Homer McFanboy’s column on the Capitals yesterday morning almost trashed my workday.  The fact he used “fire wagon hockey” in a sentence wasn’t the only reason.  I am starved for more information on the Caps’ defensive scheme, ok I’ll say it, trap.  I keep waiting for the Washington Post’s glossy pull out section with a breakdown of all things Caps but until then it’s off to the bloggers we go.  I was not alone in my excitement. Mr. McFanboy was holding court on Twitter.  I jumped into the fray and then realized that this was publicly available for all to view, including my clients.  I dropped out of the conversation and got back to work.  Hey I need this job.  That noise was the Caps sales rep breathing a sigh of relief.  Do you know they are already talking about season ticket renewals?

What are we as Caps fans suppose to make of this year’s team?  National hockey “experts” like Barry Melrose and Matthew Barnaby continue to say that the Caps are going nowhere until they get serious on defense.  A couple weeks ago Melrose wondered if Bruce Boudreau had brought the team as far as he could and it was time to bring in a new coach to put the Capitals over the top. [See the 1/7 and 1/13 podcast]

Locally, the blogs bemoan the new defensive system.  Along with McFanboy, On Frozen Blog has been cranky ever since the “Trap” showed up on the scene. (1 2 3) They all think the new trap is cramping the teams’ style.  Greyhounds pulling snow sleds, Thoroughbreds working as Clydesdales, Corvettes used as pickup trucks etc…

I admit the trap has been a stink bomb inside the Verizon Center.  The crowds are dead.  The blame for this has to lie partially on the Caps PR department.  They have done a crappy job, strike that, they still haven’t introduced the new system to the fans.  If you’re going to change your identity as a team, you need to do a better job of selling it to the fans even if you are putting lipstick on a pig.  There are dozens of ways to do this including briefings with credentialed bloggers like On Frozen Blog.  I’m not sure the bloggers would buy into a trap but at least their stories would be peppered with team statements on why coach thinks it’s important. Give the fans a chance to understand what’s going on.

But I digress again.  Back to the Homer’s blog.  Can I call you Homer?  Is the coach putting shackles on his players? I went back last night to watch some of the early games and confirmed what I remembered.  The team never really got into the run and gun swing of things this year.  The team had a disjointed and inconsistent  offense.  They made up for it by pressing forward and began giving up way too many scoring chances as a result.  There are a number of mitigating circumstanced but “fire wagon hockey” rarely made an appearance.

The injuries on defense are what started the mess. The Capitals run and gun leans heavily on the defenseman getting the puck up ice with accuracy and joining the attack at the right times.  The coach had to play mix and match at the blue line.  Ovi wasn’t getting the puck cleanly and the offense sputtered.  Then we removed a skilled player on offense, Fleischmann and replaced him with defenseman Hannan causing more adjustment problems.  And let’s not forget to throw in the 10 days of flu and the arrival of HBO cameras.  All this came to a head during the losing streak.  The greyhounds were running and losing, badly.  Panic time.

The players weren’t going anywhere so either the coach goes or the system goes.  The Caps fired their system, but was that the right thing to do?  Here is where Homer’s argument begins to hold water. The Caps were 18-10-4 pretrap and 9-5-5 since.  The counter argument is that all the games since the change are very close and Semin and to some extent Ovi have been hurt during this time.

As a fan I would like to know what does it take to win a Stanley Cup this year?  Then we can decide if we are willing to accept whatever that is.  Homer compares the Capitals to basketball’s Phoenix Suns in his column and later to the Indianapolis Colts on Twitter.  The last time the Suns played for a championship Charles Barkley was on their team and Colts won a Super Bowl only after their owner lobbied the league to change the rules on touching wide receivers because they kept losing to the Patriots in the playoffs.

I don’t see any rule changes coming and last year Montreal proved that our greyhounds might not be enough.  Until I see evidence to the contrary, I’m going to try to fall in love with the trap. Please pass the lipstick.