1rw

[Bananas]

I still think Ovie-Kuz-Oshie, Bura/Mojo-Backstrom-Williams is our best bet. Separates the kids and leaves Ovie with two playmakers and Backstrom with two finishers as long as Bura wins out over MoJo...

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

I don't see the correlation. Pounding the Islanders D, you could say won that series. At a minimum dramatically altered the outcome.

Braden Holtby won that series.

Given how depleted and terrible the Isles D was from the start the lack of production is just an additional indictment against that horrible "strategy".

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Braden Holtby won that series.

Given how depleted and terrible the Isles D was from the start the lack of production is just an additional indictment against that horrible "strategy".

If you're naive enough to think that's the ONLY strategy, I guess you could cry horrible. Clearly it was part of the plan, and payed off late in the series.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I still think Ovie-Kuz-Oshie, Bura/Mojo-Backstrom-Williams is our best bet. Separates the kids and leaves Ovie with two playmakers and Backstrom with two finishers as long as Bura wins out over MoJo...

This is how I see it unfolding. Bura over Mojo the big question IMO.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

If you're naive enough to think that's the ONLY strategy, I guess you could cry horrible. Clearly it was part of the plan, and payed off late in the series.

Clearly the plan to pound them into submission led to the offensive explosion of 3 goals in the last 2 games of the series. Paid off late in the series indeed.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

So back to the 1rw....

 

[ChibiPooky]

I voted Oshie, but I expect to see both Oshie and Williams there over the first twenty games. After that depends on how they play together. My gut is that Oshie is a slightly better fit, but we'll see how it plays out.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Setting yourself up for a TON of disappointment aren't you?

Would be awesome, but i wouldn't bet on it. If this guy doesn't perform, this board will be a mess.

Even if he doesn't score a ton in the regular season, I don't give a damn. I just hope he can make a difference in the playoffs. Track record isn't on his side, but he isn't in St.Louis anymore. He had a lot of pressure there because he received a lot of attention before Tarasenko and Steen broke out.

With the Caps, all eyes are set on Ovi and Nick, which will allow him to fly under the radar.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

He won't be flying under anyone's radar. The pressure to play better in the postseason mounts every season he doesn't.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

He won't be flying under anyone's radar. The pressure to play better in the postseason mounts every season he doesn't.

I meant that he won't get a lot of attention from the opposing D, they'll be too busy trying to stop #8.

 

[txpd]

Even if he doesn't score a ton in the regular season, I don't give a damn. I just hope he can make a difference in the playoffs. Track record isn't on his side, but he isn't in St.Louis anymore. He had a lot of pressure there because he received a lot of attention before Tarasenko and Steen broke out.

With the Caps, all eyes are set on Ovi and Nick, which will allow him to fly under the radar.

hoping for a player with a history of playoff failure to suddenly breakout coming from a team with a history of playoff failure to a new team with a worse history of playoff failure. I think we should hope for a big regular season first that sets the caps up for a good place to start in the playoffs. Hanging your hopes on Oshie in the playoffs is like Blues fans hanging their playoff hopes on Brouwer.

 

[g00n]

hoping for a player with a history of playoff failure to suddenly breakout coming from a team with a history of playoff failure to a new team with a worse history of playoff failure. I think we should hope for a big regular season first that sets the caps up for a good place to start in the playoffs. Hanging your hopes on Oshie in the playoffs is like Blues fans hanging their playoff hopes on Brouwer.

Except Oshie has 30 career playoff games and Brouwer has more than twice that at 78. Oshie was clearly not good stat-wise his first two playoff appearances, the first being 6 years ago and the second coming with a 2 year gap (he would have been 22 or 23). The next two playoffs Oshie had a significantly higher shooting percentage than what he logged in the regular season and higher than his career average. It was only last year that his shooting % dropped, but he still managed a goal and an assist in 6 games.

Brouwer had one good postseason 5 years ago. Every year since then has been as bad as Oshie last season.

Oshie has had more success, and more recent success.

edit: also, the poster said " I just hope he can make a difference in the playoffs". Joel Ward only had 5 goals in 35 playoff games as a Cap, but he certainly made a difference with his play and WHEN he scored.

 

[strungout]

Im surprised the poll is this close.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Except Oshie has 30 career playoff games and Brouwer has more than twice that at 78. Oshie was clearly not good stat-wise his first two playoff appearances, the first being 6 years ago and the second coming with a 2 year gap (he would have been 22 or 23). The next two playoffs Oshie had a significantly higher shooting percentage than what he logged in the regular season and higher than his career average. It was only last year that his shooting % dropped, but he still managed a goal and an assist in 6 games.

