Prediction

 The Caps aren't making the playoffs.There will be one loss too many to make that final cut. Someone will be traded for a name that sounds good but won't be a fit and the season will sputter and cough away like an old Chevette. I loved that Mike Green returned and looks solid enough out on the ice, but I still have seen more team identity and synchronicity (that is a word and not just a Police song, right?) in pick-up games. I don't know any more. It still doesn't feel like it's Dale's team but if he's not going to stay around long enough to restyle them in his likeness, then this season is just an experiment.

Cyber Monday Deal- A New Head Coach for the Caps

Mike Vogel's Blog

 I guess I won't be getting that Kitchen-Aid hand mixer after all, because my Christmas wish came true. Coach Boudreau is out and Dale Hunter is in as coach of the Capitals. Yes, BB had a good record, fastest to 200 wins, etc. but he wasn' t the coach for this group of players and this isn't a bad group of players so he had to go. I think he was just fine for AHL level but he's just not an NHL coach. Now we see if Dale Hunter is an NHL coach. He's got records for fastest to 300 and 400 wins in the OHL but we have to see if it translates. I have a feeling he isn't going to take crap and whining and complacency, nor do I think he'll adopt the fool persona for local commercials.

The new era begins with a press conference at eleven. Practice has been moved to noon, pictures up afterward.

I Wouldn't Ask for Anything Else for Christmas if This is True

Washington Times

Apparently on Canadian TV, former Cap/my high school crush/current analyst Nick Kypreos stated that a coaching change could come soon and that Dale Hunter was up for the job. Twitter's quick with the "it's just speculation" right now and the Caps spokesman has issued a denial, but Kyper is usually right and by now I'd think anyone who's been around long enough knows that a denial doesn't always mean something's not true. I'm going to head to practice tomorrow and see what's up and we'll know soon enough.

Prediction

Mathieu Perreault is scratched and no one is parking in front of the goal. The Caps are going to lose.

Is There Still a Lockout?

  I miss the Wizards.

  The outcome might not have ended up in their favor most nights, but more often than not, that was a team who went out onto the court knowing they were just as capable of winning the game as the other team. I cheered for that mindset and effort, so I am on board for Ted Leonsis' slow and steady wins the race approach, but when he applies that same metric to the Capitals, I have to disagree.

 The Capitals were an elite team. They are well beyond the building blocks stage. Premium players have been in place for a while now, but they are still pieces contained within a set of strategies and systems. I know Ted is into the business of happiness, but no matter what smiley face he puts on this current downturn, a great deal of fans- the ones who pay with time and lots of money, are not happy. I know I was insulted when he implied in one of today's blog posts that those upset with the slide are simply not taking the lows with the highs- Ted's Take. There might be bandwagoneers who aren't used to a losing team, but I would hope that a great majority are ones who have suffered through years of mediocre teams and player and coaching changes and know that this configuration of the team should be playing at a higher level than it is. I think it's perfectly reasonable to be disappointed and ask for action.

My broken record is going to keep skipping along right here: When your boss sucks, you don't have motivation to do well. There is no drive to make him look good when he doesn't deserve it. BB has to go.

• If the team needs hustle and drive and speed and a man to stand in front of the goal, why has Monsieur Hustle himself, Mathieu Perreault, been the healthy scratch the last few weeks? Mike Knuble and Matt Hendricks can't do it all themselves.
• Vokoun can't go side to side and the high glove side is weak. The defense does nothing to compensate for that.
• Cody Eakin has not been the ginger revelation that so many proclaimed him to be. There's been a whole lot of nothing coming from him.
• There has to be a way to bring up some new D-men. Even if Green were healthy I can't see him making up for the regular miscues of Hamrlik and Schultz all on his own. There should be enough to rotate some of them up to the press box.
• It may be a coincidence that Ovie hasn't done so well since getting the C, but maybe there is something to him being a kid who feels he has to carry the weight of a team that isn't being motivated correctly from the top down. Some people simply aren't leaders and there's nothing wrong with that. Slide that C over to #22 and see what happens.
• I'm not laying any blame at the feet of George McPhee. He has acquired quality players and that's what he's supposed to do. This bit of intel solidifies my respect. Please don't backtrack later, GMGM.

 I want to be in the business of happiness, too. I admit I haven't finished reading the book but I'd be pretty sure that one of the tenets is not to worry about things out of your control. The employment status of the Caps personnel is certainly something out of my control, but if Ted makes it a point to keep the napkins and straws stocked in Section 104, it seems hard to believe that he'd let the team that people are coming to see suffer from a lack of motivation and leadership.

