Goodbye Tomas

The Tomas Vokoun era is over in D.C. I know, you all are as shocked as I am, which is to say not at all.

Vokoun was shipped to Pittsburgh today for a 7th round pick. Pittsburgh promptly signed Vokoun to a new two-year contract to (presumably) be the back-up to Marc-Andre Fleury. Vokoun's contract of 2 million per year is a higher salary than he made with the Capitals this past season.

To me, this is a win for George McPhee. Instead of just waiting around for Vokoun to walk on July 1, McPhee was actually able to turn a player everyone knew wouldn't be back into a 7th round pick. And who knows? Maybe that 7th round pick will be someone someday, even if recent Capitals draft history suggests otherwise.

Congrats to Vokoun on becoming one of my least favorite Capitals. I'm sure Tyler Sloan can slide down and make some room at the table. Things certainly didn't start off on the right foot here in D.C.

"It's been a long, long time since I feel as bad as I feel today. I should have lost - hands down - 99 out of 100 games - and I won it."-Tomas Vokoun, October 10, 2011.

Vokoun said this immediately after his first game as a Capital, and if you remember, shortly after he had voiced displeasure about not starting on Opening Night. When he did play in the second game (after incumbent Michal Neuvirth won game one and played well) Vokoun turned in a legendary stinker. He let in multiple soft goals, and it was, well, just look at this.



Generally poor stuff.

Now, the weird thing with Vokoun, is that the numbers show that he had a relatively good season. He went 25-17-2 and his .917 save percentage and 2.51 goals against are right in line with his career averages. Sometimes though, hockey is more than numbers. I watched a lot of games this year, and Vokoun had a tendency to give up the soft goal, the important goal and at times when his team needed him the most, he came up small. The numbers are still there, but his game has quietly slipped.

The reason I think i disliked Vokoun so much was the comments he would make about his teammates to the media. He wasn't afraid to call people out for not putting up goals to support him (a definite problem this year) but then he would go out and not back up his talk. With his increasing age, late season injury, and the emergence of Braden Holtby, Vokoun was simply not going to return next year.

We'll have to see how the rest of his career plays out, but worst of luck with the Pens next year Tomas, and thanks for another interesting chapter in Washington Capitals goalie history.

The King is Dead

I'll admit, I'm pessimistic by nature.  The Caps coincidentally, are also not the most clutch team in the world when it comes to the playoffs.  It's a bad formula really, and it left me with an impending sense of doom heading into overtime of the Game 7.

The real mystery in all this, is how did we get here?  What a season it was starting 7-0, then Bruce being fired then a lot of mediocrity as the team struggled to become more defensive minded and fully adjust to Hunter's system.  Injuries to our two starting goalies (believe it or not Tomas Vokoun is still employed by this team, as is Tom Poti but that's another issue entirely) seemed to doom the Capitals heading into a series against what was thought to be one of the best teams in the league.

But then a strange thing happened.  This team bought in, from the captain on down.  It was a glorious sight to see.  It's already been written, but tonight can be viewed as vindication for this Capitals team.  They stood up to the big, bad Boston Bruins and played a tough, physical style of hockey few thought they could.  They got contributions up and down the lineup and clutch goaltending from an unlikely source.

The most important thing out of all this though for me at least is the semblance of mental toughness.  Maybe Hunter isn't the best tactician in the world (Ovechkin's lack of ice-time is still a concern for me), but he seems to be a motivator.  This team was mentally strong down the stretch, and even in the face of adversity this series; such as losing Game 1, losing Game 3 late, winning Game 4 with Backstrom suspended, losing Game 6 in OT on home-ice; the team for the first time in a while, didn't seem to wilt.  I don't know how much this has to do with being an underdog for the first time in the Ovechkin era, but regardless, it was nice to see.

I won't go too into detail breaking down every aspect of this series, as there are far too many to recount (and we'll save that for this summer, when I don't have much going on with my life), but let's just discuss the games final play.  Joel Ward and Mike Knuble.  Ward obviously has struggled this season, but I thought he had his best game in a while even before he scored.  Obviously, the contract was justified with that goal.  But it wasn't just Ward, all the Caps "grinders" came ready to play today.  I use the term grinder losely since Jay Beagle actually played a few more seconds than Ovechkin tonight.

But back to Knuble.  He's obviously struggled this year, maybe a sign of age or just bad bounces, but he's a leader, a winner, and he showed it tonight.  After being scratched he worked his way back into the lineup through good old hard work.  He's a role model and an example for the younger players.  Did he get away with possible interference?  I would say yes, you could make the case he impeded Tim  Thomas.  Some people have been saying it's karma for the iffy penalty called on Chimera with just a few minutes to go  (momentum swinging kill), but I argue that it was karma for something many Caps fans might not even remember.

For those of you who don't remember the context, that goal would have made it 1-1 at the time and maybe we don't see 2010 as the season of what might have been.  Alas we should enjoy the moment tonight, as great Caps playoff moments don't role around too often.  This team has been fun to watch these last seven games and that's not something you could say about them back in January or February.  Good Morning, Good Afternoon, and Goodnight Boston, it's been real.

And so it begins

I've been meaning to start back up with Caps blogging for some time now. There's not much to say about the season to this point other than, mehhh. Look for this space to be one of whimsy on the Caps offseason moves (or lack thereof) and the team going forward. And yes, Craig Laughlin is the best broadcaster of all time, deal with it.