Speculation: Caps Hockey General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines etc) -- 2017-18 Regular Season Edition

[Alexander the Gr8]

He’s saying Trotz has suggested that. Maybe I missed the quote or sound bite. The expectation should be “make the playoffs”. Now if they end up being completely decimated by injuries all season, then the idea makes sense. They’re not far off of that sadly.

It sounds like a lame excuse prepared in case they don't make it. I get that we're dealing with injuries to key players at the moment, but the season began just 3 weeks ago. There's a lot of time left to turn it around. We're just 2 points outside of a playoff spot.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

It sounds like a lame excuse prepared in case they don't make it. I get that we're dealing with injuries to key players at the moment, but the season began just 3 weeks ago. There's a lot of time left to turn it around. We're just 2 points outside of a playoff spot.

I’m waiting to see the quote or video. I doubt Trotz is saying waive the white flag. Dude is coaching for an extension or his next gig. The former likely only comes with a playoff qualification.

 

[Langway]

He’s saying Trotz has suggested that. Maybe I missed the quote or sound bite. The expectation should be “make the playoffs”. Now if they end up being completely decimated by injuries all season, then the idea makes sense. They’re not far off of that sadly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...a2cf50-b5ee-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html

“The word ‘process’ is used by every coach,” Trotz said. “But there is a little bit of a learning curve [of] learning how to win. We’ve done a lot of winning here, so it gets a little frustrating. The last three years, we’ve strung a lot of games together and didn’t lose too many in a row. I think it was Year 1 where we were probably sitting where we are right now after eight or nine games, and then that hasn’t been the case for a couple years.

“So it’s a little bit of a learning curve for everyone — myself, the coaching staff, management, our fans. . . . We’ve got a lot of change in our group, and we still haven’t quite got our identity. We’re working on it, but it’s still a process. It is a little frustrating at times.”

Has the bulk of the team forgotten how to win? It seems a bit simplistic and the inclusion of fans there was just odd IMO. Maybe he's not outright resetting expectations but clearly there's a challenge regardless of injuries that they've struggled to adapt to. Had they been a bit more honest with fans about this rather than justifying their off-season moves and be a little more patient themselves re: the process then I think fans would rightfully have more faith in them. As-is becoming frustrated is counter-productive and a sign that they maybe they're a bit greedy for wins they don't easily have a right to these days.

 

[amjay13]

6-8 weeks for Bura. Efffffffffff

 

[ovikovy817]

Whaaaaaaaaaaat????
*********************************************
Will go and watch the replay to see what happened

He missed almost 20 games last year, could be even more this year.

 

[txpd]

Whaaaaaaaaaaat????
*********************************************
Will go and watch the replay to see what happened

He missed almost 20 games last year, could be even more this year.

He broke his hand last season. Very likely this is the same hand. Funny this new zero tolerance for slashing the hands is working great for the Caps

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

He broke his hand last season. Very likely this is the same hand. Funny this new zero tolerance for slashing the hands is working great for the Caps

I hate to contradict the great TXMD, but he broke his right hand last year, and now he broke his left thumb.

 

[twabby]

It's time to see what Wilson, Connolly, and Vrana can do in the top 6.

 

[txpd]

I hate to contradict the great TXMD, but he broke his right hand last year, and now he broke his left thumb.

That's even better. He now has broken bones in both hands. I was hoping this was just a repeat of the same damage. This is worse. Oh well

 

[Skrudland2Lomakin]

The sadist in me actually likes this because now Barry can't be lazy predictable Barry and we actually are going to see more players get cracks at top 6 minutes. No part of me thinks we're actually missing the playoffs, but I absolutely think we get bounced early if we don't figure out how to make three scoring lines. (Defense is a whole other basket).

Tangentially related I listened to RMNB's new podcast recently and I don't know if the guys were tired or they just do better when they're able to formulate their ideas in writing, but woof. I love 99% of the articles RMNB writes, but Christ it sounded like the guys didn't know what the hell they were going on about. Calling John Druce John Drune, not remembering Brayden Schenn and referring to him as that guy Wilson likes to fight, the fact that one of the guys couldn't even remember that Chris Clark was the captain before Ovechkin. Yeeeeesh, I hope they just had an off night.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

The sadist in me actually likes this because now Barry can't be lazy predictable Barry and we actually are going to see more players get cracks at top 6 minutes. No part of me thinks we're actually missing the playoffs, but I absolutely think we get bounced early if we don't figure out how to make three scoring lines. (Defense is a whole other basket).

Tangentially related I listened to RMNB's new podcast recently and I don't know if the guys were tired or they just do better when they're able to formulate their ideas in writing, but woof. I love 99% of the articles RMNB writes, but Christ it sounded like the guys didn't know what the hell they were going on about. Calling John Druce John Drune, not remembering Brayden Schenn and referring to him as that guy Wilson likes to fight, the fact that one of the guys couldn't even remember that Chris Clark was the captain before Ovechkin. Yeeeeesh, I hope they just had an off night.

RMNB is a fan blog. They're not experts, they make very little money with their website and merchandise. Aside from the fact that they spend hours researching stuff on the team, they're just fans like you and me with press credentials.

Take what they say and write with a grain of salt.

 

[RaindanceMaggie]

Shame to see Bura miss signficant time but his play thus far has been shockingly average at best. Might not be as big of a loss as first thought.

 

[ovikovy817]

Shame to see Bura miss signficant time but his play thus far has been shockingly average at best. Might not be as big of a loss as first thought.

It's a big loss. We're not as deep as last year. We need everyone healthy. Bura is a streaky player
and you never know when he can become hot. Could also have score 15pts-20pts during those 6-8 weeks.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Good thing we have a stocked pipeline of young talent and depth to overcome all of these injuries.

 

[twabby]

Shame to see Bura miss signficant time but his play thus far has been shockingly average at best. Might not be as big of a loss as first thought.

Burakovsky's been a streaky scorer but he's always been a good possession player and for a team struggling to put up solid possession numbers so far they are going to be impacted.

 

[ovikovy817]

8.75M$ on LTIR.

 

[ovikovy817]

I can't determine if Bura was injured by Huberdeau, McCoshen or Carlson's shot.

 

[hockeykicker]

13. It was reported a couple of weeks ago that Laurene Powell Jobs (widow of Steve Jobs) bought a 20–22 per cent chunk in Monumental Sports and Entertainment, owner of the
Washington Capitals Word is the NHL team was valuated at around $900 million (USD) in this sale. That organization’s come a long way.

 

[Skrudland2Lomakin]

RMNB is a fan blog. They're not experts, they make very little money with their website and merchandise. Aside from the fact that they spend hours researching stuff on the team, they're just fans like you and me with press credentials.

Take what they say and write with a grain of salt.

I get that, but I don't get paid either and I know it's John Druce, Brayden Schenn, and Chris Clark. I don't think any of those are crazy deep knowledge pulls and I think from what I've seen of RMNB they would agree being a fan site doesn't give them a pass at being incorrect. I think the fan site angle works if you're asking why there isn't more content or deeper content, when asking why the content produced has errors it falls apart especially if the claim is "we love this club, we spend hours researching it, we've always loved it." This all coming from someone with several of their shirts and mugs. I hold RMNB in high regard, if I didn't that podcast wouldn't have seemed so jarring.

 

[Raikkonen]

So, Leonsis will trade Ovechkin only after 2025. Maybe.

That's why I'm talking about Backstrom and Holtby!

OK, seriously, I don't believe they will trade Carlson, but I think they're no contender this year anyway. I'd try to do everything to position themselves to be contender next year. That could be another quasi-half-part-of-a-chance.

Namely: trade everyone who isn't envisioned to be playoff performer @ April 2019. Eller, Orpik, maybe Beagle. Get assets back. Bank cap space to the deadline'19. And then go all in and trade for Mojo (obviously).

 

[hockeykicker]

with guys on ltir etc. do they have cap space to make a trade if they wanted to?

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

I can't determine if Bura was injured by Huberdeau, McCoshen or Carlson's shot.

Whoever slashed him behind the net. I think it was McCoshen.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

I get that, but I don't get paid either and I know it's John Druce, Brayden Schenn, and Chris Clark. I don't think any of those are crazy deep knowledge pulls and I think from what I've seen of RMNB they would agree being a fan site doesn't give them a pass at being incorrect. I think the fan site angle works if you're asking why there isn't more content or deeper content, when asking why the content produced has errors it falls apart especially if the claim is "we love this club, we spend hours researching it, we've always loved it." This all coming from someone with several of their shirts and mugs. I hold RMNB in high regard, if I didn't that podcast wouldn't have seemed so jarring.

Then they just had a bad day, or they were tired. It happens. They're still a credible source of information on everything Caps related, even if I don't always agree with their assessment of certain players.

 

[Hivemind]

with guys on ltir etc. do they have cap space to make a trade if they wanted to?

They currently have $4.2M of LTIR exemption space to play with until Niskanen comes back.

Plus the option to make a salary neutral trade is always there.

 

[Corby78]

Good thing we have a stocked pipeline of young talent and depth to overcome all of these injuries.

Little unfair considering where this team was the last couple years. If we had done what you said, people would have gone nuts for wasting our best possible teams.