ACC Foes Battle for the National Championship

After six months of practices and games it comes down to the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland for the national championship on Monday.  Maryland won the only meeting of the year, 12-7, in Charlottesville.  And yes I will brag as I correctly picked both UVA and MD to win there games and I accurately predicted that the MD would score nine goals.  Maybe I should finally start getting paid for this sports gig.  UVA is playing for there fifth national title and is in there tenth title game appearance, with there last coming in 2006 where they beat UMass, 15-7.  Maryland is playing for there second and is in there eleventh title game appearance and first since 1998 were they lost to Princeton, 15-5. Here's what the Cavs and Terps need to to do to raise the trophy on Monday.

UVA had an all out dominating performance over Denver as the Cavs easily took care of the Pioneers 14-8.  It was easy to tell which team had played in Baltimore a year earlier and which team didn't.  The attack unit of  Juniors Chris Bocklet and Steel Stanwick, and  freshman Mark Cockerton all had hat tricks on Saturday.   UVA's man up unit was 50% successful on the day and Chase Carraro won 11 of 24 face offs.  UVA's defense did a great job of limiting Denver's two top scorers, Mark Matthews and Alex Demopoulos, to one goal each and the Cavs defense will have to do the same against the Terps attack unit of Grant Catalino and Ryan Young.

Overall UVA struggled against the Terps in everything that worked for the Cavs yesterday.  Maryland's defense held the Cavs high powered attack unit to only three goals.  UVA's man up unit was 1 for 5 against the Terps.  The Cavs defensive unit was torched by Ryan Young as he had six points, but the good news is that the Cavs held Grant Catalino scoreless.  If Maryland is to aggressive, on Monday, and commits multiple penalties UVA must have the man up performance that they had on Saturday and not a month ago against MD.  I'm sure Dom Starsia has been watching film of that game and will make sure that his Cavs don't make the same mistakes as before against the Terps.

It was easy to see that Maryland was feeding off of the hometown, in Baltimore, on Saturday as they came out and dominated all but the first two minutes in a 9-4 win over Duke.  The two most impressive things about MD was there physical play and play of redshirt freshman Niko Amato in between the pipes.  The Terps came out hitting and hitting hard as they were able to hound Duke's midfield in between the boxes and cause turnovers and fast break opportunities.  Credit also goes to the officials for letting the Terps play there physical game.  Often, in college lacrosse, I see officials flagging players for clean shoulder to shoulder hits, just because it's a hard hit does not mean it's a penalty; it's a contact sport.  Nick Amato had 13 saves on the day and looked like a seasoned vet instead of a freshman playing in his first final four as he turned away Jordan Wolf and Zach Howell multiple times.  The Terps did a great job of limiting Duke's top scorers as the team leader in goals, Zach Howell had only one goal on the evening and freshman Jordan Wolf didn't register a point at all.  Grant Catalino had a hat trick and junior attackman, Joe Cummings, had three points on the evening.


One major concern is the lack of extra man opportunities, for the Terps.  The Terps only had one EMO on Saturday and only one in the previous meeting against UVA.  The lack of drawing penalties maybe due to the Terps conservative offensive style, but to beat a UVA team that seems to be firing on cylinders, now, the Terps must get more EMO's to win.  MD has to know the UVA will most likely have differnt looks on both ends of the field and should be prepared for that.  I would like to see MD get more physical with UVA's attackman, of course this can be a dangerous strategy as if one check is missed, in the box, UVA will most likely score.  But maybe hitting Stanwick and Bocklet around will throw them off of there games. 


As is the case with every ACC matchup, this one is a toss up.  UVA has the experience of being to the semi finals last year and it would seem that the Cavs would poised to win it all this year.  On the other hand the Terps have been waiting to long for this moment and have the hot goaltender in Niko Amato.  The biggest matchup of the day will be at the faceoff X.  Curtis Holmes, for the Terps, won 11 of 27 faceoffs on Saturday while Chase Carraro won 11 of 24.  Holmes won the first matchup 14 to 8.  But as stated before, UVA has had plenty of time to watch of film of what went wrong against the Terps the first time.  I'm going to take the Terps as the physicality, in the midfield, caused many turnovers on Saturday and disrupted Dukes offense.  If MD does that on Monday, College Park will be setting some couches on fire.  Terps win 11-7. 

