Fanmix: Hockey - Washington Capitals 2011-2012 Season - Your Hard Times Are Ahead
Medium: Sports
Fandom: Hockey
Subject: Washington Capitals 2011-2012 Season
Title: Your Hard Times Are Ahead
Notes: Few sports teams put the world through the wringer as the Washington Capitals do, subjecting us year after year of raised expectations, ridiculous potential, some success, and then an inevitable crash. But this season was crazier than usual, as the life or death struggle that is usually reserved only for the playoffs started as early as November. And though it ended as it usually does, it did so with the team clearly changed for the better from what had gone before, to the point that they deserve a tribute. So here's one in music, navigating the emotional ups and downs of one of the most turbulent seasons yet.
1. Beautiful Day - U2
The Washington Capitals came into the 2011-2012 season off a huge disappointment in the playoffs of the previous year, having abandoned their game in the second round and crashed out in straights, but any damage that did to the high expectations was reversed by the amount of talent general manager George McPhee had signed in free agency. The clock was ticking, too; it already known that free agency after the season might cost the Caps more than one of the “young guns” as that formed their core and were getting older, and another playoff meltdown would demand change.
2. Noone But You - Queen
In September, as the players arrived in DC in anticipation of the pre-season, the hockey world, already shaken by the deaths of three enforcers over the summer, was devastated by the loss of the entire KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in a plane crash. The Caps were particularly affected, with three Russian players signed, including Captain Alex Ovechkin, and newly signed goalie Tomas Vokoun losing his best friend. The beginning of the season would even see they and longtime rivals Pittsburgh Penguins put their feud aside long enough to raise money together for the widows and children of the players.
3. Fury of the Storm - Dragonforce
The Caps charged out the gate, winning their first eight games and rising to the top of the league. The wins ranged from harder ones, like their opener against the Carolina Hurricanes, won in overtime, to scarily good performances, such as their demolition of the Detroit Red Wings later in the month, who before that meeting had been the league’s only other undefeated team from the beginning of the season. They were quickly labeled as favorites for the year, the struggles of the last year assumed to be put behind them.
4. I Go to Extremes - Billy Joel
Yet even during their opening streak, flaws were apparent, as the players themselves acknowledged. The Caps defense, a weak point they had spent much of the previous season trying to fix, was having trouble, and while of their top two stars, both whom had struggled the previous year, Nicolas Backstrom was showing signs of bouncing back, Ovechkin proved to be continuing the slump he had been in since the 2010 Olympics, and then would-be top defenseman Mike Green got injured yet again. The best player was proving to be Jason Chimera, not a role he was supposed to play. October ended with two losses, one of them ugly, bringing the winning streak to a screeching halt.
5. Bad Day - Daniel Powter
After the end of the streak the Caps started to struggle, their defense still troubled and their ability to even shoot the puck towards the goal dropped alarmingly low, naturally losing more games than they won, dispelling quickly the glow of October. Troubles from last year showed themselves by no means gone; their power play was failing once again, while the infamous Alexander Semin took too many penalties. As November dragged on, they turned listless and struggled to play as a team, and both goalies showed consistency issues as well. By the time they were massacred by the Toronto Maple Leafs the week before Thanksgiving, serious questions were being asked about the future of the team.
6. Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap
One question hanging over the team from the beginning of the season had been accountability, & whether coach Bruce Boudreau had been too indulgent to them in the past. He tried not to be for the new season, even sitting Ovechkin for the overtime during the first game of the month. Cameras captured the captain’s angry reaction, and though both deny fallout from that particular incident, when Boudreau started driving the players harder, it didn’t seem to get them to play any better. Rumors were abuzz he had lost the dressing room. It seemed the team was not willing to listen to admonishments from a man they knew too well.
7. Waiting for the End - Linkin Park
Two more landslide losses after Thanksgiving later, Boudreau all but admitted he was not the man who could drive the team back into shape. Almost four years to the day after hiring him, McPhee fired the man who had coached the Caps out of the NHL’s basement. But the question lingered whether he was the man who really ought to go, or merely the one the organization was able to get rid of, or whether a new coach would be too late to cure what was ailing the team. By now the Caps had lost the lead they had built up in October and were facing the prospect of entering December out of a playoff position, and when mid-season coaching changes are never certain to work.
8. Start the Machine - Angels & Airwaves
McPhee did have one advantage in doing a mid-season coaching change, in that he didn’t have to actually spend time looking for a new one. The prospective replacement coach had been identified even before the firing, in the form of Dale Hunter. A former Capitals on-ice star with a reputation for playing dirty during his own career, Hunter was seen as someone who could toughen a team up, but had no experience at the NHL level, having been devoted to the London Knights he’d been coaching for years. A much-loved figure in DC, it was said the Capitals were the only team he would be willing to leave the Knights for, older fans were ready to sing his praises as soon as they could, and everyone was willing to give him at least a brief chance.
9. Let Go - Boys Like Girls
The previous season had already seen the Caps abandon their high-scoring style for a more defensive style of play, but Hunter’s system of hockey, dubbed Hunter hockey, went further, combing defense with hard physical play, a good thing, since defense-first was needed for the playoffs. But doubt lingered as to whether the team could adapt, its stars especially. It was risky in some ways, especially since the team was still slow to score goals, which Hunter’s system did not encourage. On the other hand, the blue collar guys, such as Matt Hendricks & Jay Beagle(once he came back from injury), would eventually find themselves having banner years; Hunter’s coaching favored the grinders over the talent. Big change in the results was hardly expected immediately, but at least the downward spiral did not immediately continue.
10. Butterflies & Hurricanes - Muse
Still, as 2011 gave way to 2012, the Caps were still losing more games than they were winning, and spending as much time out of the top eight as in; the race was close, and whether there would be a post-season was officially in question. It was to the point that even overtime losses were relieving, simply for the single points, and the Southeast Division title went from unimportant to suddenly a possibly needed guarantee of making the playoffs. Matters were not helped when January started with a concussion to Backstrom, leaving him out indefinitely. Brooks Laich was left the top center standing; though he gave his all in multiple positions he wasn’t built for, the results weren’t entirely what the team needed. Vital things were slow to change; neither Vokoun nor younger goalie Michal Neuvirth were entirely consistent, the defensemen and power play and goal-scoring in general were still struggling, there was especially trouble winning on the road, and while Ovechkin was scoring a couple more goals, he still wasn’t really returning to form.
11. Original Skin - Katy Rose
He did seem to be responding to Hunter, though, trying to do things differently than he had in way he’d never tried to before, as was the rest of the team, learning how to play hard and physical. But puck possession was low, shots were low, and at times even the Caps’ motivation had to be called into question; they didn’t always even put in the effort; the tendency to sometimes lose ugly started to creep back in. Other old habits caused trouble; a bad hit from Ovechkin saw him suspended for three games just before the All-Star Break; the only player to make it to that was the unlikely Dennis Wideman, who would then start slumping, which meant just about all the defensemen were getting infamous except young Dmitri Orlov, who was often being sat. The return of Mike Green brought no relief; the best of the “young guns” was starting to look like the less than consistent Semin, who was peaking for the year.
12. Decode - Paramore
By the time the trade deadline approached, Hunter had been coach for longer enough that the Caps no longer had the excuse of having to adapt to him, and the pile-up of losses was turning the picture grim. After playing what was generally agreed to be their worst game of the season yet and getting blown out by the Carolina Hurricanes, who were in terrible shape themselves, the world was ready to give up all together on the Caps; calls were made for McPhee to blow up the team immediately. It was hard to remember anymore when the team had been a great one. That they were still in the playoff race, mostly because everyone else in the Southeast division were playing badly too, gave little comfort when their chances of making it past the first round seemed non-existent.
13. Right Behind You - Our Lady Peace
But in it they were, and the trade deadline surprisingly came and went with no transactions at all, not even the trading of players who had been continually scratched under Hunter, such as the much-loved but undeniably slumping Mike Knuble; McPhee had been apparently calling everyone but failed to receive any offers he found worth it. He insisted once they had Backstrom back they could make the playoffs, and the fight it would take would make them stronger when they got there, and others echoed it, most notably Laich, who had been happy to criticize his teammates when they’d deserved it. They began to win a few more games, especially ones against weaker teams that had turned into “must wins.”
14. Dare You to Move - Switchfoot
One by one teams that threatened to make the playoffs at the Caps’ expense dropped a little bit behind, then a little more, then again, though some surged back forward, only to again fall behind. By the last week, with Backstrom returned, the last spot was thought to be between the Caps and the Buffalo Sabres(who had just beat them in yet another bad game which still left neither team at all put away). But then with Vokoun already out with a groin injury another injury laid low Neuvirth; the Caps would have to go into the playoffs relying on Braden Holtby, who had spent most of the past few years in the AHL, been unpredictable in his earlier call-ups, and had had struggles of his own that past year. Like with the Caps themselves, it was known he could be better, but not if he would be.
