Series Discussion: Round 1 (Caps vs Flyers) 2016 Playoffs (times and dates included)

[Portable Mink]

Kuzy just needs to shoot the puck more. that second line has the puck a lot but a structured defense can generally keep them out of the slot regardless of what they do.

bura takes too long to get his shot off and they arent looking for rebound goals and cheap goals enough.

 

[foundhockey]

I have this feeling of dread that won't go away. Then I feel guilty for not believing in the team. Such is the life of a Caps' fan.

I have to think there's no way the Flyers can win two more.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

This is not a team that will win the Cup. If you can't put a team like the Flyers away when you have the opportunity, if you can't stay out of the box when you need to, you won't win the Cup. That simple. This team has 2nd round exit written all over it.

 

[Nice]

If we really got bounced in the 1st round again I wouldn't even be mad if the Caps pulled a Baltimore Colts and left overnight.

 

[HecticGlow]

This is not a team that will win the Cup. If you can't put a team like the Flyers away when you have the opportunity, if you can't stay out of the box when you need to, you won't win the Cup. That simple. This team has 2nd round exit written all over it.

While that's true, and I've great doubts about whether this team will make it (despite the huge wealth of talent), look around the playoffs right now. The Hawks and Blues are, at least, on par despite the Blues having had no ultimate playoff success, like the Caps, and them playing the defending champions supposedly loaded up with elite talent. Anaheim - one of the SCF favourites lately - took a long time to wake up against Nashville of all teams; the Rangers struggled against a team icing its third-string goaltender for most of the games - only Tampa Bay have really easily succeeded, and I thought the red wings put up a strong challenge at points.

This teams problem isn't the Flyers - it's not even Neuvrith. It's the Caps themselves - can they adapt their game as their opponent adapts to the Caps?


People quoting possession statistics, shots on goal, shot attempts etc. Do have to remember that you still need to be smart every element of your game, and at a certain level these are distinct components of play where one bad strategy (like where you aim your shots, or where you're taking shots from) can render the rest irrelevant. We need to not win games by fluke, or only by capitalising on mistakes: we need to play a game that actually beats the opposition at our pace and at our doing. That's where the Caps are struggling right now - and only strategic changes (however small) will fix this. Or, you know, fluke goals or a Neuvrith brain freeze. But that doesn't win cups.

 

[txpd]

This team has 2nd round exit written all over it.

Seriously? you think they get to the 2nd round?

 

[NoMoreChoking]

Seriously? you think they get to the 2nd round?

If we do, we will probably lose to the Pens anyway

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Well this place has become unreadable.

 

[Nice]

Really though, Kuznetsov needs to step into another gear if we're going to have a chance in the later rounds. I don't know what happened, but I'm not seeing what I saw in the first half of the season. It sucks because you know he has the skill to be a game breaker in this series, and he could absolutely abuse that weak flyers defense.

 

[Holtbyisms]

Well this place has become unreadable.

this

 

[RandyHolt]

Too late for that. Should have been done and worked on a long time ago. When we were showing poor offensive zone execution the last 1/3 of the season (as opponents became more desperate) and won despite that, Trotz should have been on that. Like major focus on that area. Instead he became complacent with the results. I could see that it wouldn't fly in the playoffs.

I wonder if our coaching staff believes in the modern day analytics. I think we hired a guy to run the fancy stats. Barry must see us as mediocre. Was anything done to address it?

I feel like everyone hearing that we are the best team has gotten into everyone's heads. And us being the best team, isn't even close. If Philly fans don't see that they are hanging with us at ES - its proof.

Instead of trying to improve at getting lots of shots to boost fancies, we should be looking at proven old school ways to score. Line drills and crashing the net.

 

[Capsman]

Its time to start considering that Kuznetsov has been figured out by the league. He is the Caps leading scorer and is producing nothing and has been producing next to nothing for an extended period of time.

Flash in the pan or needs to adjust his game. Even if the Caps survive this series, they are not going very far without a significant contribution by the 2nd line.

I suggest going back to the beginning with 90 and 14 on 92's wings.

Winning this series at the minimum has become life and death for this franchise. The emotional damage done by losing to Ovechkin and Backstrom and the rest of the core will be overwhelming. Trotz will have lost his credibility.