Duke Looks Defend There Title This Weekend

Once again, the men's lacrosse champion will be crowned in Baltimore.  This year features traditional powers and one new comer.  Seventh seeded Virginia, will be taking on sixth seeded Denver, and fifth seeded Duke will continue  to defend last year's championship as they take on ACC rival and unseeded Maryland.  This will be the third time, this spring, that Duke and MD have met with each team winning one game.

Virginia vs Denver:

First off, congratulations to UVA head coach, Dom  Starsia on becoming the all time winningest head coach in division I men's lacrosse history.  Starsia and the rest of his UVA have been through a lot in the past year and the only way to make everything complete will be to win UVA's fifth national championship.  But will the Cavaliers have enough to eliminate upset minded Denver?  UVA has the nation's fourth ranked offense and the top ranked man up unit in the country.  That's because Steel Stanwick is fourth in the country in points, with 64 and Chris Bocklet is sixth in the country with goals scored.  Obviously, the Cavaliers have missed some of there offense, with the Braton brothers being suspended, but it has worked so far for Whaa-Hoo nation.

Defensively, the Cavs are lead by senior goalie, Adam Ghitelman.  Ghitelman has a save percentage of .532 this year.  It's not the highlight saves that Dom Starsia is impressed with, but it's the leadership that Ghitelman has shown throughout the season.  Ghitelman is always the one that is firing the team up when the team is down in a game.  In front of Ghitelman, the UVA defense will be using a zone and soft man to man scheme.  The zone defense, is becoming more and more common in college lacrosse and UVA must confuse the Denver offense if UVA is to be playing on Memorial Day.  Despite not having one of the top ranked defense's, stat wise, UVA has only allowed double digit goals in half of it's games this year.

The new kids on the block, the Denver Pioneers.  Yes lacrosse has gone west of the Mississippi.  This became apparent when Bill Tierney decided to bolt from Princeton, where he won six national championships, and moved west to build up the Denver Pioneers.  It's just about safe to say mission complete as Tierney lead Denver to there first NCAA tournament appearance and first Final Four appearance in school history, this year. Ok, enough of the fun facts, here's how the Pioneers got to this point.  The Pioneers have the second ranked offense in the country and seventh ranked man up unit.  Junior, Mark Matthews is fifth in the country in goals and sixth in the country with points. While the offense starts and end with Matthews the Pioneers offense also has Alex Demopoulos, who can either score or dish it out as he has 29 goals and 28 assists on the season.

A way that Denver can beat UVA is in the ground ball battle as the Pioneers are sixth in the country with ground balls won.  Denver can create fast break opportunities off of the ground balls and that's the way the Pioneers can continue this Cinderella run.

Hate to be that guy, and trust me I'm no fan of UVA, but I think the fun ends for Denver here.  Bill Tierney is doing a tremendous job with the Denver program, but this Denver team has not experienced final four weekend yet.  There's a huge difference between playing in front of 20,000 in Denver as opposed to playing in front of 60,000 in a NFL stadium.  UVA just has to much fire power and to much veteran leadership for Denver to handle.  Cavs win, in a shootout, 14-12.

Duke vs Maryland:

In my opinion, the Duke vs MD lacrosse rivalry is hotter than the basketball one.  The two teams have played each other 12 times since 2004 with the Terps winning seven times, while Duke has won five.  In the first meeting of the year, the Terps held a halftime lead, but wound up losing 9-8 in OT.  Then in the ACC semi's the Blue Devils had a 7-4 lead in the fourth quater, but then The Terps took over and won 11-9.  So the game plan for both Duke and MD should be not to be leading until the last minute, if the previous two meetings trends hold up.

The Terps have the nation's seventh ranked face off guy in and Curtis Holmes and Holmes is a big reason why the Terps were able to upset the top seeded Syracuse Orange.  Holmes winning those faceoffs, last weekend, helped MD keep possession of the ball and the ball out of the Orange's snipers.  Look for MD's offense to do the same as last weekend, with long possessions and a lot of "keep it in" calls from the refs; as Duke's offense is also high powered and John Tillman would like Duke to have as few possessions as possible.  The Terps' offense is led by seniors Grant Catalino and team points leader Ryan Young.  Catalino has 26 goals and 10 assists, while Ryan Young has 19 goals and 27 assists.

