people know: this team has talent, has gained focus, has mastered the coach’s systems, is balanced, and is the hottest team in the league entering the playoffs.

It’s a dangerous combination.

The list of positives for the Caps starts with their captain. Left practically for dead early in the season, Ovechkin has been subjected to the ridicule of the broadcast media on more than one occasion this season. The particularly harsh criticism during one NBC Game of the Week by Mike Milbury stands out, when Milbury ripped Ovechkin on his play, leadership and manhood.

“When you have great talent it comes with great expectations and accountability,” Milbury said on NBC Sports Network. “If you put him up to those two standards tonight, he fails the test miserably.”

“God almighty, that’s just so disheartening to see a player with that kind of talent fall that short in terms of effort.”

Hard to imagine Milbury was referring to the same player that just finished the season as the league’s Rocket Richard winner, given to the top goal scorer in the league. Ovechkin has been nothing less than a Russian Machine, scoring 23 goals in his last 23 games and 32 in the 48 game season. Ovechkin’s been so good, the media that was burying him two months ago now might vote him as MVP of the league.

Seems I was right after all. This franchise’s future is tied to Ovechkin, who has regained his status as The Great Eight.

Ovechkin has done a lot of that damage on the power play, which is the top ranked unit in the league, and it’s not really close.

The Caps are the fifth highest-scoring team in the league at 3.04 goals per game — and that includes the putrid start. They have the No. 3 and 5 assist men in the league in Nick Backstrom and Mike Ribeiro. They have the top goal-scoring defenseman in the league in Mike Green, who scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season in the finale against Boston. Oh, and Green played just 35 games. Troy Brouwer picked a pretty good season to enjoy a career year. Shoot, even John Carlson, maligned much of the early season, ended up in the top three in the league for blocked shots.

And let’s not forget the job Braden Holtby did in his first full season in the league. He established himself as the No. 1 goalie on this team, putting up very good overall numbers and downright carrying this team at times until it found its legs.

There are still gaps in the talent on this team, particularly at off-wing on the top line with Ovechkin and Backstrom. They could use a little more muscle on the blue line. But amidst all the hand wringing and gnashing of teeth during January and February, they found some kids that could play. The play of Steve Oleksy and Jack Hillen fairly well relegated Dmitry Orlov and Tomas Kundratek to Hershey for the most part. One has to think that both the players and the team will benefit from that in the long run.

McPhee will have to decide what to do about Ribeiro’s contract, but that’s a discussion for another day.

For now, the Capitals enter the playoffs as “The team no one wants to play.” They square off against a familiar foe — the New York Rangers. Former and future division rivals, the Caps and the Rags have met in the playoffs four of the last five years. The Rangers ended the Caps season last year in the Game 7 heartbreaker in the second round. The Caps would like nothing better than to exact a little revenge on the Blueshirts.

In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, anything can happen. A goalie gets hot. A team gets a bounce here, a break there, and all of a sudden that imperfect team can find itself hoisting the coolest trophy in all of sport, passing it from teammate to teammate as they dance around the rink. Hot teams surprise in the playoffs all the time. The Caps didn’t start the season looking like they’d qualify as a candidate for that mantel, yet here they are, winners of 11 of their last 13 games, unquestionably the hottest team over the past two months.

Flawed, yes. But also true: playing as well as anyone in the league. So why not? They were left for dead once this season, so anything from this point on is gravy, right? No pressure. No expectations. Just keep going out there and punching the next team in the mouth. That’s what they’ve been doing since Feb. 7. Why not just keep it up for another two months or so?

____________________

Dave Nichols is Editor-in-Chief of District Sports Page. He is credentialed to cover the Washington Nationals, Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards. Dave is a life-long D.C. sports fan and attended his first pro game in 1974 — the Caps’ second game in existence.  You can follow him on Twitter @DaveNicholsDSP.