Kuznetsov is the key. He is not seeing the best d or checking forwards. he has to make things happen

A skater like him with hands and vision like his shouldn't be figured out. He gets into the o-zone and sets up well but there doesn't seem to be any options from there. Often times he's the first one in and I'm like "where the heck is his support?" I'd like to see our players being better about giving each other passing lanes (and I don't mean only along the boards). Some of it has to be anticipatory and that requires practice time. Whether one film session can suffice I don't know.

I'd really like Trotz to perhaps change up his assistants next season. I think some fresh perspectives are needed.

 

[The Flying Finn]

this

agreed, what is this loser mentality.

 

[Capsman]

One thing that may work very well in this series are slap passes and shot fakes. I'm still waiting for that.

 

[g00n]

It isn't but taking those lessons into consideration by changing on-ice decision-making is another matter. It's not something they've tweaked much throughout the season 5-on-5 because they didn't really had to so the reps aren't there. They should be able to figure it out one way or another and avoid utter embarrassment but regardless it doesn't bode well for their chances this year. Not unless they adopt a very apparent evolution in smarter decision-making. Historically that's hard to find right within the playoffs on the fly.

I also wonder with Trotz praising their performance in the post-game whether that level of self-evaluation is there. Is it just a matter of getting more traffic? Isn't there more they can otherwise do 5-on-5 to generate more havoc for them defensively in coverage and generally create better quality chances? Oversimplifying on the fly kind of plays into their hunker strategy.

The problem is that expectations are so high. Every year they are and especially after a banner regular season. But they never really seem ready mentally for prime time. It's not just pressure getting to the fanbase and the history. They themselves let up early and assume what's not done to get done somehow without doing what's in their control or start feeling the pressure and rigidly go through the surface motions of strong effort without being mentally engaged and composed.

Regarding the post-game comments, in this case it would make sense to me to NOT broadcast that you're making any adjustments. I don't know that Trotz has anything planned but from a tactical standpoint there's a plausible narrative that the Caps played well enough to win and just have to keep doing the same thing. It's believable. So make the opponent think there's nothing new to be prepared for. Then throw them a few curves.

 

[Capsman]

Regarding the post-game comments, in this case it would make sense to me to NOT broadcast that you're making any adjustments. I don't know that Trotz has anything planned but from a tactical standpoint there's a plausible narrative that the Caps played well enough to win and just have to keep doing the same thing. It's believable. So make the opponent think there's nothing new to be prepared for. Then throw them a few curves.

Good point, hope you're right.

 

[capitalsrock]

Their ideal matchup is Manning-Gudas against our top lines and we can't score. That's sad

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

While that's true, and I've great doubts about whether this team will make it (despite the huge wealth of talent), look around the playoffs right now. The Hawks and Blues are, at least, on par despite the Blues having had no ultimate playoff success, like the Caps, and them playing the defending champions supposedly loaded up with elite talent. Anaheim - one of the SCF favourites lately - took a long time to wake up against Nashville of all teams; the Rangers struggled against a team icing its third-string goaltender for most of the games - only Tampa Bay have really easily succeeded, and I thought the red wings put up a strong challenge at points.

This teams problem isn't the Flyers - it's not even Neuvrith. It's the Caps themselves - can they adapt their game as their opponent adapts to the Caps?


People quoting possession statistics, shots on goal, shot attempts etc. Do have to remember that you still need to be smart every element of your game, and at a certain level these are distinct components of play where one bad strategy (like where you aim your shots, or where you're taking shots from) can render the rest irrelevant. We need to not win games by fluke, or only by capitalising on mistakes: we need to play a game that actually beats the opposition at our pace and at our doing. That's where the Caps are struggling right now - and only strategic changes (however small) will fix this. Or, you know, fluke goals or a Neuvrith brain freeze. But that doesn't win cups.

Seriously? you think they get to the 2nd round?

Yes, I still think we can win one of the two remaining games in this series, but damn. This series should've been over Wednesday night. We're slumping at the worst possible time, first time in a year that we lose two consecutive regulation games. Kuznetsov and Burakovsky are MIA, Williams is playing like crap and Ovi hasn't made the difference.

We made ****ing Neuvy look like Dominik Hasek. Trotz needs to make an adjustment, shuffle the lines to create match up problems, make the players work on their finishing, assign a player on each line to screen Neuvy, something needs to be done.

Look at the Flyers' blue line, it's easily the weakest of the remaining playoff teams and they only allowed 1 goal in the past 120 minutes. We're making them look good because we're throwing muffins at Neuvy's gut. We used to have a 10% team SH%. 1 goal on 76 shots for Neuvy, unacceptable.