Defensively,  the Terps have the fourth ranked defense in the country, with allowing seven goals per game on average.  While the Terps man down unit doesn't allow a goal 73% of the time.  Redshirt Freshman, Nick Amato will be in between the pipes.  Amato has a GAA of 6.87 and a save percentage of .578.  The Terps defensive core will be faced with stopping both Zach Howell and Jordan Wolf as both of them both have over 50 points on the season.

The Blue Devils have the nations fifth ranked offense in the country which is lead by senior Zach Howell, 42 goals and 16 assists and by true freshman Jordan Wolf, 31 goals and 20 assists.  The dangerous part about this offense is that the Blue Devils can play either a up and down tempo or a slow it down low scoring tempo.  Which can easily confuse opposing defenses so look for head coach John Danowski to switch up the offense a lot.  This year's Duke team  has used a mix of vetarans and underclassmen, but this is the time for the upperclassmen to step up, since they know what it takes to win a championship.

On the defensive side of the field,  sophomore Dan Wigrizer will be in between the pipes.  Wigrizer has a GAA of 9.21 and a save percentage of .556.  The young defense will once again be faced with the task of stopping Ryan Young and Grant Catalino.  If the long poles can stop Young and Catalino Duke will not be in town on Monday to defend there championship.

This game is basically a coin toss pick.  Both of the previous two meetings have been competitive and close.  The twist, in round three, will be that MD will have the home field advantage and the previous two games were played on Duke's turf.  Overall I think MD has been waiting for this moment for way two long and the fact that the Terps were unseeded basically woke the sleeping grizzly.  The Terps will ride the home field advantage and beat a somewhat young Duke team 9-7.    

Baltimore Orioles After the First Quarter of the Season

Well the good news is that the Orioles, are off to a far much better start than last year and are competing more than last year.  Also, the starting pitching has been surprisingly decent.  The bad news is that the O's are still in last place in the AL east, and the big off season acquisitions have been just ok.   And just when it looked like the O's would return to the .500 mark; a series of crippling losses, this past week, have washed .500 thoughts out of the window.  With series against the Kansas City Royals and the Seattle Mariners on the horizon, hopefully the O's can get on to the winning path.


I think all O's fans can be in agreement when I say Matt Wieters is starting to come around with his bat.  Wieters is batting .273 with 4 HR and 24 RBI, tied with Adam Jones for best on the team.  Wieters also has a few walk offs, in this early season.  Buck Showalter has rewarded Wieters efforts by moving him to 5th in the batting lineup.  Vladimir Guerrero leads the team in batting average with a .306 mark.  Vlady has been the most productive out of the new comers this year as he has 16 RBI and .429 slugging percentage.  Derek Lee has been more productive in the field that at the plate and is now on the DL, Lee should be kept around to tutor younger, future fristbaseman for the O's.  Adam Jones has been more consistent, this year, with a .295 batting average and 24 RBI.  Jones still miss plays a ball in center field every now and then, but not as much as last year.  I would like to see Jones end the season batting at least .300.  Then there's Mark Reynolds.  Reynolds, who is batting an amazing .190, sarcasm obviously, and leads the team in strikeouts with 45.  The sad part is Reynolds' strikeout numbers are down from last year.  Overall, GM Andy MacPhail got what he asked for in signing Vladimir Guerrero, Derek Lee and Mark Reynolds. 

Now to pitching.  As I stated earlier, the starting pitching has been better that what I expected, at the start of the season.  The bad news is that the O's are ranked 27th, in the league in ERA, 4.71 and ranked 26th in batting average against.  Zach Britton leads the team in ERA with 2.14 and continues to improve, but doesn't have move wins because of the lack of bullpen support.  Jake Arrieta surprisingly leads the team in wins, 5, and strikeouts, 49.  Guthrie cotinues to sturggle as the team's designated number one guy and I can see Britton taking over the number one spot by seasons end.  If Guthrie is as number two or three guy, I think Guthrie will be able to relax more and pitch better.

