Its hard to argue that the Washington Capitals are not the best team in hockey and if they are not the best they are the hottest. The Caps have won 8 straight most of them in a convincing manner. The Caps have scored 207 goals so far this season which is 28 more than the next best team the San Jose Sharks who have 179. If there has been one complaint about the Capitals is their lack of a solid defense. The 146 goals given up isn't bad by any means but in some games the Caps have shown a somewhat soft defense. Not that they don't hit hard but they don't seem to race to the puck as hard as they could. Sometimes this leads to a lot of shots on goal. In a recent game against the Detroit Red Wings the Caps let the Red Wings put 46 shots on goal and if it wasn't for a great performance Jose Theodore and the Caps quick strike offense they somehow won the game 3-2. The point is the Caps cant afford to have their goalie whether it be Theodore or Varlamov forced to make 40 saves a game and it only gets tougher in the postseason with better opponents. Last year in the playoff series against the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Penguins the Caps were out shot in every game totalling 266-180 in the Pens favor. In three games the Penguins put 40 shots on goal, to me this led to the game 7 blowout win by Pittsburgh. Having a high powered offense is all well in good but a solid defense is needed if the Capitals want to get deeper into the postseason this year.
Talking about last years playoff series had me thinking about this tremendous save by Varlamov. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01Ow7Kxaqb4
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