 

[txpd]

If we do, we will probably lose to the Pens anyway

I don't see it that way. if they win, they start over. the monkey is put back in the closet. they are better than the penguins just as they are better than the flyers. if kuzy returns to a player that is contributing at the same level as ovechkin and backstrom, the caps are going to win.

people complain about the caps lack of 5 on 5 offense but seem to forget that kuznetsov lead the team in evp and was 3rd in the nhl in even strength points. thru five playoff games he has nothing. this would be bad for the capitals.

 

[Langway]

Regarding the post-game comments, in this case it would make sense to me to NOT broadcast that you're making any adjustments. I don't know that Trotz has anything planned but from a tactical standpoint there's a plausible narrative that the Caps played well enough to win and just have to keep doing the same thing. It's believable. So make the opponent think there's nothing new to be prepared for. Then throw them a few curves.

He and the players said post-game and today that they need more traffic so that's likely the adjustment (which is fine). That will help. Big picture, though, that's probably not enough to fundamentally cure what ails them 5-on-5 beyond getting past Philadelphia here. That level of cramming on a more systematic level isn't possible or realistic at this stage. You basically are what you are in the post-season, you're just (ideally) more fully engaged in playing your game. It does come back to that earlier question of whether setting the bar for success in the playoffs based on some massive exemplary work ethic advantage is itself realistic. It seems far more crucial that their energy is applied properly.

The degree that they're able to consistently play more hungry in traffic/dirty areas will likely determine their fate. Again, it's not something at least 5-on-5 they're very good at naturally. The second line isn't built that way and they don't have the overall reps of consistently doing it. You can do everything 100% right in two of three zones, own the puck and still manage to lose as Game 5 showed. They need to do more things right in the offensive zone than owning the puck all of the time and firing it. It's just so eerily familiar.

 

[txpd]

Good point, hope you're right.

Trotz pointed out that the Caps allowed 6 even strength shots in the game and less than 1 shot per penalty kill and the only goal against was a fluke.

Its hard thing that game could happen again and the team lose, but since we've seen that before....

 

[twabby]

Most of you are insufferable and if the Capitals win tomorrow or in Game 7 none of the losses will be remembered by anybody. Do the Capitals need to make a few small adjustments in the offensive zone? Sure. Do they need to stop taking dumb penalties? Absolutely. Are the Capitals by far the better team? Without a doubt.

Let's not forget the Flyers needed a dumb deflection off a skate in order to score. The Capitals will more than likely get some friendly bounces if they get a little more traffic in front.

 

[Portable Mink]

Most of you are insufferable and if the Capitals win tomorrow or in Game 7 none of the losses will be remembered by anybody. Do the Capitals need to make a few small adjustments in the offensive zone? Sure. Do they need to stop taking dumb penalties? Absolutely. Are the Capitals by far the better team? Without a doubt.

Let's not forget the Flyers needed a dumb deflection off a skate in order to score. The Capitals will more than likely get some friendly bounces if they get a little more traffic in front.

everyone everyone agrees with you. the issue is that year after year... we still wait for those bounces to go our way and it just doesnt happen. the odds man... the odds.

unfathomable.

i believe but i kind of feel half insane believing given i know this team and our history so well. it ****ing hurts.

 

[txpd]

twabby, are you a novice to caps hockey? last season when they blew a 3 games to 1 lead, it was not the first time. for this franchise its the rule that they blow these leads, not the exception.

the caps have never had a 3 games to 0 lead in a 7 game series and so they have never blown one. but they do lose more series were they hold a two game lead than they win.

its a bad deal to blow a 3-1 lead but for the rest of the teams in 7 game series pro sports its a rare thing. for the capitals its regular fair. so, get off your high horse.

they did it when Ov and Backstrom were new when hoping that the new troops would not carry over the tradition. they did. they did it last year when many hoped an experienced coach would not carry over the tradition. now they are hoping there's no way the tradition coopts Justin Williams, yet he is the freaking goat in that last game.

insufferable is the Washington Capitals. If they win g6 or 7 I will watch game 1 of round 2. but ive seen all the rest of these chokes that are too numerous to name. I don't need to see any more.

Get yer boy Kuzy to score a couple in g6 and we can move on. right now he appears to be the player having the hardest time catching his breath right now.

 

[Raikkonen]

i believe but i kind of feel half insane believing given i know this team and our history so well. it ****ing hurts.

told you that you have to aim for elimination games. spent all mana for meaningless ones.