So in Washington, DC and Carolina the head coaches have been wondering when this day would come and in Washington it may of come too late and in Carolina it was like the changing of the seasons as Carolina get ready to make their normal second half run of being unbeatable to make the playoffs but it was a little earlier than usually.
So in Washington, DC Bruce Boudreau who like a wrestler went from being a babyface (a players coach) to a heel (tougher on the players as he try to impalement a defense first approach) and just did not work just like wrestling fans sometimes do not buy into a wrestler turning the capitals players did not take the new heel Boudreau seriously and tuned him out. So Boudreau who is the fast coach to won 200 games in the NHL in the modern era but instead of that he will be remembered for barque sauce on his face and his rant of like 90 seconds where every other word was was censored during last season's 24/7 series leading into the Penguins hosting the Capitals in what would turn out to be Sidney Crosby's second last game for 11 months along with the Caps inability to play hard and go far in the playoffs.
So now U have Dale Hunter coming in from being a very successful coach in the PHL over the last 11 seasons with the London and is now coming back to the NHL and the Capitals were he was a goon for 20 seasons. The one moment hockey fans will remember him for is his violent attack with his hockey stick as a Capital in the open round of the '92-'93 Stanley Cup playoffs when after Pierre Turgeon scored a goal to make sure there was a game 7 Hunter came up behind him hit him and separating his shoulder and Hunter was given a 21 game suspension by now commissioner of the NHL Gary Bettman and now he has a second chance to make legacy for himself and that is by getting the most out of the very talented Capitals who right now look completely bored. So to start he needs to get ALEX OVECHKIN back on track because he just has not been the same player since 2009-10 and has even been carelessly floating nowhere near the action and his shots attempts have gone extremely south even though focusing on defense is important but so is getting the puck to the net and in the past Alex the Great has had over 500 shots and 50 goals and needs to get back to that. While ALEXANDER SEMIN has 64 points in 85 games since the beginning of the 2010-11 season after having 84 points in 73 games in 2009-10 and the free agent at the end of the season will need to get back to the 2009-10 stats if he wants a big deal and he has also been mentioned as the most talented Capitals player. Then there is Mike Green who after having over 70 points as a defenseman in both the 2008-09 and 2009-10 has compiled 30 points in 57 games when healthy as he has spent a lot of games out with an injury and these are the players the Capitals count on along with TOMAS VOKOUN needs to start making the keys saves to help the team get back on the winning track.
I do beleive that they will turn it around and their star players will be their star players and they will make the playoffs and then we will see how this team performs in the playoffs and can they play a playoff style game and can Vokoun steal them a game or two in the playoffs.
In Carolina the Hurricanes have not been getting the kind of performances they have come to expected from their leader Eric Staal who has been a shell of a player this season as he has 11 points in 25 games with a horrifically awful plus/minus of -17 but it is almost time for Staal to turn it on and make an incredible run at the playoffs like in past season like when Paul Maurice rejoined the Caines for the last 57 games of the 2008-09 season and they finished second in southern division and got all the way to the conference final. This is not a first for Paul Maurice as he was fired the first time in Carolina in the '03-04 season after 30 games and fired by the Leafs after two seasons of not making the playoffs so now Kirk Muller has 57 games to get things turned around with the team now 8-13-4 and second last in the Eastern Conference just in front of the New York Islanders. So Kirk Muller has a lot of work to do and maybe this team will not get into the playoffs but their past has shown that they will get close by the end of the regular season and the 19 seasons veteran in Muller with his tough as nail kind of grinder maybe the right voice this teams need.
Thanks for Reading
Tom Mehegan
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