And this leads me to the blowpen, I mean bullpen.  Last Monday, the blowpen blew a 6-0 lead in Boston and wound up losing the game.  A 6-0  lead are you f@#$ing kidding me!!!!!  6 year old little league teams don't even blow that big of leads.  Kelly I mean Kevin Gregg has been horrible in the closer role I believe he has 100 blown saves and the O's haven't even played 100 games yet.  I call him Kelly Gregg because he pitches like a girl, he sucks.  Buck Showalter should put Koji Uehara as the closer instead of Kelly Gregg.  Uehara leads the bullpen in ERA with 2.50 and strikeouts with 22.  Then there is Mike Gonzalez who has an ERA of 8.59 and every time he comes in he always gives up at least 2 runs by my count.

GM Andy MacPhail has ignored the bullpen for years and now he is paying for out with poor performances like last Monday night.   If it was up to me, MacPhail should be fired as he has never thrown the money at players that are in there primes.  Andy MacPhail is the Vinny Cerato of baseball, like Cerato, MacPhail goes after players that are past there primes and like Cerato ignored the offensive line; MacPhail has ignored the bullpen. And it's coasting the Orioles way to many games.

Overall I can say I'm satisfied with the O's so far but I really do believe if the right moves are made, before the trade-deadline then this team can definitely reach the .500 mark this year.

Capitals Future Division Oppenets

 With the Atlanta Thrashers moving to Winnipeg almost a done deal, the Caps will have a new division opponent in the 2012-2013 season the question is, which team, from the western conference will replace the Thrashers in the southeast division.  I have 3 candidates in mind:

Nashville Predators:  The Preds seem like the most geographical pick despite, the travel will be a little bit far far from Nashville to DC, but every team in the southeast has a far ride to DC.  I also like the Preds, because they seem to be an up in coming team, in the league.  If they can re-sign Pekka Rinne, the franchise will have made a huge step in building a winner in Nashville and possibly could compete with the Caps and Tampa in a few years.  We also saw, this playoffs, that Nashville has the potential to be a great fan base.  Go figure Tennessee as a hockey state. 

Columbus Blue Jackets: Its pretty weird that a team in Ohio is in the western conference and that's why the Jackets will be considered.  The Jackets will basically replace the Thrashers talent wise as they have one star, in Rick Nash, and that's it.  Basically the Jackets will just be another doormat to the Caps and Lightning.  Geographically this will make no sense to put this team in the southeast division as it would be long travels for every other team in the division. 

Detroit Red Wings: Same reason why the Blue Jackets will be considered, a city that is in the eastern time zone has no business being in the western conference. On the other hand, it makes no sense to put a team from Detroit in the southeast division.  Then again the Arizona Cardinals were in the NFC east for a while. Red Wings already have a great rivalry with the Chicago Blackhawks and have a new found one with the San Jose Sharks and those rivalries will be ruined if they are moved.  I also don't want the Red Wings in our division because that means playing them 6 times a year instead of 1 or 2 times a year.  With how well that organization is run Detroit will always be competitive and competing for the Cup every year. 

Overall I think Nashville will fit the best.  Nashville also fits the mold of being a newer franchise.  The Caps are the only team, in the division, that existed or is in there current city before 1990.  But as we know Gary Bettman is the commissioner and he rarely makes a smart move. 

Offseason Moves: What Should the Caps Do?

 Sorry to the fans that think Bruce Boudreau should be fired, but it looks like Boudreau is going to stay.  Owner Ted Leonsis, said on 106.7 the fan, last week, that it's up to GM George McPhee on if Boudreau stays or goes.  McPhee said that he wants Boudreau to stay.  So with that being said that means moves must be made player personal wise, after another playoffs disappointment.  Let's start off with the current team and whose contracts are expiring.  (Plus/minus added for defenseman in stats).

Jason Arnott: UFA (unrestricted free agent) $4.5 million last year.
2010-2011 stats: 17 Goals, 14 Assists, 21 Points,
4 Goals, 3 Assists, 7 points in 11 games with Capitals

Brooks Laich: UFA $2.6 million last year.
2010-2011 stats:  16 Goals, 32 Assists, 48 Points

Matt Bradley: UFA $1 million last year.
2010-2011 stats: 4 Goals, 7 Assists, 11 Points

Boyd Gordon: UFA $800,000 last year.
2010-2011 stats: 3 Goals, 6 Assists, 9 Points

Scott Hannan: UFA $4.5 million last year.
2010-2011 stats: 1 Goal, 10 Assists, 11 Points, +4.
1 Goal, 4 Assists, 5 Points, +3 in 55 games with Capitals

Marco Sturm: UFA $3.5 million last year.
2010-2011 stats: 5 Goals, 11 Assists, 16 Points.
1 Goal, 6 Assists, 7 Points in 18 games with Capitals

Sean Collins: UFA $650,000 last year
2010-2011 stats: 1 goal, 1 Point, +2

Karl Alzner: RFA (restricted free agent) $1.67 million.
2010-2011 stats: 2 Goals, 10 Assists, 12 Points +14

Semyon Varlamov: RFA $821,667
2010 -2011 stats: 11-9-5, 2.23 GAA, .924 save percentage in 25 game started.

The Musts:  In this year's free agent class, I only see two must resigns this year.  Karl Alzner and Brooks Laich.  Alzner is a key component to future of this defense as he and John Carlson look to be a force of a defensive paring to be reckoned with for years to come.  This was the first year that Alzner and Carlson were paired together, in the NHL, and did a damn good job to.  Alzner's +14 rating speaks for itself, but in mid season it was this pairing that was going against the other teams top lines across the league. 

To me, Brooks Laich is not a must resign because of stats, but because of the other things he does.  Laich is the one that is always hustling, digging pucks out of corners, making the extra pass to score a goal etc.  If I ever played organized hockey, I would want to model my game after Liach because of those attributes stated above.  A player like Laich could inspire someone like Semin to not slack off during games.  Laich may not get all the goals, but he's the person that will make the plays to have a goal scored and that's way he needs to remain in DC.

The don't have to resign, but would be nice to keep: Jason Arnott, Scott Hannan, and Marco Sturm all fall into this category.  The main reason, why these 3, are in this category, is because of how much they were being paid this year.  If the Caps do resign both Brooks Liach and Karl Alzner, George McPhee will have about $4.7 million in cap room to work with.  Which means the Caps can only afford to resign one out of the three players in this category.  Out of the three I would say Arnott would be the one to resign, but he'll be the most expensive one to resign.  Arnott brought the veteran leadership to the Caps that this team lacked.  He is also a great two way player, which bodes well for the defensive system the Caps want to play. 

Sturm is hurt to much and Matthew Perreault can easily take his place, Scott Hannan was a great addition to the team this year, but like Sturm he will be to much to keep and young defenseman Dmitry Orlov looks to be ready to move up from Hershey. 

Let them go: Semyon Varlamov, Sean Collins, Matt Bradley and Boyd Gordon.  Varly has been injured way to much to resign him for a good amount of money and has also been rumored of going across the pond to play in the KHL.  If Varly is willing to sign for about $1.5 million or less then resign him, if he wants more let him go to the KHL.  I'm pretty sure Michael Neuvrith and Braden Holtby can fill in for Valry's place pretty well. 

For Matt Bradley, Boyd Gordon and Sean Collins, I just see them as role players, role players are easy to find for cheap on the free agent market or can be brought up from Hershey.  If the Caps do resign who I think they should there will most likely not be any cap space for these players, unless some trades are made.

Trades: Trades are a must this offseason and can't wait until next year's trade deadline to make at least one big move.  Alex Semin, Mike Green and Dennis Wideman should all be considered as players that are tradeable.  As before I have been critical of Alex Semin's effort and with just cause, his lack of effort and poor attitude is something that you don't want on a team that is still trying to win the Cup.  Semin may not be the player that gets traded in the offseason, but more likely at the trade deadline.  The reason being, Semin is making $6.7 million this year that would seem a pretty hard sell to any team in July, but in February, a team that is in 8th, 9th, 10th or 11th place may feel that they need an offensive power like Semin to make the playoffs and will call the Caps to get him.

I put Mike Green and Dennis Wideman up there because they are basically the same players, offensive defenseman.  Which makes perfect sense to have two offensive defenseman on a team that wants to play a defensive system.  NOT.  I understand why McPhee did get Wideman, to replace Green while Green was hurt, but now with Green healthy the Caps are stuck with this problem of having two offensive defenseman.  This is were a trade should be made this summer trade either Green or Wideman to one clear up some cap room and two possibly get a defenseman that plays defense. 

The Case For and Against Boudreau

Obviously with this pathetic loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning the talk of firing Bruce Boudreau, but everything must be considered before a move is made. Here's both of the cases.

Keep Him: Bruce Boudreau took a team that was in last place, in November of 2008, and won the Southeast division that year.  Boudreau has a record of 189-79 in the regular season.  Boudreau turned a team full of offensive minded players into a defensive minded system that was able to work towards the end of the season and in the first round of the playoffs.  Against the Lightning it was the players fault that they got frustrated and decided to abandon the system.  The coaches can only do so much, its up to the players to continue to play within the system and stick to it no matter what. Boudreau knows these players better than any coach in the NHL because he coached most of these players in Hershey. If Boudreau is fired, he will most likely get hired by another team then come back to beat the Caps in next years playoffs. 

Fire Him: Boudreau has a record of 17-20 in the playoffs, is 1-3 in game 7's all played at home and 3-4 in games were the Caps face elimination.  All of that is unacceptable for a team of this talent.  This team should of been, at the very least, to a conference final already.  Boudreau showed, in games 4 and 3, that he can't motivate this team.  It's the job of a head coach to motivate the team.  In 24/7, Boudreau was trying to motivate the team and the look on the players faces were basically we are not going to listen to you and we don't respect you.  At the time when I saw I thought, ok it's a long losing streak; everyone is frustrated.  But maybe the players don't respond to Boudreau anymore as was evidence in, once again, games 4 and 3.  Most of these players have had Boudreau as there coach for all of there careers, including in Hershey, and maybe the players have grown tired of him therefore they won't listen to him anymore. 

If Boudreau is to be fired, I say go with Ken Hitchcock.  He's the former coach of the Dallas Stars and most recently the Columbus Blue Jackets and Hitchcock won the Stanley Cup in 1999 with the Dallas Stars.  Hitchcock knows what it takes to get a team there.  I don't think a young, upcoming coach will be the right fit for this team because the superstars on this team will run him out of DC within a few months, if he does not get along with the players or runs a system that they players don't like.    

Overall it is a tough decision, Boudreau has had excellent success in the regular season, but hasn't in the playoffs.  Is it the player's fault? Or has Boudreau lost this team completely?  Of course, in a city that has not seen a major professional sports championship in 20 years, fans want success now.  But is firing the coach the right move? Or should players be traded? Ted Leonsis will have to give answers to these questions and hopefully those are the right ones.    

22 Years of His Way

Before I came to Morgantown to be a Mountaineer, before I knew Huggstown and before knowing "Country Roads," there was Maryland basketball and Garyland for me.  For as long as I can remember I watched, and still do watch Maryland basketball.  From all of the heartbreaking losses, to the 2002 National Championship,  I remember them all.  And all of this was due to head coach Gary Williams.  Now after 22 years, at Maryland, Gary Williams has decided to hang it up after a hall of fame career.  But what Gary should be remembered for the most was he did it his way, no matter what.

The numbers, by themselves, say it all.  661 wins with 461of those wins coming at Maryland.  Those 461 wins were good enough to be the 3rd all time winningest coach in the ACC, only behind Dean Smith and Coach K.  14 NCAA tournaments, 7 sweet sixteens, 2 elite eights, 2 final fours, 3 regular season ACC championships, 1 ACC tournament championship and of course 1 national championship.  In the past 12 years, Maryland is 2nd in the ACC in total wins only behind Duke.  But when it comes to Gary Williams it's not all about the numbers.

Gary Williams came to Maryland, in 1989, when Maryland was facing multiple NCAA sanctions.  Gary overcame those sanctions and within 4 years the Terps were back in the NCAA tournament and started a run of 10 straight NCAA tournaments.  Gary always took heat, from the media, for is recruiting tactics.  From letting multiple in state talent go out of state to not going after all of the 5 star recruits.  Gary heard it all from the media.  Despite the heat form the media Gary continued to recruit his way by only going after the players that would want to play for him, even if they weren't the top rated kids in the country.  And from judging from the numbers stated above Gary's way worked and worked well. 

Not only did Gary do it is way, but he did it his way by respecting the game and the University of Maryland.  Gary always did it clean as he was never investigated for recruiting violations, which is very rare with college coaches today.  Not only did Gary love his players but he loved everything about the University of Maryland.  His signature fist pump to the student section always fired them up and was very active in on campus and charity activities.  Despite what is now a heated rivalry between Duke, Gary became very close friends with Coach K and other rivals throughout the ACC.  Overall Gary was a down to earth guy to everyone in the community, also another rarity in today's coaches.

For me it was Gary Williams that started my love for college basketball.  Gary was so passionate that he never asked for a seat to be reserved on the Terps bench.  Gary was always standing coaching and cursing out the officials for 40 minutes every game.  Even in blowout games Gary would be seen yelling at player if he missed an assignment.  I thought that type of passion was so cool.  And his players showed that type of passion on the court to.  Every game you would see someone in a red and white jersey diving after a ball, giving up a charge, out hustling others for a rebound.  I will never forget my first Maryland game, seeing 18,000 fans at a college basketball game gave me goosebumps.  And without Gary maybe one of the nicest of facilities in all of college basketball would not have been built.  Gary will now become an assistant in the athletic department and rightfully so the court in the Comcast Center will have his name on it.  Lastly thank you Gary Williams for all the memories, technical fouls and laughs.  Enjoy retirement, continue to do it your way and once again you will be truly missed.         

Everyone Takes Responsibility

The shock is still settling in, how can a team that beat the Rangers in 5 games and then get swept by the Lightning?  From what I saw, from this series, everyone should be taking the blame.  From the coaching staff not getting the team fired up, to the players putting themselves before the team and for the front office not getting the right players.  Lets start with the players.

Players: At the end of the regular season it finally seemed like the players were buying into a defensive system everyone was willing to give up stats for the better of the team and that continued in the first round series against the New York Rangers.  When the bounces didn't go there way, the players didn't get frustrated as was evidence in the two overtime wins, against the Rangers, and that's when I personally started to believe that this was the year.  Then came Tampa Bay and there 1-3-1 trap.  I don't think that this team has the players that can beat the trap in the neutral zone, but that didn't mean they could not dump the puck into the offensive zone. Besides game 1, it seemed like the Caps didn't have to much trouble breaking the trap, but they were always losing in the 3rd period and that's were the players abandoned the system and started relying on themselves to break the trap and score that game tying or winning goal.  Instead of dumping the puck into the zone, like they should've, Ovechkin and others tried to break the trap by carrying the puck across the blue line, right were 3 Lightning players were waiting.  This normally led to a turnover or offsides call.  All of last night it seemed like the players were relying on themselves to win and didn't care about the system anymore.  

The past four years it seems like that one of the Capitals stars have failed to show up in the playoffs from Alex Semin, to Mike Green and this year Nicklas Backstrom.  Backstrom only had 2 assists and 0 goals this playoffs, unacceptable for a talent like him.  Now its possible Backstrom could've been hurt the whole year as his point production dropped significantly.  That could be due to the new defensive system this year, but something was not right with the Swed this year.  Then there was Mike Green last night, deciding at the last minute not to play.  You're a HOCKEY PLAYER!!! Be tough and suck it up with the teams season on the line.  Green did not do that and let his team and a whole fan base down.  And of course Semin didn't show up the second half of this series, but him not showing up doesn't surprise me anymore.  If the Caps are ever to win the cup, all of there starts must show up for all of the playoffs.

Coaches: Bruce Boudreau started feeling the heat in December, when the Caps were on a 9 game losing streak.  The reason for the losing streak was that Boudreau, and the rest of the coaching staff, were trying to change the free wheeling system into a defensive minded team.  At the end of the year Boudreau looked like a genius as he turned an offensive juggernaut into a defensive minded club in hopes of finally winning the Stanley Cup.  It seemed like it was all working even during the Rangers series, but then the team fell apart against the Lightning.  It's the coaches job to make sure that the team believes in the system, it's the coaches job to make sure that the players play as a team and not for them selves, it's the coaches job to fire up the team when there back is against the wall.  Boudreau failed to do all of that this series and that's why his job is in huge jeopardy right now.  Another question of the coaching is why do stars seem to disappear on in the playoffs? Now it could be all mental, but it someone different every year from Semin last year to Backstrom this year.  As a coach you have to find a way to get your stars fired up and get production out of them.

