When the Capitals acquired goaltender Tomas Vokoun in the offseason via unrestricted free agency, the Caps instantly became my favorites to walk away with the 1st overall seed in the East and finally make a significant playoff push. Not to mention, after seeing the absurdly discounted price at which Washington was able to sign him for, it looked like both parties (especially Vokoun) were dedicated to one thing: winning. It seemed as if the Ovechkin-era Capitals’ goaltending woes were finally in the past… or so I thought.
Washington may be 8-2-0 and be boasting the highest winning percentage in the league coming into November, but some red flags have already gone up in our nation’s capital, particularly between the pipes. Can somebody please tell me what in the world Tomas Vokoun is trying to do here???
Hey, Gilles Meloche called. He wants his goaltending style back.
Actually, at least Gilles looked like he was giving some kind of effort or like he knew what he was doing when he’d shuffle side to side to make saves like that.
Vokoun may have seven wins right now, and it will come to no surprise to anyone if he amasses many more during the course of the year, but the fact of the matter is, stats lie. The tape doesn’t. The playoffs are a time where teams thrive on capitalizing on the mistakes of their opponents, and Washington, a team with a reputation for porous defense in the playoffs, can’t afford to have their players’ mistakes and then the mistakes of their goalie be taken advantage of, too. They need Vokoun to be the guy between the pipes to bail them out if he has to.
It doesn’t matter is the Caps locked-up Vokoun for a discounted price or not, if he continues to play like he is right now, you can expect another glorious regular season accompanied by postseason disappointment this year from the Washington Capitals.
I really wish I could have found the video of another play from yesterday night with Selanne, too. It was Vokoun's worst effort yet (looked like Selanne's goal vid from above,) and he's lucky the Finnish Flash missed the net. Seriously though, what is he trying to do there?
