PATHETIC!!!

Can't really say much more. To win Game 6 the way that we did in OT and then knowing we are coming back to our house for a Game 7, you'd think the Caps would be pumped to play. We got demolished. I suppose I can take some comfort in knowing the better team won. All series I didn't feel like we were the better team. The victories we had in the series, we stole. Sure, we had some decent stretches and some good goals and luck counts for something but when you really look at the series, we were not the better team.

In nearly every game, there would be long stretches where the Penguins were in our attack zone. They out shot us by like 80-90 shots in the series. For goodness sake, we were out shot 18-5 in the first period yesterday. Who did it look like came out ready to advance in the playoffs? Brooks Laich said it best after the game when he said that it was a really good year but unfortunately it will be remembered for this loss. Absolutely no energy. I was embarrassed watching the game.

I understand that several of the Caps were injured but that's no excuse. At this point, every team has players playing with injuries. It is hard to take solace in the fact that we had a good year and that we may have found a future franchise goalie and we have the greatest player in the world and we have a young core team built around the superstar but it's still hard to accept the type of effort that was given yesterday. Honestly, we looked like we were in a slower gear and we were just fumbling around with the puck. It felt like a youth league team up against an NHL team. Green again was non existent, Semin kept tripping over the blue line, the veteran Federov takes a stupid retaliation penalty, defensive lapses, can't clear, can't crowd the net, taking long range slap shots with easy looks. That won't get it done.

Worse is that I think we were outplayed but I really felt like we were outcoached in this series. I don't understand all the nuances of hockey and its strategy but all year we were one of the top shooting teams in the league and we were obliterated in that category in this series. I can understand one or two games but when it happens in every game of a 7 seven game series, there seems like there is some coaching that goes into that.

Look, I really like this team and feel like we should be encouraged because of the young talent we have on the Caps but it was an inexcusable effort yesterday. Given the type of season we had, the playoffs were a disappointment. I said all along that the only way this season would be a success was to get to the conference finals. Hopefully we can use this as a learning experience but next year we have to go in thinking we are a top tier team and the goal legitimately must be winning the Stanley Cup.

I suppose I will now shift my focus to the Cubbies...until football season starts creeping closer.