Brouwer had one good postseason 5 years ago. Every year since then has been as bad as Oshie last season.

Oshie has had more success, and more recent success.

edit: also, the poster said " I just hope he can make a difference in the playoffs". Joel Ward only had 5 goals in 35 playoff games as a Cap, but he certainly made a difference with his play and WHEN he scored.

Thank you g00n

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Im surprised the poll is this close.

I refuse to vote until Johansson is added to the poll.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Except Oshie has 30 career playoff games and Brouwer has more than twice that at 78. Oshie was clearly not good stat-wise his first two playoff appearances, the first being 6 years ago and the second coming with a 2 year gap (he would have been 22 or 23). The next two playoffs Oshie had a significantly higher shooting percentage than what he logged in the regular season and higher than his career average. It was only last year that his shooting % dropped, but he still managed a goal and an assist in 6 games.

Brouwer had one good postseason 5 years ago. Every year since then has been as bad as Oshie last season.

Oshie has had more success, and more recent success.

edit: also, the poster said " I just hope he can make a difference in the playoffs". Joel Ward only had 5 goals in 35 playoff games as a Cap, but he certainly made a difference with his play and WHEN he scored.

I'm honestly having hard time deciding which guy's history is more favorable...I see their recent history very even, aside from the fact that one guy's team is at least advancing a little. Brouwer's 3g, 9pts, -5 last 3 years postseason to Oshie's 6g, 6pts, -10.

Brouwer, a middling cog on Caps teams that simply win on average a series more the postseason (than the Blues), or Oshie, one of the main offensive weapons for a terribly underachieving team in the postseason...that has won NOTHING.

Are you simply talking about personal stats? Isn't the goal TEAM SUCCESS? I see absolutely ZERO postseason "success" on Oshie's resume. If you meant "production that didn't translate to his team advancing", I would agree that's some limited personal success.

Neither guy gives me the warm and fuzzies today as a critical postseason contributor that's for sure. Hope we see Oshie tear it up in the regular season to give us at least the hope of a real chance at advancing in May/June.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

I'm honestly having hard time deciding which guy's history is more favorable...I see their recent history very even, aside from the fact that one guy's team is at least advancing a little. Brouwer's 3g, 9pts, -5 last 3 years postseason to Oshie's 6g, 6pts, -10.

Brouwer, a middling cog on Caps teams that simply win on average a series more the postseason (than the Blues), or Oshie, one of the main offensive weapons for a terribly underachieving team in the postseason...that has won NOTHING.

Are you simply talking about personal stats? Isn't the goal TEAM SUCCESS? I see absolutely ZERO postseason "success" on Oshie's resume. If you meant "production that didn't translate to his team advancing", I would agree that's some limited personal success.

Neither guy gives me the warm and fuzzies today as a critical postseason contributor that's for sure. Hope we see Oshie tear it up in the regular season to give us at least the hope of a real chance at advancing in May/June.

That's the whole point of the Oshie/Brouwer trade. Both teams hope that a change of scenery will help them get back on track in the playoffs.

I have less hope for Brouwer than for TJ. Even on a stacked team like the Hawks, he still had a mediocre performance.

 

[g00n]

I'm honestly having hard time deciding which guy's history is more favorable...I see their recent history very even, aside from the fact that one guy's team is at least advancing a little. Brouwer's 3g, 9pts, -5 last 3 years postseason to Oshie's 6g, 6pts, -10.

Brouwer, a middling cog on Caps teams that simply win on average a series more the postseason (than the Blues), or Oshie, one of the main offensive weapons for a terribly underachieving team in the postseason...that has won NOTHING.

Are you simply talking about personal stats? Isn't the goal TEAM SUCCESS? I see absolutely ZERO postseason "success" on Oshie's resume. If you meant "production that didn't translate to his team advancing", I would agree that's some limited personal success.

Neither guy gives me the warm and fuzzies today as a critical postseason contributor that's for sure. Hope we see Oshie tear it up in the regular season to give us at least the hope of a real chance at advancing in May/June.

I don't see how we can hang the entire Blues (or Caps) organization's failures (or success) on one player. If team advancement is the criteria for judging individuals then everyone on both teams would suck, so that's kind of pointless when talking about which player might help those teams more.

Oshie's Blues did get past the first round at least once, iirc.

