It's over, now let's fix it. Keyboard GMs unite.

[tycoonheart]

- We need at least two solid veterans, a Federov or an Arnott. Someone who knows what it takes to win in the playoffs. Someone who can guide our group of flunkies and can also show up when needed the most.

- This series showed you why we miss Semin. He would've been good for a few goals, especially against Henrik. And he would've thrived in this system, dude was always a good two way player. We need a scorer. If Kuz won't come, trade his rights for someone who can come and make an immediate impact.

- Goalie: I wasn't impressed with Holtby in this series at all. I think for the most part the guys in front of him played well. He gave up way too many easy goals. At the very least, get a veteran behind him instead of Noovy. Someone you can feel comfortable switching for in the playoffs.

 

[txpd]

* @click here: I am not an apoligist. I am a realist. Ward was brought in for playoff play from the middle of the lineup. In two playoffs he has delivered from both the bottom and middle of the lineup. The problem is not him.

* @roenick: You can fire McPhee or ask him to resign or hope that he resigns and be joyful for it. What that might fix is your individual desire for a change of direction for the team. That won't really fix that Ovechkin is tagged a loser and that goes for 19 and 52 and 21 too. 74 and 27 have been thru enough that they are getting painted with that brush. Holtby is a rookie but now has 2 game 7 defeats on his plate with this last one destroyed by two goals from aaron freaking asham. the goal last night was what killed them after what those team leaders have been thru to see a soft goal like that go in crippled them.

@ccf: Its sunny here in NC. If I told you the sky is blue, would you push back on that? Your specific comment(cheap shot) is not accurate. Not close. Are you by chance saying that there is no cummulative effect of these annual playoff embarrassments on these top players??

 

[Lefty9420]

My perspective is that the Caps are going through what alot of teams go through. Horrible for so many years that you pile up lottery picks. Those picks enter the pro system at once and dominate at lower level (i.e. Bears under Bruce), those players then move up. They start coming off entry level deals and decisions have to be made about who to keep and who to let walk. Problem is you don't have as many NHL ready prospects as before, because now your drafting late in the 1st rd instead of early.

I see this playing out in Hershey. In the late 90's the Bears under the Avs were stacked, then the Avs started winning and trading away everyone with value and they were beyond brutal. Caps came in and brought an NHL roster worth of prospects. Under those early years with the affiliation guys like Carlson, Varly, Neuvy, Alzner, Holtby, Bourqe, Schultz, Perrault, Green, Fehr, Laich, Wilson all came through Hershey and had tons of success winning multiple cups, prior to moving up to the Caps.

Today I don't see anyone like that at least not enough guys in Hershey that will have anywhere near the impact the guys above did. The last few years Hershey has been mostly career AHL'rs like Boyd Kane, Joel Rechlitz, some longer term possible prospects and maybe 1 or 2 who could be NHL ready. At this point they are going to have to retool using FA, which isn't great this year, trades or tear down and stockpile picks/prospects.

It starts with goaltending. I see two scenarios playing out. Holtby and Neuvy are the guys this year and Grubauer gets 1 full season in Hershey as the "guy". After next year either Holby or Neuvy are gone and Grubauer comes up. OR this offseason they move one of them, probably Neuvy to a team that needs a goalie and Grubauer backs up and slowly transitions into the guy.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Nothing will be fixed as long as George McPhee is making the hockey decisions. 15 years of failure....


If the team's core needs to be remade does anyone trust George McPhee to do a competent job?

 

[tmljeh19*]

Nothing will be fixed as long as George McPhee is making the hockey decisions. 15 years of failure....


If the team's core needs to be remade does anyone trust George McPhee to do a competent job?

After the Erat trade any tiny inkling of faith in him is gone. It was painfully obvious that he was banking on Kuz coming over this year. If it was up to me if trade his rights to the highest bidder and take it. If the kid comes here and sucks then this franchise is beyond screwed. The flip side of that is GMGM traded our best prospect for Martin ****ing Erat. I cringe to think what he'd take for Kuz.

