Speculation: What changes should be made for this team to be successful?

[DCRedhawk21]

Without completely gutting the team:

1.) Get a top pairing LD and roll LD - Carlson as the first pair and Alzner - Green as the second pair, with Schmidt - Orlov as the third
2.) Play Green on the PP or get rid of him.
3.) Try to upgrade the 2RW spot. I don't hate Brouwer at all, but he's a luxury and I'm just not sure how much a net gain he is over a combination of Fehr and Ward on the PP.
4.) I would propose a new coach, I'm not sold at all on Oates as a HC. So there's that.

 

[Langway]

Honestly...bring in Mark & Dale Hunter and start over. It's probably the closest thing to an option as far as building a real program goes top to bottom.

But very doubtful they do anything so drastic. Fenton/Benning and Laviolette/Stevens seem like the best GM and coach options, respectively. Any new coach of this bunch must emphasize puck possession through the neutral zone and not their current surrender philosophy. Maybe that requires getting faster up front and gutting some of their slower players. So be it. Center and defense depth must be addressed.

Everything follows from overhauling management and the coaching staff.

 

[txpd]

You don't need a wholesale sell off to correct the direction.

1. You need an owner to finally decide an average team with spurts of excellence isn't good enough.
2. You need a GM who will address all of the short comings of this team and also not accept mediocrity. He'll trade players who don't perform or stash them in the minors.
3. You need a coach that will hold everyone accountable for their performance and not be afraid to sit someone to send them a message. Play correctly or sit on the bench and watch.

LOL. so getting a new owner and a new management staff is a wholesale change?

btw...the last wholesale change didn't lead to a cup or even a conference final. doing it over again doesn't mean they will get there either.
2. I think your thinking of major roster movement at any time belies the reality of the league nowdays.

3. had a coach that benched all the good players. they lost in the second round.

 

[Calicaps]

Honestly...bring in Mark & Dale Hunter and start over. It's probably the closest thing to an option as far as building a real program goes top to bottom.

But very doubtful they do anything so drastic. Fenton/Benning and Laviolette/Stevens seem like the best GM and coach options, respectively. Any new coach of this bunch must emphasize puck possession through the neutral zone and not their current surrender philosophy. Maybe that requires getting faster up front and gutting some of their slower players. So be it. Center and defense depth must be addressed.

Everything follows from overhauling management and the coaching staff.

Bringing in the Hunters means trading Ovie. Would you be good with that?

Personally, I don't want any more legacy Caps anywhere near this team. Get somebody with a history of, you know, winning.

 

[ChibiPooky]

It starts with firing George McPhee, Adam Oates, Calle Johansson, and Olaf Kolzig. Let the new GM build his staff from the ground up, in alignment with his vision for the team.

Then, give the new GM flexibility at the draft to reshape the roster in accordance with his vision.

 

[txpd]

Honestly...bring in Mark & Dale Hunter and start over. It's probably the closest thing to an option as far as building a real program goes top to bottom.

But very doubtful they do anything so drastic. Fenton/Benning and Laviolette/Stevens seem like the best GM and coach options, respectively. Any new coach of this bunch must emphasize puck possession through the neutral zone and not their current surrender philosophy. Maybe that requires getting faster up front and gutting some of their slower players. So be it. Center and defense depth must be addressed.

Everything follows from overhauling management and the coaching staff.

Dale Hunter didn't believe in puck possession thru the neutral zone. Did he? He wanted the pucked dumped in as soon after the redline as possible and then send in one guy on the forecheck.

I like the idea of going all Hunter hockey, but that means trading Ovechkin and Backstrom and Kuznetsov, These are not HH type players. Wilson on the other hand would be the guy.

I am not against it at all. Just saying that bring back the Hunter boys and the Ovechkin era needs to be done.

 

[Langway]

Bringing in the Hunters means trading Ovie. Would you be good with that?

Potentially, yes. I mean, it's unfortunate and certainly he's a rare player but...not sure he's ever going to win anything here anyway. Not without a considerable amount of stability and structure around him. Maybe a new GM can manage that but if your $9M+ player needs that for the team to be successful then...well...

