The NHL Playoffs are now in full force, too bad the same can't be said for a Caps team that's playing worse than Stan Marsh's pee wee squad. After losing in what was another heart-breaker, Washington now finds themselves in an 0-2 hole heading into Madison Square Garden on Monday. This is the second year in a row that the Caps have made the playoffs as a top 3 seed and lost both opening home games. Last year, they managed to battle back against the Flyers and push the series to 7 games before losing in overtime. We can only hope to reach a similar result this time around. In what was a surprising move by coach Bruce Boudreau, Washington pulled goalie Jose Theodore after giving up 4 goals in game one, in favor of the rookie Simeon Varlamov. At first glance, this looks like a terrible coaching decision, but I actually think it was a good move in the long run. It's much easier to bring back and rely once again on Jose for game 3 had Simeon laid an egg than to bring out a rookie in an 0-2 series with all the pressure in the world on his shoulders. Varlamov actually played well too, making 23 saves off of 24 shots. The only goal of the game was scored 7:44 into the first period by Rangers RW Ryan Callahan. Hednrik Lundqvist continued to defy all odds and play like the NHLs best goalie, recording 35 saves in his 3rd career playoff shutout. This was only the 4th shutout of the season for the Capitals.
So ok, the Cap's defense played exceptionally well and I was glad to see Pothier back out on the ice. If you told me before the game that the Rangers were only going to score one goal I'd have bet all the space cash in the universe on the Caps so seal the W at home. Alas our offense decided to call in sick, failing to connect on a total of 35 shots. We just looked flat out there. Ovechkin was trying to make too much happen, forcing goals when he should have passed. There were countless instances where one of our guys would not be paying attention to the puck, standing in front of the net accidentally blocking teammate's attempts at shots. It looked like everyone was on a different page and they were just unable to pull it together. Monday's game (7pm EST) is either going to a breath of fresh air or a nail in the coffin for a Capitals team that is the only good thing going in DC right now. If they lose on Monday, you will see so many disenchanted Washingtonians you'll think that you're here when you want to be here. The fate of the city depends on these guys.
It was also a terrible weekend for the O's (6-6) who dropped all 3 games against Boston so far. On a positive note, all 3 games were very close and the Orioles had a chance to win in all of them (twice they had the game winning run at the plate in the 9th inning and failed to capitalize. Game One started off incredibly promising with Nick Markakis hitting a 2nd inning grand slam to help the O's climb out to an early 7-2 lead, but the Red Sox came firing back in the bottom of the inning with 4 runs of their own, and continued to chip away en route to a 10-8 victory. Guthrie (2-0) finished with 8 ER in 5 innings but surprisingly did not suffer the loss. Danys Baez got the L after allowing the go ahead run to score off a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 6th innings and Boston never looked back.
Game 2 started out in quite the opposite fashion, with Boston jumping out to a 6-0 lead before the end of the 4th innings. The Orioles responded with a 4 run inning of their own in the 5th, but were unable to score again, despite shutting out the Red Sox the rest of the way. Beckett was a full count machine in the 5th inning getting 4 batters into full counts, walking 2 including walking in the Oriole's first run of the game. After that Aubrey Huff added a bases clearing double that brought the game to a 6-4 score.
Game 3 was more of a pitchers duel which ended in a 2-1 victory for the Sox. Koji Uehera looked impressive in his 3rd start, only allowing 2 runs and recording 5 strikeouts in 7 innings. It wasn't enough to stop John Lester who pitched an impressive 7 inning shutout recording 9 Ks of his own. Again, the O's bullpen looked pretty solid, but the starters struggled, allowing 16 Earned Runs in 3 games. They definitely have the offense to win games this year, but they are going to have to do something about their pitching. Rich Hill cant get here soon enough! Hopefully the O's can salvage a game from the series as they wrap up in Boston tomorrow (11:05 EST).
Finally, The Florida Gators men's basketball team suffered another crushing blow as sophomore F Alex Tyus announced that he is transferring schools. Tyus was never happy at Florida because he was forced into a center role when he was meant to play the small forward position. Tyus was Florida's second most productive player behind Nick Calathes (delcared for the NBA draft) averaging 12.5 pts and 6.2 rebounds last season. This leaves Donovan's Gators with a bunch of holes heading into the off-season and it makes me wonder what goes on in the locker room. Since I've been at Florida, I have seen around 10 players transfer under Bill Donovan: Jai Lucas, Jonothan Mitchell, Brandon Powell, David Huertas, Allan Cheaney, Mohammed Abukar and Alex Tyus. I don't know what kind of stick Billy D has up his ass, but I dont like it one bit. He could go down as a two-hit wonder, scoring back to back championships in 05-06 and 06-07 with perhaps the greatest college basketball team to ever come together. But that group of guys was an anomaly, a perfect storm the likes of which we will probably never see again. So Billy has reverted back to his mediocre style of play, recruiting less-than-stellar white guys who are small and rely too heavily on perimeter shooting. This style of basketball does NOT win championships. I don't know whats going to happen to this team in the future, but they need to get a better attitude and start playing selfless basketball. The only bright spot for next year is the addition of incoming freshman guard Kenny Boyton (#3 SG recruit according to ESPN.com) as well as Georgetown transfer Vernon Macklin who is looking to take over the F/C role once filled by Tyus.
*Some statistics courtesy of espn.com
Baseball and Caps all week. Until next time...
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