 

[BiPolar Caps]

Attended last nights game. Now I'll say that early on this season I was one of Ovechkin's biggest critics and even believed that the C should be ripped from his jersey but then he went on his tear and silenced me. What I saw from Ovechkin last night was one of the few bright spots on an otherwise listless team. You can quote all the stats you want to me, but its what I see with the eye that tells me who came to play last night and who didn't. Ovechkin in the first period was hitting everything. Credit the Rangers for shutting him down and Lundqvist's play in particular, but Ovechkin throughout this series was a man on an island, he got no support from his linemates.

As far as changes, not going to go all knee-jerk here but it's time to part ways with McPhee. Perhaps it's still early to do a real assessment of the Erat trade but still it was a panic move by him. George was the architect of this team along with all the other teams for the last decade and more, he's had his time he hasn't gotten it done.

Pending UFAs that remain, yes Ribeiro at times seems to have the puck on a string, and he's a great playmaker but for what he wants to be paid at his age, I say let's move on. Besides he becomes a liability too much with his mouth.
Same with Hendricks, I love his energy and effort, but unless he reups for the same salary as he's currently getting, time to move on.
Schultz should be gone as well.

The Caps and their fans need to realize that they are a few seasons away from being competitive at the highest league level, so the approach should not be drastic but adding pieces when you can and for a change when the Caps have the leverage and not the other team. It might be best that the Caps don't make the playoffs for a season or two so we can be sellers at the TDL and be able to part company with some high pay pieces as well.

Finally, I'm not all doom and gloom, I believe this team has a lot of positives and it does start with Ovechkin. Fehr's rebirth this season was one of the few good things McPhee did this past year. Though Holtby had a rough night, the guys 23 yo and goalies usually don't hit their prime for a few more years. Actually watching Wilson in the flesh, I was quite impressed with him and he has a nice wrist shot, but he should not be with the Caps next season.

 

[tmljeh19*]

Excuse 1 - the refs

Excuse 2 - the short season

Excuse 3 - the new coach/ system

Excuse 4 - injured Laich

Solution - Plug in Brooks at 2C. Subtract Ribeiro. Sprinkle in some fringe AHL talent and repeat.

 

[strungout]

Nothing will be fixed as long as George McPhee is making the hockey decisions. 15 years of failure....


If the team's core needs to be remade does anyone trust George McPhee to do a competent job?

I trust him to field a competitive regular season team. So...yeah.

The core is totally broken though. If he's going to stick around...he's going to have to make a big time shake up kinda move. Be it Backstrom or Green...one of the core guys not named Ovechkin has to be moved to help improve the team as a whole and get past this laissez faire ****ing attitude the team has in pressure situations.

Letting Semin walk was a start...just gotta keep the re-tooling going.

Honestly....I'd move Backstrom.

 

[tmljeh19*]

Attended last nights game. Now I'll say that early on this season I was one of Ovechkin's biggest critics and even believed that the C should be ripped from his jersey but then he went on his tear and silenced me. What I saw from Ovechkin last night was one of the few bright spots on an otherwise listless team. You can quote all the stats you want to me, but its what I see with the eye that tells me who came to play last night and who didn't. Ovechkin in the first period was hitting everything. Credit the Rangers for shutting him down and Lundqvist's play in particular, but Ovechkin throughout this series was a man on an island, he got no support from his linemates.

As far as changes, not going to go all knee-jerk here but it's time to part ways with McPhee. Perhaps it's still early to do a real assessment of the Erat trade but still it was a panic move by him. George was the architect of this team along with all the other teams for the last decade and more, he's had his time he hasn't gotten it done.

Pending UFAs that remain, yes Ribeiro at times seems to have the puck on a string, and he's a great playmaker but for what he wants to be paid at his age, I say let's move on. Besides he becomes a liability too much with his mouth.
Same with Hendricks, I love his energy and effort, but unless he reups for the same salary as he's currently getting, time to move on.
Schultz should be gone as well.