Filed Under: Caps/NHL Tagged With: , , ,

OPINION: Lack of focus hinders Washington Nationals out of the gate

April 21, 2013 by

The Washington Nationals, predicted juggernauts of the National League, find themselves with a 10-8 record, 3 1/2 games behind their chief competition in the division, the Atlanta Braves, three weeks into the season. It’s not so much the record, per se, but how they’ve gotten there that has folks concerned.

The offense has been sporadic, relying mainly on home runs to score. The starting pitching has been erratic; the bullpen a crapshoot. And the defense, which was supposed to be their strongest suit, has been downright poor, with 18 errors in 18 games, including three more in Sunday’s loss to the New York Mets.

What’s worse, they are making errors in judgment in addition to the physical errors, compounding the effects of the miscues with mental mistakes.

Sunday, the Nats made three glaring mental errors: one on the base paths, one in the field, and one at the plate that all combined to help hand the Nats a 2-0 loss when they struggled to get anything going against a pitcher that came into the game with an ERA over eight in three starts.

Already trailing 2-0 in the top of the sixth, Denard Span walked against Mets starter Dillon Gee on four pitches. Gee was running out of gas and it was going to be the Nats chance to get to him before getting to feast on the Mets ragged bullpen. On an 0-1 pitch, Gee threw a fastball in the dirt that looked like it might get past catcher John Buck, so with a walking lead Span took off for second.

Buck made a nice backhand pick of the ball in the dirt though, rose and fired a strike to Ruben Tejada covering the bag to nail Span easily. Down two runs there with the leadoff runner on, Span had to make sure that ball got through or away from the catcher. It was a play of aggression that you can live with if you’re playing good baseball, but when a team is struggling it’s a case of a player trying to do too much on his own.

Take what they give you, but make 100 percent sure you’re going to be safe.

Two pitches later, there were two outs. Gee walked the next two batters and was chased from the game. Unfortunately, the Nats chance at a rally fizzled when veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins struck out Ian Desmond — looking.

In the bottom half of the frame, Mike Baxter singled cleanly on one hop to left fielder Bryce Harper. The 20-year-old, maybe for the first time in his career, half-heartedly chased the ball down and had it hop out of his glove. Harper looked less than interested in collecting the ball, so Baxter — running all the way — hustled into second base. Baxter did not score, but the play made Harper — and in turn, the Nats — look bad.

The killer, though, came in the eighth inning.  Against 30-year-old rookie left-handed reliever Scott Rice, Steve Lombardozzi led off with a single. Span drew a five-pitch walk, with Rice throwing the last three balls in the dirt, nowhere near strikes. A visit by pitching coach Dan Warthen didn’t help, as Rice threw three straight upper-80s sinkers in the dirt to Jayson Werth to go 3-0.

Inexplicably, Werth committed a batting Cardinal sin as he swung at the 3-0 pitch against a pitcher that couldn’t find the strike zone with a map, tapping the 88-MPH sinker to short for an easy 6-4-3 double play. It’s not so much swinging 3-0 there, but there was nothing he could do with the pitch at his shoetops but hit the ball weakly on the ground. Again, it a case of one player taking it upon himself instead of taking what a mediocre team will give you.

After the game, manager Davey Johnson declined to discuss Werth’s decision to swing. For his part, Werth owned up to it, admitting on the postgame that it was a bad decision. “Look no further than me,” Werth said. “I feel like I pretty much blew it.”

Harper then struck out, seeing nothing but sliders and changeups, all but one outside the strike zone.

Expectations do funny things to a ball club. Of course, it’s early. The physical errors will probably take care of themselves — Ian Desmond probably isn’t going to continue to make an error every other game for the rest of the year. Once the physical errors are reduced — and the team starts to hit — the mental errors will probably go with them.

But the lack of focus right now while the team is scuffling a bit hurts even worse, because even though the Nats aren’t playing all that well right now, these are still ballgames they could — should – be winning. Sunday’s game was eminently winnable, right down to the last batters.

