Last Six in Fenwick, Atlanta through Anaheim

This is just depressing.

20383 Thrashers 3 @ Capitals 1
20397 Maple Leafs 5 @ Capitals 4 (SO)
20414 Panthers 3 @ Capitals 0
20430 Avalanche 3 @ Capitals 2
20438 Capitals 0 @ Rangers 7
20449 Ducks 2 @ Capitals 1 (OT)


Click for larger.

Stellar for Boyd Gordon. Good work from Mathieu Perreault and David Steckel (who was taking tough zone starts).

Wow. Good job by...everyone.



Dude, what was Fahey smoking? Keep on going, Brian.

Also, John ****ing Carlson and Mike ****ing Green: two-headed monster. They're brilliant.

Grades:

Goaltending: D. Not good enough, softies in tight games, etc. Plus a couple of bad games. Even with some good performances, I'm getting the impression that was more the team in front--the goalies were more like Antti Niemi than Tuukka Rask.

Special teams: D

Even strength play (underlying numbers): A-. If you don't understand why then perhaps I should have explained the charts more clearly. I think they stand for themselves, though, if you take a minute to look carefully.

Even strength play (actual performance): F. If you don't know why, well, I'm not sure what to say.

Overall: A-. This team looks like it'll be better off because of this "adversity." This grade equates to only the highest grade I gave out since most of the game is played at even strength. While PP and PK have such small sample sizes that they are heavily results driven, I think the underlying structure etc of each unit hasn't been too shabby. A bit of a leap of faith to be sure, but hey, I'm a Caps fan.

On an unrelated note, RLS will be significantly toning back on the content until Jan 11 or so, since I'll be out of town. I'll try to update every now and then, especially around the Winter Classic, but no promises.