No Time To Panic

Nearly a week after the Washington Capitals were unceremoniously swept out of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the Tampa Bay Lightning one word keeps popping into my head.

Patience.

In the hours that followed the Capitals uninspired 5-3 loss in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals several opinions surfaced. The most common was the feeling that Coach Bruce Boudreau should be fired. The same man, affectionetly known as "Gabby", who in almost four full seasons has taken the Capitals from dead last in the league standings to a perennial playoff participant was all of a sudden considered a minor league lifer who's cinderella story had reached it's end.

The second common opinion was that Vice President and General Manager George McPhee, the man responsible for acquring the talent that Boudreau has groomed the last four years also needed to go. He was being chastised for believing in the players he drafted "too much" and not wanting to admit that a few of them may never develop into what McPhee envisioned.

Calls for Alexander Semin and Mike Green to be traded also ran rampit across the local blogosphere.

After reading all of these blog posts and listening to callers on local sportstalk radio one word overwelmingly kept popping into my head.

Patience.

Yes, the Capitals have failed to advance beyond the second round of the playoffs in any of the last four years even blowing a 2-0 lead to the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2009.

Yes, for the second straight season the Capitals earned the Eastern Conference's number one seed and were unable to advance at least to the Conference Finals, and for the fourth straight season the Capitals were eliminated from the playoffs by a lower seeded team.

Despite all of that a complete makeover is not in order.

Do the Capitals have some questions they need to ask themselves? Yes. Do the Capitals need to look at their roster and admit that it's not as playoff ready as they thought it was when the playoffs began this season? Yes.

For three straight games to start the Semifinals series with the Lightning, the Capitals controlled the first two periods but came out flat and lifeless in the third period which ultimately cost them each game.

Playoff games are won in the third period, and the Capitals inability to keep their intensity at a high level for three periods shows that this team is not yet ready to win a Stanley Cup.

However, a complete overhaul of the roster isn't necessarily the way to solve the problem.

Do I think Alexander Semin needs to go? Yes. In the six seasons that Semin has worn a Capitals sweater he has never shown the ability to play at a consistent level game in and game out despite his fellow countrymen, Alex Ovechkin, showing every bit of that.

Semin personify's the organizations perceived feeling of complacency, and he is still young enough and talented enough to be able to get the Capitals the parts they so much need if they decided to trade him.

But, it also needs to be noted the philosophy change the Capitals made this season. Switching to a more defensive system in the middle of December after three straight season's of a wide-open offensive system is an adjustment that takes time to complete. Not four months of time, but a full year.

An off-season to relect and a full training camp to continue to work on the transition will do the Capitals a lot of good once the 2011-2012 season begins.

It should also not be forgotten that three players age 22, 21, and 20 were injected into the Capitals regular line up this season. John Carlson, Karl Alzner and Marcus Johannson showed their inexperience at times early in the season, but by the time the playoffs started Carlson and Alzner had become the Capitals top defensive pair, and Johannson was earning minutes on the top line with Alex Ovechkin.

Do the Capitals need to make some changes? Yes. But selling the farm at this point in the process would bring the Capitals right back to where they were when this process started.

At the bottom.