Complicating poor play with a lack of focus from what’s supposed to be a team with a ”World Series or Bust” mentality is troubling. The Nats have little time to dwell though, as they must regroup quickly for home series with St. Louis and Cincinnati this week. A disappointing start can turn into a downright bad start very quickly this week if the Nats don’t start paying attention to the details.

Breaking out the bats wouldn’t hurt, either.

Filed Under: Nats/MLB Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

OPINION: Washington Capitals team will be tough to “blow up”

February 5, 2013 by

Last season, the eighth place team in the Eastern Conference had 92 points, roughly 1.12 points per game. In this lockout-shortened season, that works out to about 54 points. After Tuesday night’s 3-2 loss at home to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Washington Capitals record stands at 2-7-1 (five points), a 24-point pace for the season.

In order to garner those 54 points to have a chance to qualify for the playoffs, the Caps need an additional 51 points, equivalent to a 22-9-7 record for the remaining 38 games of the season. For reference, that’s a 110-point pace over the course of a regular 82-game schedule.

So now that we’ve identified how difficult it will be for the Caps to qualify for the playoffs after the horrendous start they’ve played to so far, the more appropriate question at this point may be where, exactly, do the Caps go from here? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Caps/NHL Tagged With: , , , , , ,

OPINION: Verizon Center will be full of Washington Capitals fans tonight — Will you be there?

January 22, 2013 by
Fans during warmups at Verizon Center, May 2 (Cheryl Nichols/District Sports Page)

Fans during warmups at Verizon Center, May 2 (Cheryl Nichols/District Sports Page)

There’s nothing like the opening game of a new season at home. The anticipation, the excitement, the pageantry. It’s like the first day back to school, when you get to see your old friends again and pick back up after a long summer of fighting with your little brothers. For the Washington Capitals and their legion of red rockers, it’s no different. It’s just this year, we’ve had to wait an extra four months or so.

The lockout turned some fans off from the NHL product though, and that’s a damn shame. There are those that have self-imposed an exile from the best hockey there is to offer in protest for the way the owners shut the game down until a new CBA could be hammered out.

To them, I ask, to what end?

I understand a certain level of frustration on the part of the die-hard fan. This is someone who invests a lot of time and/or money and may feel — on some level — that they are “partners” in this relationship with the organization, to use a word Ted Leonsis, majority owner of the Capitals, likes to use to describe the team/fan dynamic.

You missed the game. You felt left out — betrayed even. You missed a part of your social fabric that has become so ingrained into your winter routine that it felt like second nature and that was ripped away from you by spoiled millionaires and billionaires while they bickered on how to divide up your hard-earned money.

But here’s the bottom line, and I’m sorry if it comes as a shock to your system: They don’t care if you don’t come back on an individual level. Most fans couldn’t come back fast enough. And if you don’t, you’re only hurting yourself. If you’re one of the few that will be conducting your own personal boycott of the NHL for whatever reason and whatever length of time, good for you. Your sense of moral conviction is strong. If you feel that strongly about making yourself suffer over a situation you had no control over, that’s your decision to make alone. But I’ve got news for you, they won’t miss you.

What’s the old expression? Cut off your nose to spite your face? I just don’t understand the reaction to having the NHL taken away from you is to not return when it comes back.

Ted Leonsis apologized on his blog last Thursday. Taken at face value, the opening paragraph would seem to indicate that Mr. Leonsis, who has taken quite a beating by the media and a segment of Washington Capitals fans for his role in the lockout and CBA negotiation, acknowledged the role that he played and is contrite about not being able to bring the dispute to a quicker resolution.

“I know Capitals fans – and hockey fans around the world – agonized the past few months; I apologize for my role in not being able to help us reach a more timely agreement. I’m sorry it took this long.”

Mr. Leonsis did not apologize for the lockout itself that cost almost half the NHL season. It’s assumed that be believes that it was a foregone conclusion, an inevitability. Rather, he apologized for the his role and the length of time it took to come to an agreement.

