A lackluster effort by a hockey club can manifest itself in a wide variety of ways. Losing battles to loose pucks. Consistently crappy passing. Each and every five-man unit generally looking out of sync with one another. Skating seemingly without much of a sense of urgency . . . as in going one-for-nine with the man advantage. The Caps were all this and much more of the morose in a spirit-sapping and thoroughly underwhelming showing Thursday night. And yet . . . most improbably, most undeservedly, they found themselves in the lead nearing the midpoint of the third period, poised to steal two points they certainly didn't earn. Such thefts though require solid goaltending to finish off a valiant and more deserving visitor. The Capitals on Thursday night needed Jose Theodore to be brilliant in the first period, and he was. In the third period, holding the lead, they needed him to be merely adequate. He was anything but. No reason to be particularly upset with Jose Theo...
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