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.