Thing is if you fire a coach you must have a concrete plan of where you want to go from here. What coaches should be hired? What happens if you don't get the coach you wanted? Those questions must be answered before someone is fired.

Front Office: GM George McPhee is also not exempt from this.  Boudreau wanted a defensive system, but didn't have defensive players.  It was McPhee's job to get those players that will play defense for Boudreau.  At the trade deadline McPhee did ok at filling that need.  He went out and got Jason Arnott, who is a great two way center, but then got Dennis Wideman who is more of an offensive defenseman.  Now the move might of been done to replace Mike Green, but now the problem next year will be there are two offensive defenseman.  I don't want to hear excuses Pittsburgh's GM Ray Shero lost his top two players midway through the season and without the Pens top players Shero found a way to keep his team in the playoffs and earned a 4th seed.  McPhee needs to find a way to get the defensive players that want to play defense, so Ovechkin, Backstrom and Semin can hopefully score goals and that's all they'll have to worry about.  Remember these player have only known offense there whole careers, you can't teach them to play defense and expect to get the same scoring production out of them and as we saw they eventually abandoned the defensive system.  

The past few years I have felt that McPhee has had trouble deciding when to turn the switch from building mode to win now mode.  There's plenty of talent in Hershey that could've been used as trade bait to get defensive players to DC.  But McPhee wants to keep on building for the future, but problem is if McPhee keeps on building for the future he will miss the win now opportunity while Ovechkin, Backstrom and Semin are in there primes.  I have no problem with stocking up in Hershey for the future, but the future is now and the Caps should be in win now mode. 

When a team has collapse like this, everyone has to take the blame and changes must be made.  The question is; where should the changes be made? Do you fire the coach? Do you trade players and go with a new core? Do you hire a new GM? Ted Leonsis must answer all of these questions before the NHL offseason begins and the answers are not going to come easy. 

Being Down 0-2 Doesn't Matter

Like every Capitals fan, last night, around 10 pm I was thinking the same thing.  Crap here we go again the Caps are going against another hot goalie and this script looks very similar to what happened in the Montreal series last year.  After somewhat cooling down, from losing in overtime, I go to check my email and I see "President Obama to hold emergency press conference."  After seeing this I tell my friend Erik this is going to be either really good or really bad.  Then they announce Osama Bin Laden has been killed, good finally we got him after 10 years.  Once Obama's press conference is over Erik leaves to go back to his place and I'm by myself for the night.  About 10 minutes after the announcement was made random cars are driving down High St with people chanting "USA USA USA" I didn't think much of it just thought it was a bunch of drunk kids driving around.  Little did I know this was about to get a lot bigger.

The amount of cars with people chanting "USA USA USA" increases.  This is when I start thinking hey this my actually be something special.  So I throw on my USA soccer jersey and my Nats cap that has stars and stripes on it.  As I'm walking up High St I see people gathering and the of High and Wiley Streets and everyone is chanting "USA USA USA" I get goosebumps as I walk up to join the crowd . The crowd continues to grow on High St as the crowd reached at least 2,000 people from my judgement.  That's when it all came clear to me.  Tonight who cares about sports, who cares that my team is down 2-0 in the playoff series, who cares if your a Philly, Pittsburgh, Baltimore or DC fan.  Tonight is about celebrating one the most wanted criminals, in Osama Bin Laden, being off the face of this earth for good and justice being served.  Tonight its about America and thanking the troops that have been fighting for the past 10 years to reach this day.  Tonight I was chanting with 2,000 people that I didn't even know, but we were all chanting and burning couches in the same cause and I thought that was pretty cool.



Last night was not a time celebrate your sports teams, but it was a time to celebrate America.  Even during a rivalry game last night you saw both Phillies and Mets fans chanting USA as one. Once again we showed, as a nation, that we are united as one no matter what team we cheer for. God Bless America and thank you to all that have served.