League News: 2014 Off-season Around the League Thread

[Langway]

Hey, I've seen that quit in front of your net before...

 

[Corby78]

I knew we should have picked up JD when the blues let him go, which was a mistake by the way. Now he has built one hard working, hard hitting all round solid team (st.louis) and is in the process of building a second (columbus). He will have built up 2 teams while we flounder.

 

[Blades of Steel]

ah, Pittsburgh fans very sad after that OT goal.

 

[Langway]

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.

 

[SpringfieldSkins]

This McKinon kid is pretty good.

 

[SimplySensational]

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.

Well to be fair, if the Capitals top line did that whether its MoJo or Backstrom in Landeskogs position, they're gonna try and pass it back to Ovechkin.

 

[Ovechtrick89*]

Goodness gracious look at the fluidity of the Avs! To say i am envious of the talent and desire of their lines is an understatement.

I would kill for our top line to produce play like that, oh but that would of course mean not playing hockey Pejorative Slurs like Mojo with Ovi and Backstrom.

 

[Blades of Steel]

Watching these games are awesome, but I'm jealous and it makes me hate the caps that much more... Ugh whyyyyy..

 

[SpringfieldSkins]

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.

 

[Ajax1995]

So did Roenick really just say that 63 point MacKinnon is a more dominant 18 year old than 102 point Crosby was?

 

[Blades of Steel]

So did Roenick really just say that 63 point MacKinnon is a more dominant 18 year old than 102 point Crosby was?

Yes, yes we heard it here too

 

[FloridaCap]

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.

He's good... but not that good. At least not yet.



Think CBJ would move Anisimov? He's 6'4, scores some goals, and actually stands in front of the net unlike our guys.

 

[KevinM]

MacKinnon looks absolutely amazing, what a stud for an undersized 18 year old. Just blows by guys and has great stick handling and vision, I'm super impressed.

 

[fsnoles98]

Amazingly this is what playoff hockey teams look like. The Caps aren't even close to this level of play.

 

[Blades of Steel]

Amazingly this is what playoff hockey teams look like. The Caps aren't even close to this level of play.

Nope, they would have been swept probably.

 

[usiel]

Amazingly this is what playoff hockey teams look like. The Caps aren't even close to this level of play.

This is why I was 'meh' about this season even before it started. Pretty clear with the roster that they wouldn't likely make it out of the first round. And yeah these playoff hockey games have all been entertaining.

 

[ryan519*]

have to root for the flyers in this series, lesser of two evils here. **** the rangers

they need steve mason back though. if his mysterious upper body injury is anything close to a concussion he could be out for the series though. damn lots of injuries in this year's playoffs

 

[marcel snapshot]

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.

 

[MoJoSauce]

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

 

[KevinM]

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

I'm not sure what you're talking about, Oates knows the power play and he knows goaltending, so he knows 5 on 5, it's his job dude.

 

[Chokingdogs]

flyers win!

 

[SimplySensational]

Ovechkin with Datsyuk would be amazing.

Backstrom isn't even close to Datsyuk.

 

[um]

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.

 

[Calicaps]

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.

He may be overrated, but I think we see the real Backstrom when he doesn't play with Ovi. And that version, generally, is better.

 

[SimplySensational]