Saturday, December 1, 2007

No Step(s) Back

“It wasn’t a step back. We made plays at the end…we just didn’t win the game.” Wiz coach Eddie Jordan spoke thusly after last night’s one-point loss, but the same words could have easily been uttered by Caps coach Bruce II after his team’s defeat by the same margin. DCO completely agrees with such an assessment of both teams. The Wizards still own a winning record since their non-ideal 0-5 start, and the Caps still have a respectable 2-2-1 mark since their coaching change (and their ballyhooed power play movement still looks good). There has been a lot of ragging on the refs on the Caps’ boards today. Whether or not they unjustly waived off two Washington goals was ultimately immaterial, as the Caps played well enough down the stretch to almost tie eventually win.

While the Wizards had the opportunity to set up for a last-second jumper to win the game, the Caps put consistent serious pressure on the Hurricanes and came oh so close to getting that tying goal. So close was Nicklas Backstrom to scoring on a backhand late in the third period that, even as of 4:00 PM Saturday, Yahoo!’s box score shows him netting his third goal of the season with a minute left.

No setbacks here. Ever forward.

No comments: