Memo to Caps: Watch the Finals

The Caps should be watching the Stanley Cup finals. I'm not talking about Coach Bruce Boudreau and GM George McPhee, who naturally are glued to the broadcasts (or are even in attendance). I'm talking about the players: Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Mike Green, etc., but especially the ones of whom Boudreau said "don't want to change."

I'll put this as simply as possible: if you don't change, you won't win the Stanley Cup. Yesterday's 3-1 win by the Detroit Red Wings was further evidence that they are the best team in the league and boast an entire roster of players who check their ego at the door and buy into the team concept. Even Marian Hossa, who only is in his first year with the Wings, has clearly bought what Coach Mike Babcock is selling.

The best example has been the double- and triple-teaming of Sidney Crosby that quelled a very potent Pittsburgh Penguins' offense. So far against the Wings in the finals (six games last year and two so far this time around), Crosby has scored two goals and registered four assists. In those games, the Pens are 2-6. In fact, both of his goals were registered in a 3-2 game three win in last year's finals. Otherwise, he's pretty much got nothing. Ditto Evgeni Malkin.

Clearly, the Pens haven't been able to find a way to counteract this strategy and it's one the Caps need to employ. The problem is that the Caps don't have the personnel to do this (at least not to the extend the Wings do) and have some malcontents on the roster who don't put forth the proper effort.

So the Caps need to watch what the Wings are doing to the Penguins and learn from it. The Pens are going to be good for a while, and most likely will face the Caps several more times in the postseason. If the Caps want truly want to dominate Pittsburgh, which they didn't even come close to doing this year, then they should be watching Detroit.

And then practicing and practicing. Like the Energizer Bunny, they need to learn how to keep going and going and going.