15. We Weren’t Born to Follow - Bon Jovi
But then, as regular season gave way to playoffs, the Caps suddenly clicked, letting go of egos to connect with each other and with Hunter’s system at last, of the multiple struggling defensemen one at least stepped up in the form of John Carlson, and it all came together. When Holtby then rose the occasion magnificently, becoming one of the post-season’s stars, they made the playoffs without the division title but as the 7th seed, and reigning champions Boston Bruins found they had more to deal with than they’d bargained for. Not that it was at all easy; on the contrary, the defensive block the shots with the body if necessary Hunter hockey, was one that could make a series a line of coin flips. They lost the first game, and though they won the second, they promptly lost the third. But they followed up a fourth game win with a vital fifth one.
16. Date With the Night - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The opening of the playoffs was marked by dirty play across the league, and the Bruins and Caps were no exception(it was a good thing if the Caps power play wasn’t brilliant their penalty kill was); before things had calmed Backstrom even followed a game three overtime winner with a post-game four suspension. But even that might have worked in his team’s favor by getting Knuble back into the lineup, who as well as being a good presence in the locker room played better than he had, culminating in an assist on the final game seven overtime winner by another would-be underperformer, Joel Ward, to give the franchise its first-ever victory over reigning champions and take them into the second round against the top-seeded New York Rangers. They too the Caps were able to give a run for their money, dragging them through a hard-played seven games.
17. All the Right Moves - OneRepublic
But while they didn’t choke, other old demons rose to the surface for the Caps, from the franchise’s historic inability to win when overtime goes on too long, to difficulty holding onto a lead when they lost a game five they’d been six seconds away from winning, a symptom of taking too many penalties as well. Then the Rangers proved a little too good in game seven when the Caps didn’t quite bring their best game, and when towards the end they needed to score on the power play the most they failed to deliver at all, resulting in the season ended once again with an all too familiar early-round exit.
18. Young Blood - The Naked and Famous
A year’s hardship, heartbreak, and Hunter hockey had delivering something previous seasons hadn’t: a sense of toughness, a willingness of the players to sacrifice and subsume ego and fight back, a belief that this was a team that could display the grind as well as the talent needed to win the Stanley Cup. But on the day of locker cleanout, Hunter announced he was not coming back, preferring to return to London permanently, and three players are already confirmed as gone, including Vokoun and most painfully Knuble, while Semin is all but. And when the looming CBA negotiations leave it possible there might not even be a season next year, what is simultaneously the most hopeful and most disappointing end to a Washington Capitals season leaves the team’s future shrouded in uncertainty.
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Fandom: Hockey
Subject: Washington Capitals 2011-2012 Season
Title: Your Hard Times Are Ahead
Notes: Few sports teams put the world through the wringer as the Washington Capitals do, subjecting us year after year of raised expectations, ridiculous potential, some success, and then an inevitable crash. But this season was crazier than usual, as the life or death struggle that is usually reserved only for the playoffs started as early as November. And though it ended as it usually does, it did so with the team clearly changed for the better from what had gone before, to the point that they deserve a tribute. So here's one in music, navigating the emotional ups and downs of one of the most turbulent seasons yet.
1. Beautiful Day - U2
The Washington Capitals came into the 2011-2012 season off a huge disappointment in the playoffs of the previous year, having abandoned their game in the second round and crashed out in straights, but any damage that did to the high expectations was reversed by the amount of talent general manager George McPhee had signed in free agency. The clock was ticking, too; it already known that free agency after the season might cost the Caps more than one of the “young guns” as that formed their core and were getting older, and another playoff meltdown would demand change.
2. Noone But You - Queen
In September, as the players arrived in DC in anticipation of the pre-season, the hockey world, already shaken by the deaths of three enforcers over the summer, was devastated by the loss of the entire KHL team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in a plane crash. The Caps were particularly affected, with three Russian players signed, including Captain Alex Ovechkin, and newly signed goalie Tomas Vokoun losing his best friend. The beginning of the season would even see they and longtime rivals Pittsburgh Penguins put their feud aside long enough to raise money together for the widows and children of the players.
3. Fury of the Storm - Dragonforce
The Caps charged out the gate, winning their first eight games and rising to the top of the league. The wins ranged from harder ones, like their opener against the Carolina Hurricanes, won in overtime, to scarily good performances, such as their demolition of the Detroit Red Wings later in the month, who before that meeting had been the league’s only other undefeated team from the beginning of the season. They were quickly labeled as favorites for the year, the struggles of the last year assumed to be put behind them.
4. I Go to Extremes - Billy Joel
Yet even during their opening streak, flaws were apparent, as the players themselves acknowledged. The Caps defense, a weak point they had spent much of the previous season trying to fix, was having trouble, and while of their top two stars, both whom had struggled the previous year, Nicolas Backstrom was showing signs of bouncing back, Ovechkin proved to be continuing the slump he had been in since the 2010 Olympics, and then would-be top defenseman Mike Green got injured yet again. The best player was proving to be Jason Chimera, not a role he was supposed to play. October ended with two losses, one of them ugly, bringing the winning streak to a screeching halt.