Accountability When the Buck Doesn't Stop

 When I am in public situations and interacting with people, my voice tends to go a bit high and timid. I don't know why. I don't do it on purpose, but it amuses my dad to no end. "Why don't they get to hear your real voice?" he's always asking. "We don't get the shy and sweet you." This is what I think of when I listen to these Caps post-game/post-practice press conferences Bruce Boudreau puts on, all low and beaten-down. You can feel the waves of "You can't blame me" coming off of him. Those who have seen the HBO 24/7 know this isn't his real voice either. This is someone who gets mad and does something about it, but if you just listened to the press conferences you'd think things happen behind the bench without Bruce being any the wiser. The decisions he had to make were all agonizing but something that had to be done. I'm not buying it, just as I'm not buying services from Hadeed Carpet, copiers from Ameritel or a Mercedes from American Service Center.

 Every time I post an anti-Gabby statement, I feel bad about it because there is an air of "Enough people are negative about DC sports/hockey/the Caps, we don't need to be negative internally" around these parts. I want the man to prove me wrong. I want Ted Leonsis' faith in him to be justified. But I don't see it. I see someone who thinks because he has good players, he's a good coach, but having eyes will tell you otherwise.

By now we see a team he has molded. There is no more "This is the team he was handed and he did what he could with it." He's decided who his favorites are (Semin) and who he tolerates (Perreault). He's got the greatest player in the world so turned around he doesn't know which way is up any more. The idea of Ovie being a team player is better than the reality. This isn't working. Ovie needs to be a selfish bastard to do what he does best. The phrase "too cute" gets tossed around, and not just by the guys at Puck Buddys. It feels like a preschool team where everyone needs to touch the puck before anyone can shoot. Windows close in that time and opportunities are missed. Standing in front of the net is seen as presumptuous and holding back the defense is a waste of time because the other team still gets into the offensive zone faster.

 There are times, and at the beginning of the season they could last for whole games, where there was hustle and drive and an understanding that to win you really do need to score more goals than the other team. When it leaves and you see professional hockey players looking like relief pitchers in the batting box - "How does this go again?" hope fades. These guys are are being told how to play, and so eyes should turn to the play-caller, someone who switches lines and strategies too fast for anyone to catch on smoothly, someone who benches underperformers too few and far between.

 I don't think it's a coincidence that people like Bradley and Steckel, who have revealed locker room attitudes are on other teams now and that people who were thought to be potential leaders, especially Arnott, saw how things really ran and distanced themselves.

 Prove me wrong, Bruce. Use your real voice. I want a Jack Nicholson in "A Few Good Men" moment here. I want to hear Bruce screaming, "You want me on that bench! You need me on that bench! You use words like accountability, bag skates and trying harder. I use them as punchlines. Did I order that sloppy power play with no one crashing the net? You're goddamn right I did!"

And in my version of this fantasy, he looks amazed as Knuble and Alan May drag him away.

Opening Night Thoughts

   Here we are, the first night of the NHL 2011-2012 season for the Caps. As usual, I come to this with a cautious optimism.

   Watching as many practices as I do, I was not surprised that Neuvy was upgraded to Opening Night starter. He's been smoother than Vokoun who looks to me like he has issues with anything three-hole or higher and on the blue line goal drill Thursday, I saw that it was pretty easy to fake him to one side, usually right, and then pass to the guy now in front of a half-empty goal on his left. I don't know what the official book on him is, but it seemed like a fairly consistent pattern to me on the other side of the glass.

   Yes, there is a new set of fantastic guys to go with our old set of fantastic guys, (my crush on George McPhee is unabashed) but anyone watching the last few years knows that can get you through eighty-two but after that, you need a coach. The one constant is Gabby himself. I first noticed in the 09-10 season that they won games they really shouldn't have due to goal scoring. The plays were bad, the strategies were off, but when the horn blew for the last time, the numbers landed in the Caps favor. Unfortunately this encouraged this style of play which, as one would expect, fell apart as the individual numbers went down.

   The one preseason game that was televised had some bright spots- there seemed to be a man parked in front of the goal on offensive plays which lasted longer than the one and done, scurry back to the defensive zone style of late last year, but then again there were power plays where the puck seemed to spend more time near Neuvy.

  Upon us now is the fresh start of a new season, a blank slate where this year's team can make its mark. It saddened me that the theme of camp was "We have to try harder this year." These are good guys. I have no doubt they tried their hardest last year, but if the same things happen- and Bruce is standing in front of the cameras all wide-eyed, claiming "I don't know what happened" again, I will continue to point out the emperor may have a Mercedes and clean carpets but he has no clothes.

Almost time to hit the ice

Saw Coach Boudreau walking through the mall today. Soon he'll be doing the same thing over again and expecting a different result. Ahh, hockey season.