League News: NHL Talk - (News n' Scores n' Stuff) | 2023-24 Regular Season Edition

[CapitalsCupReality]

Interesting. I guess it's the goal scoring for me.
Oates never scored 20 goals with us, but Ridley was always at least in the mid 20s, hit 40 one year and 30 another. Overall points per game were super close, though.

Aside from that I give the edge to Ridley for being with the Caps a bit longer and discount Oates a bit because his prime years were in Boston.

Didn’t Oates lead the league in assists here twice (at 38/39 no less) Loved me some Rids, but I would have Oates ahead in this debate.

 

[John Price]

so unfair

 

[John Price]

I'm going to go out there and say this he did a good job as an assistant coach

too bad his post-stanley cup days are not memorable.

 

[Brian23]

I'm going to go out there and say this he did a good job as an assistant coach

too bad his post-stanley cup days are not memorable.

Do we know this though? He was the assistant coach for the defense, and defense was Trotz whole game. There's basically only that rumor that he took over the team during the Stanley Cup run to really give him any credence to being a great assistant coach.

 

[Hivemind]

Do we know this though? He was the assistant coach for the defense, and defense was Trotz whole game. There's basically only that rumor that he took over the team during the Stanley Cup run to really give him any credence to being a great assistant coach.

We have a lot of comments from the defensemen during that era praising Reirden. Kempny was the most glowing, but Carlson had a lot of praise for Todd as well. Niskanen and Orpik both followed Reirden from Pittsburgh to Washington, citing Reirden's hiring in Washington as a factor in their decision to sign here (and Niskanen crediting TR for helping him turn his career around in Pittsburgh). I don't really think it's a contentious opinion to say that Reirden was a very good assistant coach/associate coach for Washington.

Pittsburgh as a whole has been in a lurch lately, but it seems like the late season surge may have saved Sullivan's job and turned Todd into the fall guy instead, given that his particular areas of responsibility weren't strong suits for the Pens.

 

[bacchist]

Didn’t Oates lead the league in assists here twice (at 38/39 no less) Loved me some Rids, but I would have Oates ahead in this debate.

He tied one year, and then led the league the following year, but didn't play with us the entire year. Though oddly enough, his assist total with us alone (57) was still enough to lead the league.

These were rock bottom years for the NHL. Truly dark times.

 

[Ridley Simon]

so unfair

Who is the first guy? Dallas’ coach, maybe? I’m also surprised Lavy didn’t get mentioned. First year he takes his new teams to the Pres Cup? Impressive. Moreso than what Brunette did. That was more Trotz putting his foot down on their behaviour — IMO.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Auston Matthews: team cancer

They should trade him to Washington, obviously. We’ll even take that softie Marner if they ask nicely.



Cannot wait until tomorrow for this. Boston is rightfully discussed as a model organization but when can we start calling them chokers? They have the most wins in each of the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s decades and have one Cup to show for it.

One team is going full Washington tomorrow — Boston is either going to blow a 3-1 series lead losing two of three at home to a lower ranked opponent in consecutive years or Toronto will come back from a 3-1 deficit giving their fans hope only to mash their hearts to pulp with a no show in G7.

 

[Calicaps]

They should trade him to Washington, obviously. We’ll even take that softie Marner if they ask nicely.



Cannot wait until tomorrow for this. Boston is rightfully discussed as a model organization but when can we start calling them chokers? They have the most wins in each of the 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s decades and have one Cup to show for it.

One team is going full Washington tomorrow — Boston is either going to blow a 3-1 series lead losing two of three at home to a lower ranked opponent in consecutive years or Toronto will come back from a 3-1 deficit giving their fans hope only to mash their hearts to pulp with a no show in G7.

And I will enjoy either outcome, though I lean more toward a Leafs flame-out just because the Toronto haplessness is Cubs-level at this point.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Amazing what benching Sammy can do to turn a series around.

 

[kicksavedave]

Who is the first guy? Dallas’ coach, maybe? I’m also surprised Lavy didn’t get mentioned. First year he takes his new teams to the Pres Cup? Impressive. Moreso than what Brunette did. That was more Trotz putting his foot down on their behaviour — IMO.

Rick Bowness, Winnipeg. Gawd I remember when he got his first HC gig with the Bruins, I was living in Boston at the time. Took them to the conference finals then got let go.

 

[marcel snapshot]

One team is going full Washington tomorrow .