5. Bad Day - Daniel Powter
After the end of the streak the Caps started to struggle, their defense still troubled and their ability to even shoot the puck towards the goal dropped alarmingly low, naturally losing more games than they won, dispelling quickly the glow of October. Troubles from last year showed themselves by no means gone; their power play was failing once again, while the infamous Alexander Semin took too many penalties. As November dragged on, they turned listless and struggled to play as a team, and both goalies showed consistency issues as well. By the time they were massacred by the Toronto Maple Leafs the week before Thanksgiving, serious questions were being asked about the future of the team.
6. Hide and Seek - Imogen Heap
One question hanging over the team from the beginning of the season had been accountability, & whether coach Bruce Boudreau had been too indulgent to them in the past. He tried not to be for the new season, even sitting Ovechkin for the overtime during the first game of the month. Cameras captured the captain’s angry reaction, and though both deny fallout from that particular incident, when Boudreau started driving the players harder, it didn’t seem to get them to play any better. Rumors were abuzz he had lost the dressing room. It seemed the team was not willing to listen to admonishments from a man they knew too well.
7. Waiting for the End - Linkin Park
Two more landslide losses after Thanksgiving later, Boudreau all but admitted he was not the man who could drive the team back into shape. Almost four years to the day after hiring him, McPhee fired the man who had coached the Caps out of the NHL’s basement. But the question lingered whether he was the man who really ought to go, or merely the one the organization was able to get rid of, or whether a new coach would be too late to cure what was ailing the team. By now the Caps had lost the lead they had built up in October and were facing the prospect of entering December out of a playoff position, and when mid-season coaching changes are never certain to work.
8. Start the Machine - Angels & Airwaves
McPhee did have one advantage in doing a mid-season coaching change, in that he didn’t have to actually spend time looking for a new one. The prospective replacement coach had been identified even before the firing, in the form of Dale Hunter. A former Capitals on-ice star with a reputation for playing dirty during his own career, Hunter was seen as someone who could toughen a team up, but had no experience at the NHL level, having been devoted to the London Knights he’d been coaching for years. A much-loved figure in DC, it was said the Capitals were the only team he would be willing to leave the Knights for, older fans were ready to sing his praises as soon as they could, and everyone was willing to give him at least a brief chance.
9. Let Go - Boys Like Girls
The previous season had already seen the Caps abandon their high-scoring style for a more defensive style of play, but Hunter’s system of hockey, dubbed Hunter hockey, went further, combing defense with hard physical play, a good thing, since defense-first was needed for the playoffs. But doubt lingered as to whether the team could adapt, its stars especially. It was risky in some ways, especially since the team was still slow to score goals, which Hunter’s system did not encourage. On the other hand, the blue collar guys, such as Matt Hendricks & Jay Beagle(once he came back from injury), would eventually find themselves having banner years; Hunter’s coaching favored the grinders over the talent. Big change in the results was hardly expected immediately, but at least the downward spiral did not immediately continue.
10. Butterflies & Hurricanes - Muse
Still, as 2011 gave way to 2012, the Caps were still losing more games than they were winning, and spending as much time out of the top eight as in; the race was close, and whether there would be a post-season was officially in question. It was to the point that even overtime losses were relieving, simply for the single points, and the Southeast Division title went from unimportant to suddenly a possibly needed guarantee of making the playoffs. Matters were not helped when January started with a concussion to Backstrom, leaving him out indefinitely. Brooks Laich was left the top center standing; though he gave his all in multiple positions he wasn’t built for, the results weren’t entirely what the team needed. Vital things were slow to change; neither Vokoun nor younger goalie Michal Neuvirth were entirely consistent, the defensemen and power play and goal-scoring in general were still struggling, there was especially trouble winning on the road, and while Ovechkin was scoring a couple more goals, he still wasn’t really returning to form.
11. Original Skin - Katy Rose
He did seem to be responding to Hunter, though, trying to do things differently than he had in way he’d never tried to before, as was the rest of the team, learning how to play hard and physical. But puck possession was low, shots were low, and at times even the Caps’ motivation had to be called into question; they didn’t always even put in the effort; the tendency to sometimes lose ugly started to creep back in. Other old habits caused trouble; a bad hit from Ovechkin saw him suspended for three games just before the All-Star Break; the only player to make it to that was the unlikely Dennis Wideman, who would then start slumping, which meant just about all the defensemen were getting infamous except young Dmitri Orlov, who was often being sat. The return of Mike Green brought no relief; the best of the “young guns” was starting to look like the less than consistent Semin, who was peaking for the year.
