DON'T FREAK OUT!

Okay, so our mighty Capitals, the President's Trophy Winners of yesteryear by absolutely dominating the league, just got dismantled twice in a row by the boys from Beantown. Were currently sixth in the East and 11th in the league! We did win four straight but they weren't blowouts and two went to overtime! WHAT IS GOING ON?

Before anyone goes and has a heart-attack, heed these words: Its early. Its VERY early. They've only been playing for two weeks. There are 75 games to go. One loss came against a fired-up Atlanta team on their home ice on opening night, who were fighting for a fallen teammate, and ultimately were probably underestimated. The other two losses came against a Bruins team that was led by a machine of a netminder with a number 30 on its sweater and the name Tim Thomas. Take Game 4 for example. Going into Game 4, Thomas had a .979 save percentage and was allowing 0.67 GOALS A GAME. Then he goes out and makes some ridiculous saves. Brooks Laich and Mike Knuble should have both had 2 goals to their credit by the end of this. None of the Bruins four goals came against a full strength side. Three were on the power play (the Caps had killed ALL of their penalties in the previous 6 games, so you can't ask for much more) and one was against a Caps line that was out on the ice way too long. The Caps don't meet with Boston again until November 5th, so they have time to get a little scoring punch going before they meet with the mighty Thomas once again, and by then, maybe Thomas, who is 36 years old, cools down a bit, a la Halak in the Eastern Conference Finals last year. Our next five games are against Atlanta at home, three road games against the Hurricanes, Minnesota, and Calgary, and then back home against Toronto before Boston comes to town. If the Caps can shape up before that suddenly big match-up, they can easily hand it to the boys from Beantown.

On a slight side note, the one thing fans can worry about is penalties. The Caps are 7th-worst in the league with a 105 penalty minutes. So far the PK unit has been near perfect (minus that blip in Boston), but it wont stay like that. The boys in red, white and blue need to be a bit more disciplined.