The Caps and their fans need to realize that they are a few seasons away from being competitive at the highest league level, so the approach should not be drastic but adding pieces when you can and for a change when the Caps have the leverage and not the other team. It might be best that the Caps don't make the playoffs for a season or two so we can be sellers at the TDL and be able to part company with some high pay pieces as well.

Finally, I'm not all doom and gloom, I believe this team has a lot of positives and it does start with Ovechkin. Fehr's rebirth this season was one of the few good things McPhee did this past year. Though Holtby had a rough night, the guys 23 yo and goalies usually don't hit their prime for a few more years. Actually watching Wilson in the flesh, I was quite impressed with him and he has a nice wrist shot, but he should not be with the Caps next season.

I agree 110%. This team will never win by just making the playoffs and then losing. We need to miss completely, tank even. Get some real talent again and start over. Adding a mid ages vet here and there isn't going to do squat.

 

[Lefty9420]

I'm a huge Avs fan, who lives in Hershey and who is familiar with the Caps. With that being said I would love to see the Avs trade Stastny and someone else or Stastny and a pick to the Caps for Green. It was give the Avs what they need, which is a top flight defensmen, it will give Green the change of scenery that I think he needs and it would give the Caps a top 3 forward who has the potential to to put up huge #'s. I know it will never happen, but since the Avs are probably going to trade Stastny anyway, I would love to get someone like Green in return.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I think they have to consider moving Green. His value is up again. Either Green or Backstrom, not sure what other major impact move they have...problem is, either one leaves a gaping hole.

 

[um]

ward: tied for the team scoring lead from the 3rd line and coming off an injury that kept him out for weeks before game 1. dump him? seriously?
chimera: see above. ok he had the 2nd highest point total.

reality: the capitals are the capitals. they are doomed. as a franchise they have had 7 series with a 2-0 and have lost 5 of them. as a franchise they are doomed.

this particular core is doomed. look at the support staff all you want to, but ovechkin, backstrom, green and laich have been thru 6 playoff flameouts. ok, 5. they lost a nip and tuck, one win-one loss series to the rangers last season where the rangers had home ice advantage. the 5 other playoff attempts by the ovechkin era caps have all had the lead in the series they lost except tb. most had a two game lead in the series. they had home ice in all of them.

i believe that a team lead by those 3 or 4 players will never have the confidence to win in the playoffs. they are mentally destroyed. since there is no chance that the caps remove the top of their lineup and start over, they are doomed to repeat the current scenario over and over again.

in time this will erode fan participation. the david poile caps suffered that. the atlanta braves suffered from the same.

i dont see a realistic solution. i'd start with trading backstrom to see if that helps, but in the end ovechkin needs to go.

agree with everything except trading ovechkin. when the time has come ovechkin has always shown up for the playoffs, cant say the same about backstrom.

1. trade backstrom, johansson and laich for the highest bidder (we have needs at every position) and resign ribeiro.
2. get rid of schultz and erskine. time for orlov and kundratek to get ice time.
3. trade neuvirth for a forward or defensemen. we dont need to do this but if someone will pay nicely then do it, i have confidence in holtby.
4. id also consider trading green, his value is high and im just not sure if this is the real thing.

its a lot but we need to get rid of the losers that have been here to long.

 

[sycamore]

What happens next? Short term - probably nothing. We don't have the cap room or the assets to make any real changes this offseason barring a total rebuild. Schultz will probably be gone, but Ward and Chimera played well enough this series that I don't think GMGM (because let's face it - he's not going anywhere till he misses the playoffs) is going to dump them so he can afford Ribeiro. So Ribs is replaced by Laich or Perrault on the 2nd line. Johansson and Alzner are resigned, maybe Hendricks too, and we end up with roughly this roster, plus any call ups and depth guys. One nice thing about not keeping Ribs though is that now we've got room for a deal like Neuvirth for Klesla.

