The Caps Are Like...Doughnuts?

It’s late, and we have a hankering for doughnuts. And it makes us think of how the Caps are like a doughnut these days. Why?

-- Well, first there is the hole in the middle. No second line center, a total of 18 goals and 21 assists from centers not named “Backstrom” (that would include Mathieu Perreault, Marcus Johansson, David Steckel, and Boyd Gordon).

-- Doughnuts are round…sort of the way the Caps have been playing the last two months, going round and round and round from good games to ghastly games. Since beating St. Louis on December 1st to go 18-6-2, the Caps are 11-11-8 (which includes that 0-6-2 losing streak).

-- Doughnuts are sweet, but you can’t sustain yourself with them. The Caps have had some sweet wins – the Winter Classic win over Pittsburgh, the 5-2 win over Tampa Bay last week among them. But the Caps can’t make a season out of the occasional big win. They have to grind out wins against teams that don’t get their attention. And they haven’t done that consistently.

-- Doughnuts are light and airy, sort of like all the post-game blather night after night that sounds like the right thing to say. Words are nice, actions are better.

-- Doughnuts are sold in boxes…like the box the Caps find themselves in. Trying – without much success – to find a way to marry a focus on defense with the ability to take advantage of their offensive gifts.

-- Doughnuts have a limited shelf life…like coaches. And at the moment, Bruce Boudreau seems to be preaching to air. The players don’t seem to be listening. That is a really bad sign.

-- Doughnuts are often glazed, like the look on Caps fans’ faces trudging out of Verizon Center after the kind of stinker the team had this afternoon against Los Angeles, the sort of glaze that has been all too common as the Caps have dropped 14 of 31 home games so far this season.

-- Doughnuts often have tiny little sprinkles on the outside. It reminds us of the way the Caps sprinkle the puck around the outside on the power play.

-- Sometimes doughnuts are filled…like we’re filled up to here with all this lackadaisical play.

-- Doughnuts look like big zeroes…a reminder of the eight shutout losses that the Caps have.

This is a team that needs more red meat on its menu, because at the moment they look a little too fat and happy…the product of too many doughnuts.