It's the same deal with Green in many respects. Hell of an offensive talent (at least at one time) but a player that's grown so many bad habits. Again, maybe a new GM can reset, refresh and get them playing at the levels they need to be at but maybe these core players are bound to soil things either way.

txpd: I don't disagree. Hence, this bunch.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

If you really want them to win, I would clean house in the front office and then trade the former young guys for a reset. That includes 8.

The only thing we've tried since Ovechkin was drafted was to send him out there alone and ask him to win by himself. The other option we should try BEFORE giving up on him is to build a team around him.

For most of us, we'll never see a player of Ovie's raw ability in a Caps uniform again.

 

[Liberati0n*]

Knowing that they will keep Ovechkin no matter what, I think a new GM should approach building the roster as if he's not building it around Ovechkin. There's going to come a time when he just isn't scoring as many goals anyway. Figuring out if Backstrom is a player they can build around (he isn't one this year) is pretty crucial. If not, they need to kick the foals to the curb and go get that stud horse to build a line around.

 

[NobodyBeatsTheWiz]

No interest whatsoever in the Hunter boys. Get away from guys with organizational ties to an organization that's never won anything.

 

[Fallschirmyager]

LOL. so getting a new owner and a new management staff is a wholesale change?

btw...the last wholesale change didn't lead to a cup or even a conference final. doing it over again doesn't mean they will get there either.
2. I think your thinking of major roster movement at any time belies the reality of the league nowdays.

3. had a coach that benched all the good players. they lost in the second round.

1. Read my post again. I never said a wholesale change was needed. I said the owner and GM have to change their minds and not accept average results. Most importantly Leonsis needs to tell who ever is the GM that his job rests on results and not the length of his contract.

2. You made my point for me. This GM has had 15 years and a complete rebuild to get out of the second round and has only gotten to the 2nd round twice. He has proven himself so risk averse in trades and FA signings that he has never adequately fixed the weak defensive core. Yes he's made some good trades but tell me which of them helped to shore up the D? The only team in GMGMs tenure that made it out of the 2nd round, he didn't build. Poile did.

4. An offensive minded coach didn't get beyond the 2nd round either. There's is a major difference between Hunter reducing ice time as a matter of course regardless of how Ovy played and a coach saying if you don't back check you can sit. Lets not forget that we are now on our 5th straight rookie coach. Yes Boudreau has pretty good success but as mentioned, he didn't make it out of the 2nd round either. 1 out of 5 sucks as an average.

This team needs new leadership and vision along with accountability. This GM has had his time and it didn't work. Continuing down this path only shows the league and fans that this owner doesn't actually care about winning. It's that simple. When on a national telecast a commentator states "there's just a few loose ends to tie up" in reference to the organization it's telling.

 

[Midnight Judges]

It starts with firing George McPhee, Adam Oates, Calle Johansson, and Olaf Kolzig.

I am on this bandwagon. Love these guys, would love to have a beer with them, but things aren't working out. Time for a change.

My vote is for Laviolette.

 

[g00n]

None of it will matter if you have a coach and GM who are not on the same page. I think it's clear that GMGM has his preferences and goals when it comes to roster building, and while some input from coaches may be taken into account from what I've read/heard/seen he mostly just pushes the players on the coach and gets out of the way.

This is why the team has no identity.

This is why a talented squad with some grit thrown in was able to excel under BB. It's why that same squad never had the defensive depth and sturdiness to stand on its own when teams figured out how to stop the Caps offense, and defensive systems like the trap or Hunter Hockey were needed. It's why Hunter's grinder style with a mixed bag of forwards and a soft, puck-moving defense showed limited results but caused so much friction. And it's why this team under Oates and his asinine handedness system is probably the biggest cluster**** yet, with still more revolving door goalie changes hoping some puck-stopping wizard will somehow cover it all up.

So there are a few things you can do. You can either keep GMGM and find a coach that ADAPTS his approach to the roster provided, or you can find another GM and pick a top-down, bottom-up or collaborative approach between him and his coach. Anything else and you're just banking on the same puck luck and hot goalies we lament every night to somehow bail us out 16 times in the playoffs.

edit: and of course, all of that starts at the top. If you have a culture in place that says a playoff bid and attendance/revenue are the goals, everything else is "would like to have" type gravy, then you're going to have a GM and structure that builds rosters and markets with that in mind.

 

[Chimaera]

fire ted.