You never want to go full Washington

I am on team Buds. Always loved their jerseys and they’ve been infused with some pretty compelling personalities over the years - Brophy, Ballard, Pat Burns, Wendell, Dougie, Sundin. Their fan base is insufferable - but man do they suffer

 

[usiel]

I hate Boston but Maple Leaf fans's tears are the nectar of the Gods.

 

[HeyMattyB]

One team is going full Washington tomorrow — Boston is either going to blow a 3-1 series lead losing two of three at home to a lower ranked opponent in consecutive years or Toronto will come back from a 3-1 deficit giving their fans hope only to mash their hearts to pulp with a no show in G7.

Whoever loses...

 

[Chokingdogs]

so unfair

Well, at least 2 ex-caps made the list. lol.

Altho with The Gambler I use that term very loosely.

 

[marcel snapshot]

Do you think McPhee ever looks at Forsberg and says to himself “Yeah, I’ve had a good run, went to the finals with an expansion team, won a Cup, they’re a perennial contender - but that Forsberg for Erat thing was as royal f*** up as you could ever have in this business. Like, I’m really lucky to still be in the business after something like that.”

Probably not - but maybe he should

 

[IafrateOvie34]

I can't wait for some Oilers/Canucks series. The 92 series was a good one. Western games so much better than the East.

 

[Hivemind]

so unfair

This take confuses me a lot. Giving credit to Carbery for getting a -37 GD team to the playoffs as if he wasn't also at least partially responsible for the -37GD is some real cognitive dissonance. Even more so when you remember how much of a clown show the "race" for the final spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs was, with basically every team tripping over banana peels as they tried to get in with the least points possible.

The more compelling argument is that Carbery achieved an 11-point improvement compared to the season before, despite losing Backstrom and Kuznetsov. That being said, the three coaches nominated as finalists all had equally-or-more impressive feats. Winnipeg finished 15 points better than the season before, +38 GD better than the season before, and just 4 points behind the President's Trophy. Nashville went from missing the playoffs last year, to in the playoffs this year, finished 7 points better than the year, improved their goal differential by 30 goals compared to the season before, plus has the narrative of Brunette's previously interim coaching heroics with Florida playing into this Jack Adam's campaign. Vancouver jumped from 83 points last year to 109 this year (+26 point differential), won their division, improved their goal differential by an insane 78 goal margin (basically a whole goal better per game), and finished just 5 points behind the President's Trophy.

Let me be very explicitly clear here, I like Carbery. I think he's a good coach, I supported his hire, and I want him to continue coaching the Capitals. But there's just a big difference between "he did a good job for a rookie coach with a roster in turmoil" and "Jack Adams finalist" levels.

 

[g00n]

This take confuses me a lot. Giving credit to Carbery for getting a -37 GD team to the playoffs as if he wasn't also at least partially responsible for the -37GD is some real cognitive dissonance. Even more so when you remember how much of a clown show the "race" for the final spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs was, with basically every team tripping over banana peels as they tried to get in with the least points possible.

The more compelling argument is that Carbery achieved an 11-point improvement compared to the season before, despite losing Backstrom and Kuznetsov. That being said, the three coaches nominated as finalists all had equally-or-more impressive feats. Winnipeg finished 15 points better than the season before, +38 GD better than the season before, and just 4 points behind the President's Trophy. Nashville went from missing the playoffs last year, to in the playoffs this year, finished 7 points better than the year, improved their goal differential by 30 goals compared to the season before, plus has the narrative of Brunette's previously interim coaching heroics with Florida playing into this Jack Adam's campaign. Vancouver jumped from 83 points last year to 109 this year (+26 point differential), won their division, improved their goal differential by an insane 78 goal margin (basically a whole goal better per game), and finished just 5 points behind the President's Trophy.

Let me be very explicitly clear here, I like Carbery. I think he's a good coach, I supported his hire, and I want him to continue coaching the Capitals. But there's just a big difference between "he did a good job for a rookie coach with a roster in turmoil" and "Jack Adams finalist" levels.

Thank god you were "very explicitly clear". We would all have been extremely confused and upset.

Here's the thing: the team stunk enough when Carbery took over that the Caps were sellers at the TDL, but they rallied and made the playoffs anyway.

In 2022-23 they finished with a -10 goal differential and missed the playoffs. This season they started with a struggling Kuemper as the clear 1A goaltender and lost many games by large margins. They were at -10 GD by the third game of the season.

