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Five Thoughts: Change is coming for the Caps; Now you can blame Philly goaltending

Matt Bradley, Boyd Gordon, and Matt Hendricks

Washington Capitals, from left, Matt Bradley, Boyd Gordon, and Matt Hendricks watch the final moments of Game 4 against the Tampa Bay Lightning in an NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff Eastern Conference semifinal series in Tampa, Fla., Wednesday, May 4, 2011. Tampa Bay won 5-3 to sweep the series. (AP Photo/John Raoux)

AP

After the first round of the playoffs was so wonderful and exciting, it just makes sense that the second round would turn into a complete bore. One sweep, two other series that could be sweeps, and Vancouver playing Nashville. Making things less boring, Caps failure, Flyers goaltending, and the Sharks playing like superstars.

1. The Capitals are the most perplexing team in the NHL and for all the wrong reasons. They’re teeming with talent year after year, they’ve got tremendous young players, they’re a regular season wrecking ball. Seeing them fail in different and unbelievable ways in the playoffs each season is becoming an unreal exercise in failure. Four years in a row now the Caps have bowed out in the first or second round thanks to being swept out by the Lightning last night. The last three years they’ve done so as the Southeast Division champions. The last two they’ve done so as the top seed in the Eastern Conference. That all makes for one horrible track record and a climate of losing that’s bordering on toxic.

Changes will happen in one form or another in D.C. Bruce Boudreau could be out of work, George McPhee could overhaul the roster to rid themselves of the players that just aren’t working out. With the amount of talent they have in Washington, these playoff failures cannot continue. With a team this talented they should, at the very least, be making the Eastern Conference final consistently. Instead they’re checking out early while lower seeded teams make hay on them. Things can’t stay that way.

2. We’ve been pretty good about not throwing all the blame on Flyers goaltending in their series against Boston. After all, hockey’s a team game and sometimes the guys playing in front of the goalie make life miserable on them through poor play. Last night’s 5-1 loss to Boston to go down 3-0 in the series though for Brian Boucher and Philadelphia? That one’s on him. Two goals allowed in the first 1:03 of the game on shots that should’ve been stopped. Two more bad goals allowed later on and getting pulled from the game being down 4-0 instills zero confidence in anyone.

Yes, Philly’s had problems with nagging injuries but the way they’re playing points to no one trusting anyone else to do the right thing and what you get is a gigantic circus of failure. While the Flyers offense was good enough against Buffalo to make up for mistakes made defensively or in goal, they just don’t have that ability right now against a much more difficult Bruins team. If you’re thinking Boston will be revisited by the ghosts of last year’s huge collapse against Philly, think again. This one seems destined for a sweep.

3. If you’re a Red Wings fan and looking for positive spin out of going down 3-0 in the series against San Jose, you can say your team is only losing one-goal games and that’s a slim enough margin for error where any game could’ve been turned in their favor. Sure, that works but it’s not quite so true. Detroit has played the Sharks tough but the Sharks are playing better. They’ve been able to force the Wings into making mistakes and the Sharks power play has taken advantage of a poor Wings kill.

Game 3 was Detroit’s best effort of the series and while Jimmy Howard thinks they should’ve won they didn’t. The Sharks are outworking Detroit and while this series seemed destined to be a classic, it’s setting up to be another second round sweep. Don’t expect Detroit to bow out quietly the way Washington did in their Game 4.

4. We touted Steve Downie’s abilities last week in his efforts to help the Lightning win games by racking up points but what Sean Bergenheim is doing for Tampa Bay is stunning. Bergenheim has seven goals in the postseason, tying him with James van Riemsdyk and Daniel Briere for the top spot in the playoffs for goals. Everyone’s been busy rightfully touting the Lightning’s defensive abilities in shutting down both the Penguins and Capitals, but their offense has been stunning.

While Bergenheim and Downie are getting the “unknown hero” treatment, their big guns of Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier are making it look like their 2004 run to the Stanley Cup all over again. St. Louis leads the playoffs in points with 13 while Lecavalier and Downie are right behind him with 12 points. Getting production like that from your best players and getting huge performances from guys like Bergenheim make Tampa Bay a legitimate threat to beat anyone in the playoffs the rest of the way.

5. Should Vancouver beat Nashville in Game 4, the possibility that we could see all the second round series done by Saturday night is very possible. With the Sharks and Bruins on the verge of pulling sweeps, the Lightning already sweeping out the Caps, Vancouver could make it so the start of the conference finals gets here a lot sooner than expected. We’re thinking the Predators will have a lot to say about that. Unless Vancouver totally figured out how to beat Nashville, we don’t envision the Preds laying down easily or quietly for them.