Storm Front Comin’ (Mood Indigo)

(I figured since I got so roundly pilloried for referencing Journey last time, I’d go with Billy Joel this time around.)

 When I made my predictions for February, I said that I saw difficulties ahead for this month.  That prediction has been borne out a little too well for my taste.  We’ve only won 4 games out of 11 so far this month.  Minnesota comes a-callin’ tomorrow night, and they’re not exactly a scrub team.  Brashear vs. Boogard would be worth the price of admission if it happened, but I’m not so sure the final score will end up being quite as entertaining.  Ovechkin has to snap out of his funk sooner or later, and that other Backstrom looks like as good a foil as any.  I’ve got relatives from Minnesota, so I really hope the Caps win tomorrow night, or else I’m never going to hear the end of it.

Meanwhile, Friday night, we head up to New Jersey for an almost certain rematch with Martin Brodeur.  Two points in the remaining two games would put us exactly at .500 for the month of February.  I know that sounds hard to believe after all these losses we’ve been having lately, but since we’ve only lost in regulation four times, we’re at least getting points in defeat.  The dark cloud to go with the silver lining?  All those regulation losses have come against the Southeast.  Not good.  Really, REALLY not good.  We have eight games left against the Southeast, half at home, half on the road, and if we can’t solve our own division in the remaining games, it’s going to be a really long summer.

I’m reminded of the Apostle Paul’s journey to Rome.  Head over to Bible Gateway and check out Acts 27:1-28:10.  Here, Paul was being taken to Rome as a prisoner, and the ship he was aboard was having a lot of trouble sailing west.  The ship put in at Fair Havens, which wasn’t exactly the ideal port to spend the winter.  Paul warned everyone that sailing on would be a very bad idea, but his advice went unheeded, and the ship sailed on.  Bad idea.  The ship ran into a stiff northeast wind, and was blown off course, eventually landing on the island of Malta after being stuck in the storm for about two weeks.  But in the middle of the storm, Paul had a dream, in which an angel told him that all on board would survive.  The ship and its cargo would be lost, he was told, but the passengers and crew would be spared–all 276 of them.  All hands did, in fact, survive, and the winter on Malta, to paraphrase Saint Luke, wasn’t half-bad for being a change of plans.

Now, how does that apply to the Capitals?  Well, it’s been a stormy couple of weeks for our team, to put it mildly.  But I think that, after this storm is over, we may find that we’re not in such a bad place for having gone so far off-course. 

If the Hurricanes have as much trouble with Brodeur tomorrow night as we had with him Sunday, they’ll be staying put.  Elsewhere in the Southeast, the Thrashers are on the road in Montreal, and the Habs should be favored based on how far ahead they are in the standings.  So if we can beat the Wild tomorrow night, we may find ourselves back in the hunt–psychologically, if nothing else.  As it stands, we’re only two games out of the #8 spot, with a month’s worth of hockey left to play.

This season is definitely not over yet, Caps faithful.  As fans, we mustn’t give up on our team now.  I’ve said it before, and I’m going to keep saying it: let’s continue to support our team down the stretch.  We can still make it into the second season.  Rough weather?  Been there.  Shipwreck?  Done that.  But the journey is not over–we can still make it.

CAPITAL SPIRIT

RIDING OUT THE STORM