A sickening amount of skill on that 3-1 Landeskog goal. That was pretty mean to Minnesota. Look at all those happy Colorado players and fans. Classless.
Every smart coach knows you've got to play miserable hockey because other teams want to win...or something.
So did Roenick really just say that 63 point MacKinnon is a more dominant 18 year old than 102 point Crosby was?
Roenick just said MacKinnon will be in the HOF and is playing better than Crosby was at 18.
This is the first I've really seen of him and I'd tend to agree. Just filthy.
Amazingly this is what playoff hockey teams look like. The Caps aren't even close to this level of play.
Amazingly this is what playoff hockey teams look like. The Caps aren't even close to this level of play.
And yet their PP apparently is designed to never put anyone in position to easily get a decent shot off. Maybe it isn't all so simple afterall.
I'm not in anyway defending Oates.
The strength of the Caps power play was one of the few bright spots of the season - tactically, the set-up employed by Oates (Forsyth?) really seemed to fit the skills and strengths of the guys.
Which is why it's so fuggin bizarre that 5x5 Oates made just a ton of confounding player deployment issues. How could a guy capable of installing a power play that seemed to ideally fit the skills of the players he had at his disposal, also so utterly fail in so many other aspects of the game to coach in a manner suited to the strengths of those same players.
Beyond coaching tactics though - successful NHL teams play with heart and determination. The Caps were bereft of both this year. The intensity of these playoffs games is at a level that this year's Caps team just never approached for some reason - which suggests some bad mojo either between players and coach, or players themselves. Teams either play for each other or play for their coach - the Caps don't do either.
I have heard it referenced before on the MvsW podcast that Adam Oates doesn't understand 5 on 5 hockey, and never really did as a player. Looking at his stats on hockey reference he scored a substantial portion of his goals and assists on the PP.
Might make some sense as to why the caps have been abysmal at 5v5 this year
Ovechkin with Datsyuk would be amazing.
Backstrom isn't even close to Datsyuk.
backstrom is one of the most overrated players in the league i think. he's just a swedish mikko koivu that happens to play with ovechkin.