For some, it was a first step in soothing the bad feelings that linger for a portion of the fan base. For others, it looks like a blatant P.R. move designed to do nothing more than give the appearance of “caring” about the fans. I will choose to believe the former, though it seems like I am in the minority in that opinion.

On Mr. Leonsis’ blog, some comments indicated that some fans will be “reluctant to really invest my time or energy back into hockey,” and that they are “hoping to see more than words when it comes to making up with your fans.” A popular suggestion on social media last week suggested the league give away or discount the Center Ice package to entice fans to come back.

But the fans that product appeals to was never going to leave to begin with.

The fans that the league need to court are the casual fans, those that may come to a game or two every year, to try to get them to re-invest in the game. They need to find a way to get fans in the stands in Phoenix and Dallas and Columbus and Long Island. And Carolina and Florida and Nashville.

As for the Caps, the team announced last Friday evening a litany of discounts and giveaways designed to entice season ticket holders to come back to Verizon Center, to help smooth over bad feelings leftover from the work stoppage and Mr. Leonsis’ involvement in the proceedings. Still, many howled that the Caps were catering simply to the season ticket holders, leaving most fans still out to dry.

No, for a certain segment of the fan base, no act of contrition will seem genuine enough.

If your level of moral outrage over the lockout is something you can’t reconcile, there’s no amount of free hot dogs or half-priced t-shirts in the world to suffice, I guess. Your loss.

I was as disappointed as anyone that the league lost so many games to the lockout and labor negotiations. The NHL leadership and Board of Governors are seriously misguided in their practice that continually locking out the players to conduct labor negotiations is the best way to go about things. It’s not. It costs the league and the players a lot of money. It robs the fans of the product they so very much want to consume. It literally shortens players careers. It’s bad practice.

Unfortunately, it’s part of the business. All four major sports have gone through it. Most labor-based industries at one time or another has gone through it. Would you expect more out of your garbage collecting company once they settled with their collectors? No, you’re just happy someone is finally picking up your stinking garbage.

The actuality is that Verizon Center will be full again tonight with 19,000-plus red rockers, regardless if you’re there or not. Sadly, I will not be there in person. It’s the first home opener I’ve missed in over a decade. But you can be damn sure I’ll be watching from our new home in Idaho.

If the Caps can put Saturday night’s loss to Tampa Bay in their rear view mirror and get off to a good start and win, the fans will fill Verizon Center all season again like usual. If they advance in the playoffs, it’ll be like the lockout never happened.

But if Saturday’s rust continues and they get off to a slow start and suffer through an inconsistent — or worse — season, that’s when the ownership should get concerned. We saw some cracks in the armor last season when the team struggled. Missing the playoffs in this lockout-shortened season will be worse for business than the lockout itself, public relations efforts or no.

Dave Nichols is Editor-in-Chief and Washington Nationals Page Editor for District Sports Page. He is credentialed to cover the Washington Nationals, Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards. Dave is a life-long D.C. sports fan and attended his first pro game in 1974 — the Caps’ second game in existence.  You can follow him on Twitter @DaveNicholsDSP.

Filed Under: Caps/NHL Tagged With: , ,

Washington Nationals fans learning the price of getting good

January 17, 2013 by

In the last two days, the Washington Nationals have relegated two fan favorites to lesser roles on the team and discarded two others. It’s part of the unfortunate part of the business. Fans get attached to certain players for their personality or willingness to engage fans, then see those heroes leave the organization unceremoniously when a better or different or cheaper option comes along.

This winter, it’s all about maximizing the roster for a legitimate World Series run, as it should be. That doesn’t mean it still doesn’t hurt when a fan favorite is pushed out of a job or off the team altogether.

The acquisition of closer Rafael Soriano Tuesday pushes Drew Storen and Tyler Clippard each up one inning in the pecking order, if not placing one or the other squarely on the trading block. On Wednesday, the other shoe from re-signing Adam LaRoche fell: the Nats traded Michael Morse to the Seattle Mariners in a three-team deal with the Oakland A’s in a trade that had most of the fan bases for each team complaining they didn’t get enough in the deal. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Nats/MLB Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Washington Capitals face challenges on and off-ice in critical short 2013 season

January 15, 2013 by
Dick Patrick, Ted Leonsis, Head Coach Adam Oates and George McPhee at the Washington Capitals Press Conference, June 27, 2012. (Dave Nichols/District Sports Page)

Dick Patrick, Ted Leonsis, Head Coach Adam Oates and George McPhee at the Washington Capitals Press Conference, June 27, 2012. (Dave Nichols/District Sports Page)

The last time the NHL reopened its doors after a lockout, the Washington Capitals didn’t have to worry a whole lot about retaining its popularity or potential damage from the labor dispute. Although the team did have 2004′s top draft pick in Alex Ovechkin, there wasn’t a whole lot yet to build around, and the team languished in the pecking order well behind the Redskins, Wizards and the newly established Nationals for the entertainment dollar of metro area sports fans.

“I was in no rush to get back last time,” Capitals General Manager George McPhee joked on Tuesday. It wasn’t going to be a whole lot of fun the last time around, having to build a team. As I’ve said many times, when we came out of that, we were trying to fill boots. We had a certain number of players and had to have a lot, and we were trying to avoid long-term commitments and that sort of things to guys who we thought wouldn’t be around very long.”

Of course, a lot changed in between 2005 and 2012. Reflecting the rag-tag teams wearing the old blue-and-bronze sweaters, Washington was 28th in attendance in 2005-06 with an average of 13,905 per game. Now, the Capitals are coming off a season where they ranked 12th in the league, selling out every game at Verizon Center since 2008-09 with an 18,506 average last season, and the team even has a waiting list for season tickets — something that would be deemed unheard of during the last lockout.

The 2012-13 lockout will take a still undetermined toll on the league — and the Capitals organization may face more scrutiny than others. Capitals’ owner Ted Leonsis sat on the league’s negotiating committee and took more public criticism than most during the stoppage. The new, shortened 48-game schedule poses a challenge for the Caps to turn around any loss of momentum quickly.

Simply put, the markets that will overcome the negative impact of the lockout best are the ones that are very competitive in 2012-13. Success on the ice will make the bitterness over the loss of hockey for four months fade away faster, and as significantly, entice back some of those fans that drifted away from the sport.

Teams that struggle this season could get hit with a double-whammy at season-ticket renewal time, as the lockout and poor on-ice performance could pose a threat to fragile ticket bases. A discontentment with the product paired with lingering resentment for the lockout could be a troubling combination for some organizations.

Additionally, teams that are perceived to have been part of the league’s lockout strategy also could face more backlash than moderate clubs.

For the Capitals themselves, the compressed schedule certainly will add an element of additional pressure compared to a typical regular season, simply because every game is more valuable and a long losing streak could spell doom for a team’s playoff hopes. The thought of coasting to a division title — or a playoff spot, for that matter – should be the furthest thing from anyone’s mind.

“For sure, when you look at it that way, absolutely,” new Capitals coach Adam Oates said Tuesday. You can’t get behind the 8-ball, or lose too many in a row.”

Oates added that sentiment isn’t atypical, as losing streaks have been magnified in recent seasons. “Over the last couple of years, one point mattered. Even at the beginning of the year last year, team were worried about that. Team’s first opening night, you never wanted that losing stretch all year-long, the parity is so great in the league.”

The last time the NHL held a 48-game schedule, the Capitals started off a dismal 3-10-5, which created some grumbling amongst the fans who returned, and attendance sagged quickly. Just 10,761 attended a Capitals-Devils game at Capital Centre on Feb. 20, 1995, and 12,391 attended a 1-1 tie at the Capital Centre between Washington and Tampa Bay six days later, the depth of the team’s losing streak that year.

