Post-Game Talk: Tavares' Old Team vs Stanley Cup Champions 7:00

[Blades of Steel]

Jensen is f***ing great! I hope he teaches our other defensemen a thing or two.. he’s everything I wished Alzner was going to be when he was developing.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

It's now or never for them -- the window closes with Clutterbuck and Martin. Those guys are really old in dog years.

Don’t really agree. The Isles have sone terrific prospects. A few smart moves to bring in some scoring talent will them tougher to play again and set up for long term competitiveness. I also don’t think you can ever say that a team’s window is open or closed based on their 4th line. Championship teams have a strong spine from goaltending to defense to high-end center depth.

That said, I think they’d be a prime candidate to regress next year. They’re awful at scoring goals and are devoid of goal scoring talent outside of guys like Lee and Barzal. Their goaltending is 5-6 percentage points higher than the second best team which is not sustainable long term. Everything is falling in line for them to compete this year but I just can’t see them repeating this success unless they have a solid offseason. Teams will learn how to play against them.

 

[Lindemann]

Haglein needs to stay on the 3rd line, I love what he brings

Also, for those concerned about slow starts in playoffs, we did the exact same thing last year too remember? It frustrated the hell out of us but come playoff time we were good

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Haglein needs to stay on the 3rd line, I love what he brings

Also, for those concerned about slow starts in playoffs, we did the exact same thing last year too remember? It frustrated the hell out of us but come playoff time we were good

He doesn’t have the offense to stay on the third line permanently for me. He should move up and down lines 1-4 if the situation calls for it, i.e. end of games or trying to protect a lead, but Burakovsky makes that line more potent offensively and provides this team with three scoring lines. Hagelin finishes like a beer leaguer and should spend most of his time at ES with the 4th line.

 

[Lindemann]

He doesn’t have the offense to stay on the third line permanently for me. He should move up and down lines 1-4 if the situation calls for it, i.e. end of games or trying to protect a lead, but Burakovsky makes that line more potent offensively and provides this team with three scoring lines. Hagelin finishes like a beer leaguer and should spend most of his time at ES with the 4th line.

I can agree with both cause he looked great in the 4th line too but let’s be real, it’s not like Bura is lighting it up with his 8 goals this year

When Haglein got moved up, the 3rd line looked completely different

 

[Sam Spade]

Has no one posted the Ovie hovering over the coliseum photo? Really?

 

[Raikkonen]

This Hagelin guy is solid LW option for next year if Caps lose one of 3rd line wingers. Cheap enough due to lost scoring lol

Jensen looks nice

Niskanen looks like he's Alzner with all those glass-pretending-it-was-on-purpose shots.

 

[Raikkonen]

Sending Niskanen to 3rd pair before playoffs could yield angry Niskanen, btw. Feeling some of what Bura has been feeling recently should be very motivating. Maybe.

 

[Brian23]

Don’t really agree. The Isles have sone terrific prospects. A few smart moves to bring in some scoring talent will them tougher to play again and set up for long term competitiveness. I also don’t think you can ever say that a team’s window is open or closed based on their 4th line. Championship teams have a strong spine from goaltending to defense to high-end center depth.

That said, I think they’d be a prime candidate to regress next year. They’re awful at scoring goals and are devoid of goal scoring talent outside of guys like Lee and Barzal. Their goaltending is 5-6 percentage points higher than the second best team which is not sustainable long term. Everything is falling in line for them to compete this year but I just can’t see them repeating this success unless they have a solid offseason. Teams will learn how to play against them.

I saw someone on Twitter before the TDL talking about how they should have gone all in on this year, gone and grabbed someone like Panarin. I generally didn't agree as it was year one and I figured they'd be better in the years to come as they settle and their players mature but the more I think about it I'm not sure they'll ever be much better then this year. And before I get yelled at, what I mean by that is I think this is generally what a "good" Trotz team looks like. They play good defense, they have good goaltending, and their scoring comes in bunches but isn't really sustainable.

I'm not entirely sure they regress that much next year, but I don't think they're anywhere close to taking off and being a team like Tampa anytime soon either.

 

[maacoshark]

lol

what's the problem, the guy is basically the anti-Vrana on the offense/defense spectrum, I'm surprised you're not cutting his pictures out of a magazine right now.

Is it getting too hard to be contrary to everyone at once?

I like the discipline in his game. Was hoping for a big more offensive!y. He was decent offensively earlier in his career. Now he has hands of stone.
The thing that I can't get past is that he plays a very similar game to Stephenson yet he gets praise and Stephenson gets dumped on because he wasnt finishing his chances. At this point Stephenson is probably better offensively. I'd like to see them both in the lineup.
BTW in 4 games since Hagelin has been here the Caps have scored 18 goals. In those 4 games Hagelin has zero points on 11 shots. Talk about not burying chances. He is also a minus 2 in those 4 games. Plus he has taken 2 minor penalties in those 4 games.
Not the most impressive numbers so far. Since so many here are stats guys I'm surprised he is getting so much praise.
What has surprised me watching him is a couple of very dumb plays that he made but got away with. Mistakes that rookies make.

 

[Brian23]

Sending Niskanen to 3rd pair before playoffs could yield angry Niskanen, btw. Feeling some of what Bura has been feeling recently should be very motivating. Maybe.

He'd still be getting close to 20 minutes a night I'd bet. There's no way Reirden drops him to the 3rd line and starts feeding him 15 a night tops. I doubt there's anything he'll have to complain about, he's never been that kind of player for us anyway. I do think we should do it though, start giving him the Orpik treatment some (or what we should have done) and playing him less and protect him some. Maybe he's just worn out and needs some time off to get back his mojo, it's very disconcerting to see how he's played this year after how dominate and he Orlov have been for the last two years.

 

[Sam Spade]

Respectfully but when Stephenson is on the ice the puck never leaves the Caps zone, the complete opposite is true when Hagelin is on the ice. Stephenson might be a SLIGHTLY better offensive player than Hagelin, and I mean slightly, but the possession trade off is 100% worth it.

Ref last nights game, I don't think the Caps have had such a dominate game all season in terms of possession. Every player well above 50%.

 

[Raikkonen]

Respectfully but when Stephenson is on the ice the puck never leaves the Caps zone, the complete opposite is true when Hagalin is on the ice. St

St GMBM nailed it, right

 

[Lindemann]

If you think Haglein’a strengths and is/was paid to score goals you are going to have a bad time

He wasn’t a threat in the playoffs by scoring 30 goals

 

[Raikkonen]

Ref last nights game, I don't think the Caps have had such a dominate game all season in terms of possession. Every player well above 50%.

View attachment 194357

Score effects. Quick strike plus turtling did that to Isles stats

 

[Sam Spade]

Score effects. Quick strike plus turtling did that to Isles stats

Maybe but 1-0 for the Isles is insane for them to be sitting back. I get tired team, etc. but the Isles simply couldn't get the puck.

High danger is the biggest issue with this team right now and they will have to straighten that out before the playoffs but they do have the firepower to overcome some of that.

 

[brachyrynchos]

Big win last nite, good job Caps! Gave the Isles their first regulation loss on the second of a back to back, it was also their first loss at home when leading after 2 periods (13-1-3). Isles will be a tough matchup the first round, they'll be playing at the Coliseum (other rounds @ Barclay's...should they advance) and it's not going to be an easy place to play. The good news (hopefully) is that they wear down themselves and their opponent.
Looking at the schedule, Caps play 6 of their 8 on the road, 3rd @ NYR (12:30), 6th @ Philly, 8th vs NJ, 10th vs WPG, 12th @ Pit, 14th @ PHI, 16th @ TB, 19th @ NJ and play Tampa the next day. Some tough games ahead against teams that always seem to give WSH trouble. It's a good time for the Caps to build on the positives and get their game in order, and more importantly take control of the Metro, last nite was a good start.

 

[Raikkonen]

Maybe but 1-0 for the Isles is insane for them to be sitting back. I get tired team, etc. but the Isles simply couldn't get the puck.

Caps came to play too. They got physical starting with Ovi's hit (2 mins) and then Isles thought about D before O I guess. So there they were, playing less aggressive and not good enough because Caps wanted it and have firepower.

 

[BallardEra]

Great win.

Isles have a very soft next 4 games so hopefully the Caps can keep up.

 

[Blades of Steel]

Honestly, if there isn’t physicality then the Caps play bored and sloppy.. once some hitting started last night they seemed more in control but yeah it was hard to get any quality scoring chances against the trotz turtle.

 

[txpd]

He’s Andy Reid. Save Rierden and the team winning one for him. Literally.

Let's be fair to Trotz. His entire career except for 4 years in Washington he coached have not teams. He has overperformed with those two teams. With the Capitals he recharged them from a playoff miss in one season. Then ran off 2 president's trophies and a cup. His team ran Babcock and his media darlings roster out of the building. Lets not trash the guy. He is brilliant

 

[RandyHolt]

Honestly, if there isn’t physicality then the Caps play bored and sloppy.. once some hitting started last night they seemed more in control....

Why don't advanced stats track this stuff? Sure, it requires one logging actual hits vs NHL hits. Let's find out, what teams do well in highly physical games. We already know, but does goal differential in those most physical of games, support it?

Anyone can hit. It's not always the volume of hits (cough Shankapotamus), its the impact. Did they leave a mark. Did the home team gasp oooh and ahhh at seeing their stud D get trucked by Ovi. You could use crowd reaction / decibels alone to log what was an RH grade hit. Is the locker room a MASH unit, and lines get shuffled - does a team do worse in that case.

And then, factor in goals. It's so simple I should just do it myself.

 

[Ridley Simon]

Don’t really agree. The Isles have sone terrific prospects. A few smart moves to bring in some scoring talent will them tougher to play again and set up for long term competitiveness. I also don’t think you can ever say that a team’s window is open or closed based on their 4th line. Championship teams have a strong spine from goaltending to defense to high-end center depth.

That said, I think they’d be a prime candidate to regress next year. They’re awful at scoring goals and are devoid of goal scoring talent outside of guys like Lee and Barzal. Their goaltending is 5-6 percentage points higher than the second best team which is not sustainable long term. Everything is falling in line for them to compete this year but I just can’t see them repeating this success unless they have a solid offseason. Teams will learn how to play against them.

I *think* he was being cheeky.

 

[sycamore]

One interesting thing to see was how many Caps fans were at that game yesterday. It used to be our stadium was flooded with opposing fans, now we're the ones getting huge support for road games.

 

[Blades of Steel]

One interesting thing to see was how many Caps fans were at that game yesterday. It used to be our stadium was flooded with opposing fans, now we're the ones getting huge support for road games.

Yep, I’ve noticed that too