A Familiar Situation

Well, here we go again. Like last year, the Caps slow start to a playoff series has them down 3-1 to a team they are better than. Not much better, but better. For the 1,000,000th time, the Caps are likely going to be done in by a red hot goalie who has played out of his mind. Can the Caps ever be the team that has that goalie? I'll give you 1998 where Olie had some amazing games, but once the Caps can be the team with that great goalie, then we will finally take a drink from the Stanley Cup. Simeon Varlamov can be that guy, but give him a break. He's only 20 years old. He's been very good, but he's needed to be perfect and that's just too much to ask. The Caps have played 4 pretty good games. They would have crushed the Canadiens. They would likely have a lead over the Flyers and maybe even the Canes or Devils. But for some reason they just aren't getting the puck past Henrik Lundqvist. Part of it is him being great, and the rest is just not finishing the opportunities. Man, there were a lot of opportunities in Game 4. The Caps rang two shots off the post. They had great shots that ended up just wide or right in the glove of Lundqvist. The chances were there. The Rangers got lucky a couple of times and put it in the net. When you dig yourselves a hole like the Caps did, they can't afford to get unlucky. The margin for error is so small. Now there is no more margin for error. The Capitals are going to need to win 3 straight games against a netminder that is in their heads. Not an easy task. Yet, they have the experience from last year that saw them get awfully close to doing just that. First things first and that's Friday night. It's gotta all be laid on the line. No more excuses. Eric Fehr, Tomas Fleischmann, Viktor Kozlov, and Sergei Fedorov... help us out guys!! Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin, and Nick Backstrom cannot do it all by themselves. Mike Green, where have you been??? This is it. I know we are still a very very young team, a team that will make a big run in the near future. They are good and should remain good. It's tough to be patient now as they learn the ropes, and going out in the first round will likely be deemed a step backward. Yet, if this is what it takes for these young 20-somethings to figure out what the playoffs is all about and how you must overcome the 'hot goalie' and battle in a way that you never see in the regular season, then so be it. I have faith this team can win 3 games in a row. I hope they can. Regardless of what all the experts are going to say about Lundqvist. He's just a man. Play your game and take it to them... one game at a time.... and just see what happens. It's desperation time.