Confirmed with Link: Washington Capitals name Spencer Carbery as new Head Coach

[Jersey Fan 12]

Also, we should temper our expectations a bit. He still has a roster that has anchors galore (Mantha, Backie, even Carlson) and should realistically be fighting for an 8th place spot at best.

Their top two centers are hot garbage at premium salaries.

Think you give the rest of the division too much credit. As the playoffs showed, other than the Hurricanes, the rest of the division was pretty flawed.

The Capitals, with a few moves and an infusion of some of the players from Hershey could turn things around sooner than expected.

 

[Jersey Fan 12]

Absolutely. And you see this with many over-orchestrated PP systems. Teams are playing a high tempo aggressive forecheck, they draw a penalty, and then the "clever" PP slows the pace with multiple passes around the defending 4-box until someone makes a mistake, and it turns over/gets mishandled and comes out of the offensive zone.

We need to not be that

And no slingshots, FFS.

There must be data justifying the use of the sling shot to create scoring chances. But from a logical and eye test perspective allowing the PK time to set its defensive structure would seem counterproductive.

 

[HTFN]

There must be data justifying the use of the sling shot to create scoring chances. But from a logical and eye test perspective allowing the PK time to set its defensive structure would seem counterproductive.

I'm no expert but I think that's actually what they want.

When the Capitals were running it well and it worked it seemed like running the option in football. They want the PK set through neutral so they can attack and try to force them to collapse early on one side or the other and deny the entry at the blue line, then protect by turning and hit the trailer with speed and open space. It's the best of both worlds for a PP because you'd rather reset and try again with possession than waste time chasing back down to your end and by default leaves a variety of options depending on how aggressive the PK is.

It's not a bad play, the problem became Carlson deciding he would just always do it every single time, which took a lot of the "option" out of the play and just looks like Carlson picking an arbitrary point in the neutral zone to turn and reset the play. He doesn't move his legs or attack the D enough to cause a collapse and everyone knows to play passive on him and watch the next wave coming.

If that doofus would take advantage of that like 2 times out of every 10 and try to catch the high forwards flat-footed instead of drifting into them at a glacial pace I don't think I'd really mind the slingshot but in the last few years it's become like watching a team run a QB option with Peyton Manning: you can pretend all you want but we all know who's going to run the ball

 

[kicksavedave]

Think you give the rest of the division too much credit. As the playoffs showed, other than the Hurricanes, the rest of the division was pretty flawed.

The Capitals, with a few moves and an infusion of some of the players from Hershey could turn things around sooner than expected.

The rest of the division is young and improving, the Caps are largely old and declining. I believe coaching makes a huge difference and I would not be surprised by the Caps making a solid push this year, but also would not be surprised if they end up injured and ineffective due to the age and boat anchors like Backie and Kuzy occupying $17M in caps space and being 3rd line quality players most nights. Bottom line to me is the Caps could finish 2nd or 10th and it wouldn't surprise me a bit.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

The rest of the division is young and improving, the Caps are largely old and declining. I believe coaching makes a huge difference and I would not be surprised by the Caps making a solid push this year, but also would not be surprised if they end up injured and ineffective due to the age and boat anchors like Backie and Kuzy occupying $17M in caps space and being 3rd line quality players most nights. Bottom line to me is the Caps could finish 2nd or 10th and it wouldn't surprise me a bit.

Way to hedge your bet Dave!

(They could be good or suck lol…)

 

[kicksavedave]

Way to hedge your bet Dave!

(They could be good or suck lol…)

Predictions... not my thing. Stay tuned for more scintillating commentary.

 

[ArmadilloThumb]

There must be data justifying the use of the sling shot to create scoring chances. But from a logical and eye test perspective allowing the PK time to set its defensive structure would seem counterproductive.

I agree with HTFN that it has been lost in execution. When it's done at speed, and only sparingly, it can catch forwards off guard. But it has become so expected, and often run at a turtle's pace, and then all you get is a super trap with the other team creating a wall at the blue line. Then you get a turn over or neutral zone puck battle, and the PP loses tempo.

Same thing happens with the over-thought or over carefully executed PP plan. Team is applying pressure and overwhelming opposition with pace and creating scoring chances and then draws a penalty. They send out the PP, and often the pace is gone because the mind set has changed, and focus go to the 'system ' PP - which then ends up with endless perimeter passing in hopes of finding the perfect shot as defined by the 'system'. Which then often actually results in a turnover or simply losing the zone.

Annoying.

 

[HTFN]

I agree with HTFN that it has been lost in execution. When it's done at speed, and only sparingly, it can catch forwards off guard. But it has become so expected, and often run at a turtle's pace, and then all you get is a super trap with the other team creating a wall at the blue line. Then you get a turn over or neutral zone puck battle, and the PP loses tempo.

Same thing happens with the over-thought or over carefully executed PP plan. Team is applying pressure and overwhelming opposition with pace and creating scoring chances and then draws a penalty. They send out the PP, and often the pace is gone because the mind set has changed, and focus go to the 'system ' PP - which then ends up with endless perimeter passing in hopes of finding the perfect shot as defined by the 'system'. Which then often actually results in a turnover or simply losing the zone.

Annoying.

exactly. The execution was poor and sometimes the decisions were made before conditions were met, which means they were just telegraphing instead of creating breakdowns.

Honestly that's something coaching could have fixed and I'm hoping it falls under the umbrella of what Carbery means when talking about how playing with pace isn't always about up and down speed. They had some real good puck handlers making some really uninspired, slow plays last year and it just didn't make any sense at all.

 

[John Price]