12. Decode - Paramore
By the time the trade deadline approached, Hunter had been coach for longer enough that the Caps no longer had the excuse of having to adapt to him, and the pile-up of losses was turning the picture grim. After playing what was generally agreed to be their worst game of the season yet and getting blown out by the Carolina Hurricanes, who were in terrible shape themselves, the world was ready to give up all together on the Caps; calls were made for McPhee to blow up the team immediately. It was hard to remember anymore when the team had been a great one. That they were still in the playoff race, mostly because everyone else in the Southeast division were playing badly too, gave little comfort when their chances of making it past the first round seemed non-existent.
13. Right Behind You - Our Lady Peace
But in it they were, and the trade deadline surprisingly came and went with no transactions at all, not even the trading of players who had been continually scratched under Hunter, such as the much-loved but undeniably slumping Mike Knuble; McPhee had been apparently calling everyone but failed to receive any offers he found worth it. He insisted once they had Backstrom back they could make the playoffs, and the fight it would take would make them stronger when they got there, and others echoed it, most notably Laich, who had been happy to criticize his teammates when they’d deserved it. They began to win a few more games, especially ones against weaker teams that had turned into “must wins.”
14. Dare You to Move - Switchfoot
One by one teams that threatened to make the playoffs at the Caps’ expense dropped a little bit behind, then a little more, then again, though some surged back forward, only to again fall behind. By the last week, with Backstrom returned, the last spot was thought to be between the Caps and the Buffalo Sabres(who had just beat them in yet another bad game which still left neither team at all put away). But then with Vokoun already out with a groin injury another injury laid low Neuvirth; the Caps would have to go into the playoffs relying on Braden Holtby, who had spent most of the past few years in the AHL, been unpredictable in his earlier call-ups, and had had struggles of his own that past year. Like with the Caps themselves, it was known he could be better, but not if he would be.
15. We Weren’t Born to Follow - Bon Jovi
But then, as regular season gave way to playoffs, the Caps suddenly clicked, letting go of egos to connect with each other and with Hunter’s system at last, of the multiple struggling defensemen one at least stepped up in the form of John Carlson, and it all came together. When Holtby then rose the occasion magnificently, becoming one of the post-season’s stars, they made the playoffs without the division title but as the 7th seed, and reigning champions Boston Bruins found they had more to deal with than they’d bargained for. Not that it was at all easy; on the contrary, the defensive block the shots with the body if necessary Hunter hockey, was one that could make a series a line of coin flips. They lost the first game, and though they won the second, they promptly lost the third. But they followed up a fourth game win with a vital fifth one.
16. Date With the Night - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The opening of the playoffs was marked by dirty play across the league, and the Bruins and Caps were no exception(it was a good thing if the Caps power play wasn’t brilliant their penalty kill was); before things had calmed Backstrom even followed a game three overtime winner with a post-game four suspension. But even that might have worked in his team’s favor by getting Knuble back into the lineup, who as well as being a good presence in the locker room played better than he had, culminating in an assist on the final game seven overtime winner by another would-be underperformer, Joel Ward, to give the franchise its first-ever victory over reigning champions and take them into the second round against the top-seeded New York Rangers. They too the Caps were able to give a run for their money, dragging them through a hard-played seven games.
17. All the Right Moves - OneRepublic
But while they didn’t choke, other old demons rose to the surface for the Caps, from the franchise’s historic inability to win when overtime goes on too long, to difficulty holding onto a lead when they lost a game five they’d been six seconds away from winning, a symptom of taking too many penalties as well. Then the Rangers proved a little too good in game seven when the Caps didn’t quite bring their best game, and when towards the end they needed to score on the power play the most they failed to deliver at all, resulting in the season ended once again with an all too familiar early-round exit.
18. Young Blood - The Naked and Famous
A year’s hardship, heartbreak, and Hunter hockey had delivering something previous seasons hadn’t: a sense of toughness, a willingness of the players to sacrifice and subsume ego and fight back, a belief that this was a team that could display the grind as well as the talent needed to win the Stanley Cup. But on the day of locker cleanout, Hunter announced he was not coming back, preferring to return to London permanently, and three players are already confirmed as gone, including Vokoun and most painfully Knuble, while Semin is all but. And when the looming CBA negotiations leave it possible there might not even be a season next year, what is simultaneously the most hopeful and most disappointing end to a Washington Capitals season leaves the team’s future shrouded in uncertainty.
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