Post-Game Talk: VAN @ WAS - 2pm

[Drakon]

Watching Hagelin play hockey makes me angry.

I genuinely don't get what he brings over someone like AJF at this point.

 

[kicksavedave]

Congrats Bruce!

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

Questionable goaltending and coaching today.

 

[twabby]

lol Hathaway on the ice for that 6v5

 

[mad4comp]

This team is too slow.. bring back the youngin's and start them.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Outhustled twice while up a man…..


Inexcusable……bag skate these MFers.

 

[max21]

Fire Laviolette haha jk

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

4th line was awful. Samsonov too many soft goals. Lavi with garbage ice time decisions. Another wonderful weekend matinee game!

 

[VaCaps Fan]

And that’s a wrap…

 

[pman25]

HDH is gonna play a lot in our 5 playoff games

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Backstrom looks so damn SLOW

Add a big piece please. Top 6 winger would be preferred. This team’s secondary scoring is nonexistent

omg….it’s bad…..I’m very scared he might be cooked. Hoping it’s just injury/rust.

 

[BallardEra]

Boston has 4 games in hand too. That WC2 spot looks like where the Caps might end up in a worst case scenario.

 

[caps4cup]

Really just an atrocious defensive first half of the game and then they give up a killer PK goal at the end of the 2nd. One of the few games they’ve lost in the past few weeks where they genuinely deserved to lose. And that’s why the lack of a PP and solid goaltending some of these recent games where they should’ve won, and didn’t, really matters. They’re going to have stinkers every once in a while and this was one of them. Need to win the games where you control play and they haven’t been doing enough of that. On to the next.

 

[ClevelandCapsfan]

HDH is gonna play a lot in our 5 playoff games

You do mean 4 games, I think.

 

[Capsman]

Our guys consistently being beaten twice on the 6x5 either speaks to lack of hustle or lack of team speed. Or perhaps both. This team is in trouble.

I’m having a hard time seeing Backstrom being much more than he is now by playoff time. He has hurt the team since his return to be blunt. Lavi is forcefeeding these guys ice time with the intention of getting them ready I guess down the road. I feel like he has sacrificed some areas like the PP, 3x3, and team energy/speed for what he believes is a greater good and he it could end up (yes) taking us out of s playoff position if not putting us into a brutal seed.

 

[SpinningEdge]

Not worried about standings. Caps still on well over a 100 point pace.

the issue is play and getting better. I don’t see any players “improving” as the season goes on. In fact, I see some players decreasing. Not good.

They need a spark - or a goaltender who can come in and be the number 1 guy. I don’t think any of our goalies can steal a series at all right now... and sometimes you need goaltending to make up for the other stuff.

 

[Siludin]

 

[caps4cup]

Not worried about standings. Caps still on well over a 100 point pace.

the issue is play and getting better. I don’t see any players “improving” as the season goes on. In fact, I see some players decreasing. Not good.

They need a spark - or a goaltender who can come in and be the number 1 guy. I don’t think any of our goalies can steal a series at all right now... and sometimes you need goaltending to make up for the other stuff.

This. More concerned with how they’re playing at this point. Pretty disappointed with how they played today, but overall I think they’ve been playing quite well, but have been dragged down by poor goaltending and an awful PP.

On a bright note, if Backstrom stays healthy, I think the PP will be fine, which will help quite a bit. Goaltending is still an issue, even though I thought it was fine today.

If they keep playing how they’re playing, and either the PP or goaltending is average or better the rest of the way, I have a hard time seeing them not finish top 3 in the Metro.

 

[Capitals40]

We are losing to mediocre and bad teams. If they keep playing like this there will be some more beat downs ahead for this team.

 

[Holtbyisms]

f***ing brutal effort today. This team is really bad right now. Draft a goalie next year, Sammy ain't it, Vitek ain't it.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Our guys consistently being beaten twice on the 6x5 either speaks to lack of hustle or lack of team speed. Or perhaps both. This team is in trouble.

I’m having a hard time seeing Backstrom being much more than he is now by playoff time. He has hurt the team since his return to be blunt. Lavi is forcefeeding these guys ice time with the intention of getting them ready I guess down the road. I feel like he has sacrificed some areas like the PP, 3x3, and team energy/speed for what he believes is a greater good and he it could end up (yes) taking us out of s playoff position if not putting us into a brutal seed.

Agreed on part 1, but not this part about Backstrom. Hurt is too strong….he’s just kinda there filling space.

What are the options, more Dowd?

 

[DWGie26]

This team is out of synch right now. I think the platoon of guys is getting to them a bit now as we just can’t ice our full team (minus Mantha). The thing they need now is consistency across the lineup including goaltending. We’ll get there but going through the mud sucks!

 

[RedRocking]

On the bright side Wilson and the PP got going this weekend. Hopefully that continues. Maybe Backstrom skates himself into shape, and Oshie comes back at some point as something resembling himself. We played well enough to win - guys had a lot of good looks, just couldn’t bury them.

Our issues are the same - lack of secondary scoring, opponents’ goalie better than ours, HDH as our 2nd line. I hope Lavi rips Dowd and Hathaway for all these dumb penalties.

I don’t see how we can get around the core being old and (at least currently) not having a G that can steal a game when needed. There’s only so many pie in the sky trade scenarios.

We will win games playing defensive, low event hockey like yesterday.

 

[g00n]

b2b afternoon games in January with travel in between

I was not expecting a buzzsaw effort

 

[Corby78]

This team is in trouble.