Congratulations All Around

I admit it. I was wrong. Not only did the Capitals make the playoffs, but they won the first round. It was a bit iffy there at times, not because of Braden Holtby- that man is still rocking, but a steady lack of urgency, which gave a sense of dread in overtimes where a determination to score is kind of the point. There didn't seem to be a change of pace or confidence in Game 1 of Round 2 which took place earlier today against the NY Rangers. I have to wonder if someone has told them there's a 3-second rule in the offensive zone, as eager as they are to swipe a single shot and scurry back to defend. They also haven't gotten the memo about there being no back-door on the net. Too much time standing behind the goal and not enough in front. Their minor league affiliate, the Hershey Bears have also come back from a 0-2 deficit to tie their best of 5 series against Wilkes-Barre Scranton (if I spelled that right, I'll be amazed) Penguins. Game 3 included DJ King's first Bears goal. That was enough to make me happy; still a fangirl for ole DJ. Congrats to the Washington Wizards for their end-of-season six game winning streak. Too many people are quick to dump on them for not being very good, but as professional athletes, they should go out every night expecting to win if they do their best and they did. I hope to see more of the same next season. I'm not going to act surprised about the excellent play of the Washington Nationals. I knew they had it in them, even with the continuing domino fall of injuries (pluswhatisupwTylerClippard?). Tonight is Bryce Harper's debut. I am saddened that it had to come at the expense of Ryan Zimmerman being injured enough to sit on the DL, but now we can see if this is his time.

Hater or Tired of Crap?

The Washington Post's DC Sports Bog is now under co-ownership. Sarah Kogod has been added to the banner pic and has been posting the last few entries. I know they're meant to be whimsical fluff, the crazy things the players and their fans do in the course of their days, but I expect a story on a professional journalism site to have a beginning, middle, end, and a theme. Technically, the post from this morning, "Kevin Seraphin needs more food" fit the bill. I clicked it because I like Kevin and I wanted to know more. I read 193 words that felt like it could have been punctuated with sad faces. Blog culture is more relaxed, I get it. I don't claim any of these posts are good enough for paid work because they aren't. I'd work my ass off if this was my job and take full advantage of the resources available. I fully regret getting all swoony around Mike Rizzo and Alan May and George McPhee but those were chance encounters, not mandated media time and I can't pull questions off the top of my head like I maybe should.

So back to the point- I thought the article wasn't straightforward and that was my fault for reading it quickly on an ipod touch with a red battery level. I corrected myself, and soon after get the author herself commenting," Well, how many many words can one really write about someone's dinner?"

Apparently not even 200. I know it's bordering on "basement-dwelling hater" to correct someone's finished work, but I felt there were plenty of directions to go with that scrap of an idea, especially with player access. So I answered that was exactly my point and get a response that all future food posts would be directed to the Post's food critic. Now that reeks of, "Boo-hoo poor me" which provokes my "Shut up and nut up" response.

Twenty seconds of web search tells me that Kevin Seraphin is from France, a place well known for its cuisine and that the league salary minimum as of the 2010-2011 season is in the high enough six figures you can see seven if you look in the right light, so packing a lunch in the heart of Chinatown and its myriad of restaurants to save a few bucks and guarantee satisfaction is a cute but unlikely situation that could have been easily expanded upon with direct player access and ten more minutes before posting. Especially since another five seconds of reading game stats tells me that Kevin was at or near season highs for points, minutes and rebounds Sunday and Monday so maybe a little hunger in his belly is the right fuel.

Two Impossible Things After Breakfast

This isn't a blog where I am going to be objective and impartial. I'm going to be girly and right here is where I say I have an irrational crush on Peyton Manning, ever since he was at Tennessee when I was living in Georgia, fivehead, goofy commercials, and seedy gossip aside. I was a little anxious when I didn't see full 90o rotation on that neck from side to side during the press conference and instead he shifted his whole body, shoulders down to answer questions. Maybe he was just being polite, but it gave me pause. I had been in denial all season thinking that there was no way he would have been able to sign a huge contract if they knew something was terribly wrong with him. It was my glimmer of hope.

