This organization is certainly in need of a MAJOR shake up. Somethings got to happen to spark this club. Perhaps getting lucky in a draft, ie. Kovulchuk, Spezza, both going above Weiss but just being that close to two future stars. Or trading the first pick and passing on Rick Nash to get “Mumbles” at number three, or the following year trading the first again to get Horton over Fleury, and Staal (2 stanley cup winners) Not to mention missing Ovechkin by 2 days on his birth certificate. Which brings us to 2004, Ovechkin and and Malkin go one and 2…. no such luck for us when we have top 3 picks. It goes on and on, we just never get the breaks with getting the right slots in those great drafts, or the players just arent there when we have the top pick.

As a Caps fan, I was hoping for more Penalty kills. A few more and Matt Bradley may have had a hat trick tonight. With all due respect to the Panthers and their great fans, that was awful. It was as if the Caps were up a man even though they were down one. If Ovie played it may have been worse(Good thing someone’s Papa works with Bettman). The one guy I felt for was the rookie goalie. No, not Varly. The Cat goalie who got crushed because his AHL team in front of him thought they were playing in Hershey.

Excellent writing. Just excellent!

well said Whale. there’s the five or so of us here constantly that live for this embarassment. every night there’s a game, i turn on my feed and go “its time for the rollercoaster” because every night there’s crazy emotions that this team evokes. but really, they’re just things i scream at the screen.

send this off to yormark, siegel and viner. they say they want our feedback. they say they’re there to listen. let’s see if they get it? the money’s there…but the people aren’t. in the stands. in the offices. or on the ice. its amazing that this team is in the top half of the league in payroll and could perform this poorly. the marlins manage to fight for a playoff spot every season, and even win two championships, with a measley nothing payroll. how can this team not even field a team remotely resembling a Stanley Cup contender while being at the cap?

no one on this team should be a first liner. and that’s the first problem….

i feel your pain and i am pissed as well but as long as this team is only 5-6 points from the 6th seed i refuse to give up… the teams that make runs get hot in the 2nd half if the goal is unreachable then so be it but they are still in it you dont have to be in 1st to make an impact in the playoffs case in point look at where boston ended up last year and have nothing to show for it… being at the top of the standings to me personally is over rated because those teams get to complacent and cocky thinking that they will roll thru playoffs when a lower seed team comes up and takes it from them..
so yeah its ok to be pissed to say they suck i do so as well but its not yet over look at the caps yes they have OV8 and much better talent but i dont think i need to remind any one where the caps were last year and just started to burn it up in the 2nd half im not saying or comparing this team to the caps but when there is still a chance for something to happen i tend to wait it out to see what happens the winners and losers are basically decided by the trade deadline when you see teams dump salaries or pick up help for the playoffs so with that said until that asterik is beside the cats name and they are officially eliminated i wont give up hope.. dont forget it hasnt been that long since they went on that small winning streak so keep cool keep supporting even though its hard because you never know..

Perhaps I was too light on DeBoer yesterday morning. Pulling the goalie was a stupid move. Clemmensen is shaky, but putting in a kid that just played in Winnipeg was not a great idea.

I think perhaps our players are a bunch of head cases. I don’t know, but they’re ridiculous levels of inconsistent. If they showed up every night and lost it would be one thing, but they don’t even show up every night and when they do they have trouble holding leads and playing to win.

A shakeup is definitely in order. The problem is that we need to move our “best” players for it to work and lose some with the kids. You know, the ones who try really hard every time they’re on the ice and get rewarded with a third period benching because Pete DeB decided he wanted to roll three lines (for no discernible reason). The guys don’t look defeated when they step out on the ice like when JM was behind the bench, but it’s still not good.

Messrs. Sigel and Vine, please understand one thing: if you fire the coach, the whole staff needs to go. Clean house and start again. If you’re going to change the culture of losing, you have to start over. But now is still too early.

I think some trades may be in order, but it doesn’t seem like many teams are in a trading mood and the biggest potential deals are going to be trading one of our problems for someone else’s (Blake, Spezza, etc.). But if he thinks he’s going to the playoffs this year, Sexton should think long and hard about grabbing Marty Biron from the Isles when DiPietro’s back and sending Clemmensen on a one-way ticket to Rochester with Koistenen.

Pete, you really need to think about what you’re doing and the messages you’re sending. I’m not going to let up on the end of that Avs game because I think you’re responsible for the blown lead. Period. Never, especially with this group, play not to lose. I switched the Panthers game off last night because I couldn’t stand it anymore and we flipped over and watched the Sabres destroy the Canadiens. Sure, they lost a four-geal lead and watched it dwindle to a two-goal lead. Then they proceeded to make it a three-goal lead with about five minutes left. Did they sit back and try not to lose? No, they kept pushing and made it a four-goal lead again with less than a minute left. Yes, up by three, less than a minute left and they’re still trying to score more goals. That’s how a winner plays.

And to everyone bitching about how Vokoun isn’t a “real” goalie and we should get one: Look at the last two games and think about how many of those 11 goals Vokoun would have let in. You can’t rely on your goalie to bail you out every night and we do then complain that he’s not good enough. You all need to watch more hockey if you think this. Vokoun is a top 10 goalie in this league. Our defense is terrible and he keeps us competitive.

Very nice post. And absolutely right on as my feelings are the same. While I didn’t get to see the game, the text messages kept me informed of the disaster and once I saw that Clemmensen was replaced after 2 goals I thought HUH? Not fair to leave him in for 7 last time, then take him out after 2 and put Salak in.

DeBoer’s choices are becoming very questionnable and I think he is starting to push the panic button.
His assistants have become worthless.

All in all this roster which is made of 6 forwards who shpould be on everyone else’s third line’s and 6 forwards who belong either on a 4th line or the AHL needs a shakeup. Can’t wait till the trade deadline. Season is slipping away.

Excellent post. I have the same sentiments as you when it comes to this Panthers team. I had to turn off the game last night after it hit the 3-0 mark because I was so disappointed.

Unfortunately we’re going to see blame shifted to the scheduling and travel factors where it should firmly rest on the shoulders of the coaching staff and players. I understand the impact of a grueling schedule, but as a professional you play through it to the best of your ability.

I haven’t given up on the players yet. We do need a shakeup however, for a team that has such a high salary we aren’t getting return on investment. Someone else’s problem may be our diamond in the rough, it happens consistently enough in the NHL that I’d hope we could be the beneficiary of it once instead of the team losing the player (see any number of traded Panthers as examples).

I don’t know how you drill consistency into a team but we see flashes of potential all the time, its just extremely inconsistent. My vain hope is that when Booth finally returns he is able to pick up where he left off (after proper conditioning and play time of course). By the trade deadline I feel that we’re going to see some major movements, I just hope they are right ones.

My season tickets are on the line this year – I doubt I’m going to renew unless I see some major commitment by the organization to make the necessary changes to provide a competitive and enjoyable team. I’m tired of the decade of fan misery I’ve, and other hardcore, Panther fans have suffered.

I feel your pain, Litterbox. My last blog entry was written after we’d dropped 5 straight, and I was reeling from the lack of offense and special teams play. The Colorado near-miss had me wondering if any of my loyalty was worth it.

But, and here’s the thing that keeps me going despite our terrible track record; we’re only three points out of a playoff spot, and we have had a significant portion of our roster occupied by minor-leaguers for a large part of the season… Last night we had 4 minor-leaguers on the ice, including an undersized rookie goalie. Salak did an admirable job under the circumstances. For a good portion of the night he had to face the Caps with only 3 or 4 Panthers in front of him due to the Caps’ numerous power plays. That shorty was a dagger through the team’s heart, though. Clemmensen, who I was happy to get last summer, has played horribly. He has given up A LOT of goals. 5 to Dallas, 7 to Washington, 5 to Colorado, and that’s not to mention the greasers he’s given up before getting yanked in favor of Vokoun and Salak.

Again, it’s incredible to think where this rag-tag bunch of scrappers could be if they were able to hold onto leads. I’m certain we’d be near the top of the league in points right now… It all boils down to confidence, and we currently have NONE of it. If we ever find it, we’re going to be a team that wins games.

I look at the schedule and realize we have a long way to go. It seems hopeless after games like last night’s, but in reality we’re not far off the pace. Columbus, Montreal and Philadelphia got bombed last night, and they had their regular lineups out there. Even the mighty Red Wings got spanked. We’re a winning streak away from moving up a little bit, and hopefully our guys will look at the standings and see that…

I didn’t see the game, but I have a feeling I know how it went.

The Caps were minus their best player, which often leads to great effort in focus in the short term. The Panthers were tired and sleep deprived.

That’s a brutal combination. So I suspect your guys are better than they looked last night.

Not that I like to give encouragement to a SE rival, but I wouldn’t give up on your team yet. A back-to-back away game, the third in four nights without your starting keeper and against an angry Washington squad. That’s basically a recipe for disaster. And despite losing 5 out of 6, the Cats are still just a couple of points out of a playoff spot. This season has a long way to go and if I recall, Florida came on last season like gangbusters after the All-Star break. Keep the faith.

Whale, as a Caps fan, we’ve seen this movie… as recently as 2006, in fact, and that was with Alex Ovechkin in the lineup. The point is that things are rough, but it doesn’t mean they can’t get better. Sure, it helps to have a generational talent in the lineup, but the Caps drafted astutely with the picks they got when they blew up the team in the 2003-2004 season and their own picks.

Eric Fehr has battled injuries in his young career, but he has points in six of his last seven games. he’s finally giving us a glimpse of the 50-plus goal scorer he was in juniors.

Nicklas Backstrom was drafted behind Erik Johnson, Jonathan Toews, and Jordan Staal in 2006. He might end up being the best playmaker of his generation that doesn’t wear black and Vegas gold.

Mike Green was a bit of an afterthought on a ghastly Saskatoon Blades team that went 7-52-11-2 in the season before Green was drafted.

Tomas Fleischmann was the return for trading Robert Lang to Detroit, who was leading the league in scoring when the Caps traded him.

Karl Alzner was drafted behind Patrick Kane, James van Riemsdyk, Thomas Hickey, and Kyle Turris in the 2007 draft. But he’s been a winner at every stop in his young career and will be a solid defender for a decade or more.

It isn’t all about the big star. And if the Panthers can settle on a plan — not unlike what the Caps did in 2004 — it could be a pretty good team in two or three years. But there will be pain to endure in the meantime.

Wow you guys sound like Amerks fans from last year. Hopefully the new owners will shake things up in the off season. I mean, managing partners.

Have Gorten or Richards talked about this stuff at all? I only read their blogs and very little talk of a meltdown seems to be occurring.