 

[strungout]

Its pretty crazy that we're all nearly on the same page for once.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

I am on this bandwagon. Love these guys, would love to have a beer with them, but things aren't working out. Time for a change.

My vote is for Laviolette.

I'd prefer a glass of wine with Kolzig.

 

[Calicaps]

Its pretty crazy that we're all nearly on the same page for once.

It's just crystal clear. And it's what gives me hope that even Ted can't ignore it anymore.

Tangentially, I've seen several posters saying GM won't be let go because the injury excuse. This is a reasonable concern, but I think ultimately erroneous this time. Here's why:

During the home and home with Pitt, both broadcast crews devoted a ton of time to the Pens dozens (hundreds?) of man games lost this season and to the impressive organizational depth and management that's permitted them to thrive anyway.

To my mind, and maybe its just wishful thinking, the injury issue is no longer an excuse and has become an indictment. By comparison with an effectively run organization, our well is dry. We are crushed under the weight of injuries to relatively minor players because we have no depth. It is a glaring failure of McPhee's that this team can't survive an injury to Jack ****ing Hillen, and I can't imagine even Ted doesn't see that.

 

[Calicaps]

I'd prefer a glass of wine with Kolzig.

I loved those ads.

 

[MrGone]

brouwer bash I am not up for. trading brouwer to keep ward and to open a spot in the lineup for Wilson, I am fine with. I enjoyed watching Wilson and Kuznetsov together last night much moreso than watching Ov with Beagle.

I am not in favor of trading Green but if he is not going to be on the 1st pp unit, then keeping him is a waste of time.

I am over Oates. Replacing McPhee is fine. I think all of that is deck chairs though. The Caps are who they are and will need something special to happen to get them over the hump they have built for themselves over their history and added on to in the OV era.

If you really want them to win, I would clean house in the front office and then trade the former young guys for a reset. That includes 8.

What part of his game makes him a #1 on a good team?

How much worse does he have to get before you are willing to see it?

 

[Liberati0n*]

There haven't even been any injuries. Brooks Laich? Is there a team in the league that hasn't lost a comparable forward for at least as much time?

 

[Calicaps]

There haven't even been any injuries. Brooks Laich? Is there a team in the league that hasn't lost a comparable forward for at least as much time?

Laich, Hillen, Erskine, Grabo. My point exactly.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

There haven't even been any injuries. Brooks Laich? Is there a team in the league that hasn't lost a comparable forward for at least as much time?

It depends if you think Laich is more like Mike Richards or Scottie Upshall.

 

[Liberati0n*]

I forgot about Grabovski, but yeah, still.

 

[Fallschirmyager]

It's just crystal clear. And it's what gives me hope that even Ted can't ignore it anymore.

Tangentially, I've seen several posters saying GM won't be let go because the injury excuse. This is a reasonable concern, but I think ultimately erroneous this time. Here's why:

During the home and home with Pitt, both broadcast crews devoted a ton of time to the Pens dozens (hundreds?) of man games lost this season and to the impressive organizational depth and management that's permitted them to thrive anyway.

To my mind, and maybe its just wishful thinking, the injury issue is no longer an excuse and has become an indictment. By comparison with an effectively run organization, our well is dry. We are crushed under the weight of injuries to relatively minor players because we have no depth. It is a glaring failure of McPhee's that this team can't survive an injury to Jack ****ing Hillen, and I can't imagine even Ted doesn't see that.

It would be one thing if we started the year out with a solid D core and had a string of injuries but that was a serious weak point to begin with. The injuries simply made not fixing it more obvious.

 

[Chimaera]

Its pretty crazy that we're all nearly on the same page for once.

I might get flamed, but I'm not completely out on GMGM.

I'm still nervous about what may come instead. It's a difficult move with an owner who doesn't really have a track record of picking great GMs, and who will stick with a guy for a while. He also has a reputation of not wanting to pay top dollar.

I think he should go, as long as there's a suitable replacement. But there's no telling on that.

While I do think GMGM has had enough time, I still respect the talent he has been able to get in the draft. He's not able to do it in the UFA market, and his trades haven't paid off, but he's found a lot more NHLers than many of his peers through the draft. If that's Mahoney, so be it.


I would be fine if they fire GMGM. I just want to make sure we don't end up as a doormat for the next 10 years instead of a team that should make the playoffs regularly with a decent coach, even if they're no threat to win it all.