Poor Positioning Leads to Poor Penalty Kill

Although the bounce off Shaone Morrisonn's leg could be called "unlucky" during last night's 3-2 OT loss in Boston, I'd have to agree with Peerless that it's something else: the wrong people in the wrong place at the wrong time. As Peerless amazingly shows, the Caps seem to be running around on the penalty kill instead of remaining aggressive and well-positioned.

On the game-winner, which occurred during a four-on-three for the B's, Morrisonn was alone in front of the net and looking the wrong way when David Krejci banged it off his leg and past an unsuspecting Jose Theodore. But, at that point, why was Mo in front of the net? Yes, he was trying to cover two people at once, but where was his help? It's more important to have people down low and let shots come from far away -- even if Zdeno Chara might be firing them -- than have a two-on-one down low.

Look at the Bruins' penalty kill, which denied the Caps in six chances. The Caps didn't seem comfortable with the extra man the entire night, despite having a great power play.

"We're unaccustomed to that," Coach Bruce Boudreau said. "We'll straighten in out in practice this week. The power play could have won us the game. When we're simple we're pretty good on the power play. But we got too cute there in the second period."

How do you fix that? Well, there are two solutions: one, Boudreau needs to keep hammering his message. But, perhaps more importantly, you need the right people on the roster to execute his vision. One of those, Tom Poti, will be back from an injury hiatus soon. But Morrisonn and Milan Jurcina (as well as John Erskine to a point) seem to remain in the center of these occurrences and that's not a coincidence.

The Caps have taken six hooking penalties in their last two games, both 3-2 OT losses. That means they're either in the wrong position or have been beaten to a spot, which confirms the poor positioning theory.

This is a problem that GM George McPhee must address by acquiring a defenseman at the trading deadline and ridding the Caps of excess baggage. Until then, maybe Boudreau needs to follow his own advice and recall more players from Hershey, because "it seems when you call guys up they do what you ask them to do, verbatim, and they don't get away from it."