 

[Langway]

I'd like to see how the Caps would fare in the Central. (Hint: probably not well.) There are lots of factors at play when it comes to team success. I don't think St. Louis goes anywhere until they have a legit goaltender. Maybe Copley can be that guy in time, who knows. The Caps faced the Islanders last year when they were one of the weaker playoff teams and just barely got through them. They then blew another 3-1 series lead. There's a reason why the Caps have changed things up at forward. The amount of real success this team has had is over the past four years is fairly slight. It's refreshing that they didn't go to the same well once again and just rely on Bura/Kuz making bigger impacts.

But will they make tactical adjustments to more closely resemble a powerhouse or will they just keep on with the gentlemanly grinding mediocrity with more skilled players involved? They have the top six talent to be a hard team to match up against for once but will the coaching staff put them in position to better utilize it?

There's no question that Oshie has the skill level to contribute more in the playoffs compared to Brouwer but if you're looking for clutch playoff ability it's really Williams and the second line as harder to handle overall (provided it's eventually a complete Bura over Johansson).

 

[g00n]

I'd like to see how the Caps would fare in the Central. (Hint: probably not well.) There are lots of factors at play when it comes to team success. I don't think St. Louis goes anywhere until they have a legit goaltender. Maybe Copley can be that guy in time, who knows. The Caps faced the Islanders last year when they were one of the weaker playoff teams and just barely got through them. They then blew another 3-1 series lead. There's a reason why the Caps have changed things up at forward. The amount of real success this team has had is over the past four years is fairly slight. It's refreshing that they didn't go to the same well once again and just rely on Bura/Kuz making bigger impacts.

But will they make tactical adjustments to more closely resemble a powerhouse or will they just keep on with the gentlemanly grinding mediocrity with more skilled players involved? They have the top six talent to be a hard team to match up against for once but will the coaching staff put them in position to better utilize it?

There's no question that Oshie has the skill level to contribute more in the playoffs compared to Brouwer but if you're looking for clutch playoff ability it's really Williams and the second line as harder to handle overall (provided it's eventually a complete Bura over Johansson).

Well look at what BT did at 1RW last season. It was a carousel all year and then Ward was the guy for the playoffs. We might see Oshie and others up there all year and then Williams pulling a Ward by the postseason.

How does that play out? Better than what we saw with Ward in the playoffs?

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Well look at what BT did at 1RW last season. It was a carousel all year and then Ward was the guy for the playoffs. We might see Oshie and others up there all year and then Williams pulling a Ward by the postseason.

How does that play out? Better than what we saw with Ward in the playoffs?

My gut tells me that was more necessity than anything else (options were Ward, Brouwer, Johansson and Wilson). Barf.

But at the same time, I wouldn't be surprised to see lineup shifts in April.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I don't see how we can hang the entire Blues (or Caps) organization's failures (or success) on one player. If team advancement is the criteria for judging individuals then everyone on both teams would suck, so that's kind of pointless when talking about which player might help those teams more.

Oshie's Blues did get past the first round at least once, iirc.

Is stating the truth, that he's "one of their main offensive weapons", hanging the entire Blues failures on him? I thought it was simply being honest and pointing out the roles vs expectations for Oshie vs Brouwer, since you seem to focusing on how horrible Brouwer was while finding a way to polish the postseason turd that is Oshie's resume. I'm just being honest and saying they're both horrible to date, but Oshie was one of the big guns for St Louis. His level of failure is worse IMO given his role on those Blues teams, not better as you would have us believe.

You're right though, they did advance in 2012, Oshie with 3a and -2 in 9 games, I missed it among the sea of 1 digit stats.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

That's the whole point of the Oshie/Brouwer trade. Both teams hope that a change of scenery will help them get back on track in the playoffs.

I have less hope for Brouwer than for TJ. Even on a stacked team like the Hawks, he still had a mediocre performance.

I think we all feel that way no? Brower was simply a mediocre player in a mediocre role for that Chicago team. Oshie has also been on a fairly stacked Blues team too right? The expectation levels seem off.

 

[PB12]

Besides Steen's 30 goal season 2 seasons ago I don't think Oshie has had that true scoring threat. Both Steen and Backes score in about the 25 range, so there really isn't that threat who you have to double team like OV.

 

[g00n]

Is stating the truth, that he's "one of their main offensive weapons", hanging the entire Blues failures on him?

That wasn't a point of contention. You asked about team success in judging these two players as individuals. That's certainly putting a team's failure on a player for the purpose of individual assessment.