Marcus Johansson ($2.000m) / Nicklas Backstrom ($6.700m) / Alex Ovechkin ($9.538m)
Martin Erat ($4.500m) / Mathieu Perreault ($1.050m) / Troy Brouwer ($3.667m)
Jason Chimera ($1.750m) / Brooks Laich ($4.500m) / Joel Ward ($3.000m)
Aaron Volpatti ($0.575m) / Jay Beagle ($0.900m) / Eric Fehr ($1.500m)

Karl Alzner ($3.000m) / Mike Green ($6.083m)
John Erskine ($1.963m) / John Carlson ($3.967m)
Jack Hillen ($0.700m) / Dmitry Orlov ($0.900m)
Steven Oleksy ($0.542m) /

Braden Holtby ($1.850m)
Michal Neuvirth ($2.500m)

CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $3,275,705

Long term, I think unless Kuznetsov is the savior we hope he is, we're doomed to be the new Calgary Flames. The talent we've got is enough to keep us semi-competitive, right in that gap where you're not good enough to make noise in the playoffs but not bad enough to tank and rebuild through the draft. Basically what we've been doing the past two years, just without the cupcake division to make us look better than we are. Our cap situation now and in the near future (and probably for as long as GMGM is around to overpay grinders), along with the state of our farm system, are going to keep us from making any significant changes through trades to improve our position, and Ted's financial situation will keep us from moving on and going through a rebuild. No way up, no way down. Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but right now I really think there's a good chance that we're just gonna keep doing what we're doing until the end of Ovie's contract.

I agree with you and it just goes to show what an utter disaster this season was. Really one of the worst in Caps history. Can you imagine if we had tanked, got a top 5 pick, and kept Forsberg, how bright our near future would be? Instead we are basically looking at a Calgary Flames situation, and barring a dark horse run, we can kiss any hopes of getting a Stanley Cup goodbye.

 

[IPreferPi]

Yotes fan coming in peace (and condolences to your tough series loss last night). I know the more obvious trade would be Klesla for Neuvirth, but would there be any interest in Klesla for Johansson?

 

[txpd]

My perspective is that the Caps are going through what alot of teams go through. Horrible for so many years that you pile up lottery picks..

you must have forgotten that the caps were not horrible for all that long and the number of lottery picks they had was not that big. they made the playoffs for the first time in the rebuild when the 2nd top 5 pick, backstrom, was a rookie.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Yotes fan coming in peace (and condolences to your tough series loss last night). I know the more obvious trade would be Klesla for Neuvirth, but would there be any interest in Klesla for Johansson?

I'm ok with that value. Left wing for top 4 dman is the first move we should make this offseason.

 

[caps4cup]

I have to ask... in the nicest, most genuine way I can: are you clinically insane?

You *WANT* to see the exact same team with one 2nd line change? You want that exact same, rotten defense to return?!

Dude, that's unreal. We just got cockpunched by the most pathetic, hapless team in the playoffs East of Minnesota, and you want to trot out the same bunch of losers?

I actually shudder to think what would've happened this year and last if the Caps had faced decent teams. And in pure hindsight, it's a shame we didn't see it. Because close playoff losses keep GMs in their jobs. More embarrassments like Tampa might, MIGHT give Ted even a slight moment to think about the direction of his annually choking franchise.

Yes I do, because as bad as may have seemed the past 2 games, this team showed legitimate signs of growth in the regular season IMO. Do you honestly think not having Erat and Laich didn't affect the offense at all?

Also, that's not the same roster as we iced this year. You get a full season of Erat on the top line, who is an upgrade on Mojo on the 1st line (for those who say he's not tough enough he faced top defenders for years as the only legit offensive threat in Nashville). Also, having Brooks Laich back in the top 9 is huge.

I also said we could trade some combo of mojo or ward + for a top 4 D or top 6 winger. I just didn't have a name to put as I don't know of many potential candidates.

Orlov is also a huge upgrade on Erskine who was a glaring black hole on our defense.

I know it's a little different, but look at Chicago the past 2 years. Lose to Vancouver in 7, and then the next year they lose in 6 to a worse Phoenix team. Now this year, they are a great team again, with pretty much the exact same roster.

