Following their unimpressive 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night, the Washington Capitals will continue their road trip out west against the Calgary Flames.
It wasn't an easy decision, but Bruce Boudreau elected to take it easy on his team in their practice session Friday in Calgary, according to Katie Carrera of the Washington Post.
"It's a tough call. I mean I'm thinking, okay, should we go out there and give them a no-pucks shellacking? Would that be better than [focusing on Saturday's game]? Or if you do that, and some guys have got injuries and they're not allowed to participate; is it worse because then you've got three fourths of the team out there?...Or do you just watch video and make some threats? We chose to at least watch some video and go over last night's game, and hopefully they get the idea of what I'm talking about."
Earlier today on the LaVar Arrington Show with Chad Dukes on 106.7 The Fan, Capitals defender Mike Green re-iterated the fact that the team must improve, but also stressed that fans should not yet be panicking. In a way, the Capitals are right where they want to be. Arrington asked Green about whether or not it's a fair criticism that the team is currently struggling to find goals.
"i just wonder if those are the same people who thought we couldn't play defense and now we have the lowest goals against and our PK is at the top. At the end of the day this is the type of stuff we deal with, and as a team and as individuals, we're going to get better throughout the season. We have enought alent on this team and we'll score our goals. As long as we're an over .500 hockey team and we're winning hockey games and we're putting ourselves in a playoff position then we're happy at the end of the day."