The problem wasn't just GD overall it was when they lost they usually lost BIG. 24 of their 31 regulation losses were by 3 goals or more, while only 11 of their regulation wins were by the same margin.

They didn't blow many teams out due to lack of top goalscoring talent, and their top two centers being either LTIR or AWOL.

What you seem to remember most is losing 6 games in a row down the stretch, but on either side of that was a streak that totaled 10 wins in 12 games..

How much of the initial struggle is on the brand new coach vs the veteran team and years of inertia? How much of the rally is based on his adjustments? Do you know?

So "let me be very explicitly clear here": despite the big losses and selling off assets they bounced back and made the playoffs with a rookie coach and a team that was worse than the previous year, at least on paper. That may or may not be Adams Trophy material compared to other potential candidates this particular season, but it's at least worth discussing on individual merit.

 

[Kalopsia]

This take confuses me a lot. Giving credit to Carbery for getting a -37 GD team to the playoffs as if he wasn't also at least partially responsible for the -37GD is some real cognitive dissonance. Even more so when you remember how much of a clown show the "race" for the final spot in the Eastern Conference playoffs was, with basically every team tripping over banana peels as they tried to get in with the least points possible.

The more compelling argument is that Carbery achieved an 11-point improvement compared to the season before, despite losing Backstrom and Kuznetsov. That being said, the three coaches nominated as finalists all had equally-or-more impressive feats. Winnipeg finished 15 points better than the season before, +38 GD better than the season before, and just 4 points behind the President's Trophy. Nashville went from missing the playoffs last year, to in the playoffs this year, finished 7 points better than the year, improved their goal differential by 30 goals compared to the season before, plus has the narrative of Brunette's previously interim coaching heroics with Florida playing into this Jack Adam's campaign. Vancouver jumped from 83 points last year to 109 this year (+26 point differential), won their division, improved their goal differential by an insane 78 goal margin (basically a whole goal better per game), and finished just 5 points behind the President's Trophy.

Let me be very explicitly clear here, I like Carbery. I think he's a good coach, I supported his hire, and I want him to continue coaching the Capitals. But there's just a big difference between "he did a good job for a rookie coach with a roster in turmoil" and "Jack Adams finalist" levels.

I feel like you're kind of underselling the context that makes the 11-point improvement so impressive. I don't think "roster in turmoil" gets across just how much the deck was stacked against Carbery. The Caps added only a couple peripheral pieces in the offseason, then lost or traded away 24.45M worth of players from their opening night roster over the course of the season, almost 30% of the salary cap. The two remaining highest paid forwards both took significant steps backwards due to circumstances outside the coach's control (age and injuries). They were overall the 4th most injured team in the NHL by CHIP (in fairness they were also 4th the year before). What's the expected point differential for a new coach in that situation, let alone a rookie head coach? 10 fewer points than the year before? 20? More?

The other guys who were nominated look better out of context, but they all in positions were improvement was pretty much to be expected. A lot of the improvement can just be explained by their teams being way healthier than the year before (Vancouver went from 7th most injured to 20th, Nashville went from 12th to 30th, Winnipeg went from 20th to 29th). Vancouver and Nashville added significant pieces in the offseason with Hronek (technically traded for him the year before but he only played 4 games) and O'Reilly. They all added at the deadline instead of selling. Their stars are all in or entering their prime. All of them have stud, set-and-forget #1 goalies (though Saros was admittedly off this year). Tocchet still probably deserves the Jack Adams because while he had a lot of help and luck those improvements from last year are insane, but I don't think Bowness and particularly Brunette (shocker - team does slightly better when it doesn't lose its star forward and defenseman to season ending injuries) exceeded expectations by as much as Carbery did.

 

[Ridley Simon]

Argue with Queen Bee is pointless. Reading him is painful.

Set yourselves free, people!

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Argue with Queen Bee is pointless. Reading him is painful.

Set yourselves free, people!

Yeah I don’t get it. Ignore the blight and it just goes away…

 

[Langway]

Samsonov getting the start thanks to a Woll injury.

<<Michael Jackson popcorn.gif>>

 

[PlushMinus]

Samsonov getting the start thanks to a Woll injury.

<<Michael Jackson popcorn.gif>>

That really is the worst luck for the Leafs.

Last thing they need is Samsonov going BACK into the net with game 7 pressure. This is basically his last shot at redemption before he is banished to Russia forever

 

[Misery74]

Samsonov. No…