I really don't think they're too far away right now. I believe in Oates and think that they'll only get better after another full year under him. I also think adding Erat/Laich/Orlov and maybe Kuznetsov will be a tremendous help.

 

[txpd]

agree with everything except trading ovechkin. when the time has come ovechkin has always shown up for the playoffs.

ovechkin games 3 thru 7. 0g. 0a. 0pts. -3

this clip is just so appropriate

 

[tmljeh19*]

Yotes fan coming in peace (and condolences to your tough series loss last night). I know the more obvious trade would be Klesla for Neuvirth, but would there be any interest in Klesla for Johansson?

I'd take it in a heartbeat. I've had enough of Mojo. Time to go.

 

[Acallabeth]

Yotes fan coming in peace (and condolences to your tough series loss last night). I know the more obvious trade would be Klesla for Neuvirth, but would there be any interest in Klesla for Johansson?

Deal, I'd not even think twice (though I haven't watched enough of Klesla).

I also said we could trade some combo of mojo or ward + for a top 4 D or top 6 winger. I just didn't have a name to put as I don't know of many potential candidates.

Watching Orlov buried in the minors as a LH RD, I'd expect him to get traded.

 

[Langway]

How do you fix mental fragility?

You become all about the process and this team never has been. They've either been all about offense, all about defense or some crappy middle ground this year that was much closer to last year's team on a fundamental level just with a stronger PP. The players may just be too soft for that to be the team culture but unless you try it's not going to improve. If that requires drastic personnel changes then so be it. If you have no/low standards as an organization then you're doomed to failure.

Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions, but right now I really think there's a good chance that we're just gonna keep doing what we're doing until the end of Ovie's contract.

Unless they flounder and miss the playoffs, which is entirely possible next season if their focus and preparation doesn't change. The interesting part is McPhee's contract reportedly being up this summer. That presents an opportunity to make a change should the higher-ups be forward-thinking but there's seemingly little hope of that happening as they're just as clueless.

 

[strungout]

The interesting part is McPhee's contract reportedly being up this summer. That presents an opportunity to make a change should the higher ups be forward thinking but there's seemingly little hope of that happening as they're just as clueless.

Well...if this is the case that the contract is up...there is no reason whatsoever to renew that thing.

Love Makfi...but its time to change it up.

 

[um]

ovechkin games 3 thru 7. 0g. 0a. 0pts. -3

obviously i wasnt talking about this series. we were refearing to the failures in the years before.

 

[BiPolar Caps]

I trust him to field a competitive regular season team. So...yeah.

The core is totally broken though. If he's going to stick around...he's going to have to make a big time shake up kinda move. Be it Backstrom or Green...one of the core guys not named Ovechkin has to be moved to help improve the team as a whole and get past this laissez faire ****ing attitude the team has in pressure situations.

Letting Semin walk was a start...just gotta keep the re-tooling going.

Honestly....I'd move Backstrom.

You know he was one of the guys along with his fellow countryman I had in mind as moving when I was writing my comments. If you look at the 2014 Capgeek projected free agents at center, there are some real attractive options.

Malkin, Evgeni » C PIT 26 $8,700,000 2014 (UFA)
Thornton, Joe » C SJS 33 $7,000,000 2014 (UFA)
Datsyuk, Pavel » C DET 34 $6,700,000 2014 (UFA)
Stastny, Paul » C COL 27 $6,600,000 2014 (UFA)
Sedin, Henrik » C VAN 32 $6,100,000 2014 (UFA)
Bergeron, Patrice » C BOS 27 $5,000,000 2014 (UFA)
Jokinen, Olli » C WIN 34 $4,500,000 2014 (UFA)
Legwand, David » C NAS 32 $4,500,000 2014 (UFA)
Pavelski, Joe » C SJS 28 $4,000,000 2014 (UFA

 

[QuadrupleDeke]

I wouldn't want Brian Burke as GM, but I would be really interested to hear what he'd do in years 1 and 2 if he were hired.