Being a DMV resident, I can't say I'm surprised the man's been screwed over by the Irsay family. But still he stood there as everyone knew he was being dumped before he had to be paid and teared up when thinking about the equipment managers he would leave behind. He didn't pout and whine like his little brother who was too precious to go to a crap team, he sucked it up in Indy as they went from having one good player to enough to win the Super Bowl. (which I still have never seen because I had to work that night. I have it recorded somewhere. Maybe now is the time to drag it out.)He deserved better than to be thrown aside, and as much as it would please me personally I don't know if I can handle him coming to the Redskins knowing this is where talent goes to hibernate. He doesn't need to suffer twice. Miami sounds good.

The Wizards also managed to beat the Lakers tonight, 101-106 before a crowd of LA fans. Awesome. I had already settled down into the workspace for the night with no television, so I relied on Yahoo's Game Channel for slow updates in the 4th quarter. John Wall's 4 points was surprising but the 9 assists means he was passing and that works well though the text scroll I saw had him missing at least two free throws. Seriously? I liked that the scoring was spread out among many players- 6 with at least 12 points, Trevor Booker leading with 18. That seems like a good system to have in place, to have the focus not be on one person and to have many threats out there. Hopefully this wasn't a fluke and these guys who had such optimism coming into the season can pull something together these last two months.

Flipped Script was the Same Old Story

 A 2-15 record has to make any coach start jumping at sudden noises and look behind him. The hammer finally fell for Flip Saunders Tuesday afternoon as Ted Leonsis still had his firing hand still warm from November. The Wizards managed two wins against teams with impressive records but the system didn't work with skilled veterans, there was no way it was going to do much better with a young team not experienced enough to know much better than to do as they're coached to do. So they trade a coach with a 51-130 record in for one with a 100-207 record. A Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Monday stretch will show if the change made any impact.

Congrats to Matty Perreault for his first NHL hat trick. The team still looked disjointed and it was not surprising that the young guys carried the shooting/goal scoring weight in the game. I'm still not convinced that Vokoun wants to be a goalie the way he races to handle the puck, not always cleanly, behind the goal and looks skittish as he tries to find the puck at close angles, but it hits him enough that he seems to be successful.

And the best birthday present: Prince Fielder is not going to be a National. He never struck me as a good fit to the team and the though of being burdened with him and a lengthy/costly contract was taking the shine of anticipating the new season. Detroit was a smooth marketing move and they're welcome to him.

Renewal of the Jinx?

I posted positively about Tebow and then he loses three in a row. I posted positively about the Wizards and they have yet to win. The Capitals aren't much to write about, and while the Hershey Bears won the last two, they lost the high-profile Outdoor Classic. Doesn't seem to be much to write about at the time. Here's hoping that Prince Fielder doesn't come to town to rock the crowded first base boat.

Double Despair

 Last night was the first of the winter where the Capitals and the Wizards played on the same night at the same time. This had the potential to be a very busy and eventful night, but being the Capitals and the Wizards, it ended up being a double disappointment.

 The Capitals had a penalty and goal against before the Wizards got around to announcing their starting five. It didn't take long to see that making the switch over to standard definition CSN+ was not going to be worth the effort. The Wizards put up some strong numbers early- their largest lead was 21 points, but the play was sloppy and they would have been trounced by a better team than New Jersey.

 By the second half, the Wizards fell apart and let Kris Humphries have decent numbers. The man is a joke, following after the real shooters and putting up leftovers, plus he tripped up Andray Blatche who in turn knocked into Nick Young and put him in a lot of pain, even though he managed to come back limping toward the end. The game should have been easily dominated the whole time but there was a level of unfamiliarity and discomfort amongst teammates that was obvious and led to too many missed shots and awkward passes. Hopefully the shortened prep time is mostly to blame for this because they look like a determined group of guys and even Dallas is looking like crap this early on.

 What sucks the most is the negative comments by CSN Washington and their followers on Facebook. There was no positive comments the last time I looked and with titles like "new season, same Wizards" it doesn't seem like pro-team attitudes are encouraged. There is still building being done and it's different than when I bitch about the Caps. They are supposed to be "finished" by now and ready for success but it's not happening. There is a higher level of expectation. Fire Saunders? Maybe. Wasn't impressed with him last year, but let's see after more than one game.