However, a mid-season call up helped the Capitals regain their footing, as goaltender Jim Carey was  recalled from the AHL’s Portland Pirates and helped the Capitals qualify for the post-season. Still, attendance dropped overall from 14,527 to 14,158 that season in large part to weak attendance early in the year that likely would have continued had Washington not turn their campaign around.

Now, while the Capitals enjoy a consecutive-game sellout streak, the bigger question is the long-term picture and how the renewals for 2013-14 will look, which will certainly be impacted by how the club performs.

While teams around the league are trying to pick the right way to tackle a short season, it’s a challenge.

“There are going to be a lot of unknowns here,” McPhee said. “No one knows what this is going to look like, who’s in shape, who’s not, who gets off the fast start. It’s going to be like 48 playoff games, really unpredictable. We don’t know how people are going to play, but that’s what makes it exciting.”

“I think the playoffs starts the first game, it’s going to be playoffs,” Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin said. “It doesn’t matter what kind of good team you are on paper, you have to show up on the ice and play hard as you can.”

When asked if he thought the lockout could damage the Caps’ newfound standing in Washington sports, McPhee was hopeful the support the team has seen since the last lockout would continue.

“I’m just hopeful we get going real soon and everybody is as happy as we are to be back,” he said. “We’ve all missed this. Nobody wanted this. We’re here, ready to go, expect our fans to be too. We have phenomenal fans.”

Filed Under: Caps/NHL Tagged With: , ,

Washington Redskins might be RGIII’s team, but they’re more than just one man

December 17, 2012 by

Kirk Cousins guided the Redskins to a victory over the Browns. (photo by Brian Murphy)

The Washington Redskins announced Friday night they planned to face the Cleveland Browns — in Cleveland — without their leader, quarterback Robert Griffin III. Despite a week of encouraging news from practice, the team’s doctors and coaches decided to be cautious with their best playmaker, and likely rookie of the year, and sit him at least a week after spraining his knee the previous week against the Baltimore Ravens.

That left the reigns to Kyle Shanahan’s high-powered offense in fourth round draft pick Kirk Cousins.

The rookie shook off a couple of rough series at the beginning of the game to lead the Skins to a fifth consecutive win and first place in the NFC East — thanks to tiebreakers — with a 38-21 win over the hapless Browns.

The Redskins now control their own playoff destiny by virtue of a victory delivered by their backup rookie quarterback.

Cousins, obviously, is not the only rookie that has delivered for the Redskins this season. Fellow first year player Alfred Morris, a sixth round pick, has emerged as a tough running tailback in the mold of Gerald Riggs — big enough to run folks over but with enough speed to break off a big run when the hole is available.

The Skins are getting contributions from unheralded young offensive linemen as well. Of course, that depth will be tested this upcoming week with the news of Will Montgomery’s knee injury, Troy Polumbus’ concussion and Jordan Black’s PED suspension.

Another big contributor has been wide receiver Pierre Garcon. Once he got back on the field from a foot injury, the fifth-year playmaker has developed a big-time rapport with Griffin and given the Redskins a young veteran receiver that opposing teams need to game-plan for. That gives room for younger receivers, such as Leonard Hankerson (two TDs against Cleveland) and Aldrick Robinson, to make plays. Even veteran Santana Moss is enjoying a renaissance season with seven touchdowns among his 37 catches.

Kyle Shanahan has designed and developed an offensive scheme to take best advantage of the talent that has been assembled. He’s also showed an ability to adjust the game plan when necessary depending on injury or opponent. The offensive coordinator — much as his head coach father — took a great deal of critique the last couple of unsuccessful seasons with less-than-NFL quality signal callers.

Now that the Skins look like they possess two of those, they are on the precipice of the playoffs. The team sent out a press release Monday morning announcing the plan for distributing playoff tickets — with two big NFC East games yet to play. It’s heady days for the Washington Redskins organization, and it seems like health will be the biggest challenge to the success this season, and for the foreseeable future.

Filed Under: Skins/NFL Tagged With: , , , ,
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