Is hockey in India will regain its lost charm ever?

McPhee put the proper pieces in place. First of all, GM George McPhee can go to bed the rest of this summer and pound his pillow in frustration, but he certainly shouldn’t hit the sheets thinking he didn’t do enough to give his team every chance to win the Stanley Cup. When he looked at his roster prior to the trade deadline, he saw a team that needed to be more difficult to play against and one that had to be better killing penalties.

So he went out and got Scott Walker and Eric Belanger up front and Joe Corvo and Milan Jurcina (reacquired) on the back end. He also acquired Jason Chimera earlier in the season, who's gritty style of play is exactly what the Caps need more of. He deserves a lot of the credit for putting together a truly excellent roster.

The strength of this team comes from McPhee, not Boudreau. McPhee is the single force behind this team. Without his efforts and shrewd decisions over the years, this team wouldn't be anywhere near where it is today.

The problem is not him. This team is too damn talented to lose like this. What is the saying again?

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Troubling to me is the lack of adjustments — not just within a particular game — but throughout the entire series. About halfway through Game 1, one could tell what Montreal was going to try to do in order to win the series: play an extremely disciplined defensive scheme, a penalty kill centered on cutting off all passing lanes to Alex Ovechkin, and an opportunistic offense that takes advantage of the Caps' mistakes.

The Capitals didn’t change the way they played for the first two games and were lucky to come out with a 1-1 split. Then the Capitals adjusted for Games 3 and 4, resulting in a 3-1 series lead. Dump and chase, wear the Canadiens down, and cycle, cycle, cycle, equating to goals.

Then for Games 5 through 7, the Capitals reverted back to the form seen in Games 1 and 2. The Capitals’ best efforts — Games 3 and 4 — saw the Capitals dump and chase, while going to work along the boards and cycling quite well. That wore down the Canadiens.

That’s when the Capitals’ skill took over. Teams in the playoffs have to wear down the opponent before any skill advantage is shown. The Capitals didn’t do that in Games 5 through 7.

The playoffs are often about survival of the fittest. While Montreal trapped, Washington rushed into the zone and fired pucks at the net just hoping they might snipe one past Halak's glove or blocker. Instead of setting up their offense in the zone, often the Caps tried to generate goals off the rush as they always have.

They tried to play Caps hockey and when Caps hockey didn't work, they kept playing Caps hockey. Montreal played playoff hockey. The Caps never seemed to attempt to adapt to the Canadiens' style of game.

Trap, slow down the rush, clear, capitalize on mistakes and repeat. That's all Montreal did. Washington didn't do a great job of setting up in the zone and getting their offense working.

When they did the chances came, but as time ticked away and the players grew noticeably desperate, the Caps resorted to taking pot shots, forcing their shots into the Habs' shins. For the series, the Capitals fired 576 shots. Of those, 292 were on net.

That means 284 were not. Canadiens players blocked 182 shots during the series and Capitals shooters missed the net completely 102 times. Montreal players did such a solid job of getting in the way and clogging up the shooting lanes on defense, that the Caps started to settle for long-range shots.

Couple that with an overall lack of willingness to crash the net and suddenly Jaroslav Halak’s job just got a lot easier. Avoiding a blocked shot isn’t rocket science. Usually faking a shot tends to help.

Hal Gill should not look this good. Nobody fell into the perimeter trap deeper than Alexander Ovechkin who fired 40 shots (shots+misses+blocks) over the last 3 games, but only TWO within 20 feet. Alexander Semin fired 47 shots at the goal but only FIVE were released within 20 feet.

Backstrom fired only 13 shots at the goal with only TWO in the high traffic area. So that means that their 3 best players fired 100 shots, but only 9 from under 20 feet. Look at the difference between the games they won earlier in the series and games 5-7.

They played right into the Habs' hands, shooting 77% of their shots from outside 20 feet with little to no crease presence in those games. http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/347502... http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/347747... Last year, the Caps barely, just barely beat the Rangers in the first round, a team that simply had no business even competing with the Caps. The Caps were so much deeper and better than the Rangers.

On paper, the two teams didn't even compare. After the Caps inched past the Rangers last year, they were up 2-0 on the Penguins, only to lose three straight before winning game six then eventually of course losing game 7 at home. Once again, this year the Caps found themselves up 2 games in a best of 7 series, and once again found themselves losing at home in game 7.

In my opinion, this is due to a lack of discipline and seriousness in the locker room. There needs to be the killer mentality of knocking down the opponent and stepping on their throats until no breath is left. I remember watching video (can't find it on YouTube just now) last year of the Caps practicing in Pittsburgh before game 3 on an off day.

They were giggling and goofing around on the ice, and before they knew it, the series was 3-2 Pittsburgh. There needs to be more accountability, demanded from someone who isn't afraid of calling out his players or bench the struggling performers, even if they are the star players (that means Semin, Green, and Fleischmann most of all; Boudreau needed six games to figure out that he should bench him for Scott Walker, who was brought in specifically for the playoffs). Perhaps what this team needs to really go deep in the playoffs is a more defensive philosophy and a less high-flying/no holds barred offensive attitude.

Maybe this team needs to play more old-school style of hockey. That's what Montreal did, and they managed to beat us. Montreal Canadiens Head Coach Jacques Martin is a very old-school coach regarding the systems he uses, and they all worked.

Emphasis on back-checking, shot-blocking, defensively collapsing, dump and chase, and neutral zone trapping. All of those shut the Caps down, and also none of those are things that the Caps really do. Instead they subscribe to the Boudreau philosophy of "Well, whatever, just go down there and score some goals.

Don't worry about playing organized or anything. Defensive systems? Who are they for?

Not us. Just worry about defense later, let's score some goals now". Gabby’s system, essentially just says you can sit back and clog all you want, but ultimately my offense will overpower you.

If he was paying attention, he probably noticed that PIttsburgh's top forwards can fight through tight checking and don't need a ton of space to make things happen. He also may have noticed a Pittsburgh defense core that is far and away better than his own. Big changes coming for the Caps.

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