Morning After Thoughts

First of all it feels a little like Ottawa this morning here in DC. What happened to our 70 degree weather? The arctic chill has set in, just as it has for the hopes of the Caps season. But not all is lost, let's take a look at the bright side of things.

• The Caps are 19-20-7, 45 points and technically only 1 game behind .500.
  
• Despite their resent struggles, they are only 5 points out of a playoff spot.
• We can't be anything but excited about the play of our superstar players Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin. They have proven that they are two of the most feared snipers in the game. And at the ages of 21 and 22 respectively, their game has no where to go but up.
• The Capitals have one of the best minor league teams out there in the Hershey Bears. They have followed up their Calder Cup Championship with a solid season proving that the future is bright for the Capitals young prospects.

On the other hand:

• The Caps have lost six straight games on the road, including three straight games overall.
  
• The defense has been anything but stellar as of late, allowing at least 5 goals in each game on the current road trip.
• Already missing defenseman John Erskine and Bryan Muir to similar injuries, it looks as though the Caps may have lost the services of another in Mike Green. He took a hard slap shot off his left leg and could be out for a while depending on the results of his x-rays taken after the game. Keep your fingers crossed Caps fans, we can ill afford to loose Green for any significant length of time.
• The Caps need to work on their faceoffs. Last night's stats proved this fact as the only centers above the 50% mark were Brooks Laich with a 75% success rate and Boyd Gordon with a 60% success rate. Kudos to you Brooks and Boyd. Now how bout helping out your fellow teammates. Here were the others' faceoff win percentages last night: Danius Zubrus at 45%, Brian Sutherby 37.5%, and Jakub Klepis 0 for 5 for 0%. Attention must be given to the little details of the game in order for the team to improve.
• If the Caps continue to side, they must then make room for some of their top prospects in Hershey. Eric Fehr and Tomas Fleichmann have nothing left to prove at the AHL level. Get them some experience this year so they would be ready for a full time position from the first day of the 07-08 season.

The schedule does not get any easier as the Caps head to Carolina on Thursday to take on the defending Stanley Cup Champions. This will be the first of 3 meetings between the 2 teams over the following 10 days.