Does Mike Wise Know What “Playoff Hockey” Is?
This morning, Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise summed up the lessons of the first two games of the ongoing Caps-Flyers series:
Playoff hockey wasn't Friday night; that was an aberration, a once-in-an-era, 18,000-strong love-in, consummating the relationship between fans and the players they've come to embrace. Playoff hockey was Game 2, the Flyers mercilessly forechecking, keeping the pressure on Capitals goalie Cristobal Huet even with a two-goal lead.
Which raises the question: Does this guy know from hockey? It sounds like a lot of sports-columnist boilerplate to me. You tend to hear the same line about the playoffs in the NBA–about how the defense tightens, and wimps lose, and finesse has no place. In other words, the sort of analysis that gets written when the columnist doesn't have anything particularly insightful to add.
Caps fans, please help: Does Wise have it right that the Caps tried to play too pretty on Sunday and folded under the brute force of the Flyers?
12:27 pm
I'm sorry... the conspiracy theorist in me is just wondering about our sudden rise to the top of the Southeast Division, our ridiculously strong play since the loss in Chicago, up until the win streak was snapped yesterday afternoon. Personally, I saw a different Caps team than I'd seen in the last few weeks. We weren't attacking, our passes were lazy and ill-aimed, there was no "snap" to our shots or our play, and honestly, I wondered if they had gone out drinking the night before and were hung over. This wasn't the team that has been playing like hungry madmen for the last eight games. They looked defeated from the very beginning and they stayed that way through the whole game.
My theory? The NHL wants people to get behind someone like Ovechkin, and they want better ratings. What better way than to drive up the drama quotient and make things exciting? The Caps did not look like they wanted to win yesterday, and that struck me as very odd. I've seen them pull back from crippling deficits and play their A-game, but this was a far cry from that. Color me disappointed.
12:36 pm
The Caps looked exactly like they did when Glen Hanlon was behind the bench.
1:43 pm
"he Caps did not look like they wanted to win yesterday, and that struck me as very odd."
a team making it to the playoffs and then losing steam/interest?
wow, sounds like the Sabres. :wink: