League News: 2016-17 General NHL Fan Talk - Free Agency Fallout (News n' Scores n' Stuff)

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CapitalsCupReality

It’s Go Time!!
Feb 27, 2002
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And reasonably lost in 6 games in the 2nd round to a rookie coach while fielding the best team in the league. Just like having Nashville fall apart in the playoffs twice when they were icing Finals caliber teams.

guess what, only one team wins the Cup. Put down the haterade.
 

txpd

Registered User
Jan 25, 2003
69,649
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New Bern, NC
So your point is they lost to an inferior team with an unestablished, though non-rookie head coach with far less experience than Trotz?

Wow my bad I was totally wrong, Trotz should get a pass for getting outcoached yet again and doing his best postseason BB impression.

If they flame out in the 2nd round again this year I'll be sure to hit you up for all the asterisks as to why it's not as bad as it may sound.

ooooh. what about best second half record in the league and 2nd in the east screams inferior to you?

which of Trotz Nashville teams were finals caliber teams? he never finished higher than 2nd in his division.
 

Revelation

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Aug 15, 2016
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ooooh. what about best second half record in the league and 2nd in the east screams inferior to you?

which of Trotz Nashville teams were finals caliber teams? he never finished higher than 2nd in his division.

Both the Forsberg team and the Suter UFA year team were on paper powerful enough to come out of the West. The Suter UFA team lost in the 2nd round to the freaking Coyotes after imploding under Trotz (which was blamed on Radulov being 15 minutes late from dinner so he and Poile could save their *****).
 

Revelation

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Aug 15, 2016
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guess what, only one team wins the Cup. Put down the haterade.

Does only one team make it past the 2nd round too? Something Trotz also has never done over almost 20 years in the league.

He can't coach clutch games that require strategic adjustment, much like Boudreau. Sullivan exploited his lack of defensive mobility and his response was to double down on it.
 

MrGone

Registered User
Nov 18, 2009
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Does only one team make it past the 2nd round too? Something Trotz also has never done over almost 20 years in the league.

He can't coach clutch games that require strategic adjustment, much like Boudreau. Sullivan exploited his lack of defensive mobility and his response was to double down on it.

It does not matter who the coach is. They come and go and this team still does not get up for big games. Most big games they are good for a to little to late push in the 3rd.
 

RandyHolt

Keep truckin'
Nov 3, 2006
34,639
6,800
I think the team only gets up for big games. When the big game gets here, they are lost because being up for the game, is not enough to win. The opponent is always up for the big game as well. We are not polished at all in our attack since we never give the effort needed to get it to be the game we play night in and night out.

Absent in our recent playoffs are logical adjustments. We are more likely to do the illogical move. One that still irks me, was Flash suddenly promoted to PP1 vs Monty, and he just got destroyed on the boards and the PP tanked.

Last year after Willy tried to scare Cleary, the hitting by our forwards stopped and we were dead in the water. Getting embarrassed by odd mans for 4 games, Barry did nothing but shuffle dmen like a deck of cards.

Coaching has been all over the place... Bruce mega O with goalie shakeups/meltdowns, Dale mega D, Oates who knows, Barry classic old school based on a backbone of solid D. We got Barry as the league further evolved to a more aggressive modern attack. You'd hope in 20 years he'd have been able to hunker to the 3rd round at least one time. Dale vilified and hated for his style did as good as Barry ever did in just over half a season.
 

MrGone

Registered User
Nov 18, 2009
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The things that make playoff hockey so great I get from watching other games not the Caps. Guys skating like its the last shift of there life and hitting everything. Having a few late PP in a row to make it feel like a good effort does not represent what was going on most of the time.
 

Revelation

Registered User
Aug 15, 2016
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This wasn't a case of a winning coach coming to the caps and held back by our weak willed team. This was a coach who never got further than the caps and had a history of not being particularly good at coaching in the playoffs.
 

txpd

Registered User
Jan 25, 2003
69,649
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New Bern, NC
I questioned trotz playoff resume before they hired him.
That said I am not sure I understand damming trotz for losing as a 2 seed and for losing to a 2 seed. With the current playoff system losing in the second round doesn't say what it used to. The effective ecf was in the 2n round.
 

Revelation

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Aug 15, 2016
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He can be scrutinized because he was outcoached horribly. The caps got outplayed by the Pens when their #1D was suspended. He adjusted away from exploiting that. If you think Schmidt isn't doing it you put someone like Ness in who can at least skate with the other team and who has been defensively sound this year. Not Mike Weber who has been an utter pylon for a few years with a history of being utterly torched by the Pens. Having Mike Richards center his 3rd line after having 30 games to see that he had absolutely nothing left to offer anywhere but on the PK and neutering Johansson in the process by putting him on RW who was one of our guys who could match the Pens speed. Reconfigure the bottom 6 as Chimera-Johansson-Beagle (but he takes FO) with a fast two way identity and Winnik-Richards-Wilson with a crash bang 1st PK/5 minute ES time unit identity and they'd have had much more of a chance.

The year before he got beat by the Rangers playing the same fast game. He had a year to prepare and the team was even worse at dealing with it.

Hopefully he manages to put together fast lines this time. We have a ton of fast players now. Vrana, Johansson, Burakovsky, Beagle, Eller. OV can sprint his ass off and Kuz is the fastest guy with the puck. Make something of it.
 
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artilector

Registered User
Jan 11, 2006
8,351
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He can be scrutinized because he was outcoached horribly. The caps got outplayed by the Pens when their #1D was suspended. He adjusted away from exploiting that. If you think Schmidt isn't doing it you put someone like Ness in who can at least skate with the other team and who has been defensively sound this year. Not Mike Weber who has been an utter pylon for a few years with a history of being utterly torched by the Pens. Having Mike Richards center his 3rd line after having 30 games to see that he had absolutely nothing left to offer anywhere but on the PK and neutering Johansson in the process by putting him on RW who was one of our guys who could match the Pens speed. Reconfigure the bottom 6 as Chimera-Johansson-Beagle (but he takes FO) with a fast two way identity and Winnik-Richards-Wilson with a crash bang 1st PK/5 minute ES time unit identity and they'd have had much more of a chance.

The year before he got beat by the Rangers playing the same fast game. He had a year to prepare and the team was even worse at dealing with it.

Hopefully he manages to put together fast lines this time. We have a ton of fast players now. Vrana, Johansson, Burakovsky, Beagle, Eller. OV can sprint his ass off and Kuz is the fastest guy with the puck. Make something of it.

IMO, out of the players you listed, only (maybe) Johansson and (maybe) Vrana are consistently above average fast. Also, Schmidt - definitely.

(Mojo definitely has the wheels, but he rarely dials his speed up. Vrana.. a bit hard to tell his real level yet).
 

bur and 666 others

Registered User
Jun 13, 2012
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It's not about players being fast, it's about system being fast. jackets and penguins employed from D to F breakaways and are succeeding now. the caps still do D to D passes before getting out from their own zone, that's why they are slow imho
 

artilector

Registered User
Jan 11, 2006
8,351
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It's not about players being fast, it's about system being fast. jackets and penguins employed from D to F breakaways and are succeeding now. the caps still do D to D passes before getting out from their own zone, that's why they are slow imho

Sure, but physical speed will always be a significant component. For one thing, getting the puck back has a lot to do with it -- how quickly you close down opponents and get to loose pucks, and get your sticks in lanes to force turnovers, etc; on offense, how much speed your forwards carry when they enter the zone, and again -- how fast they close down on defenders to prevent them clearing the puck.

Anyway, elite teams need - and tend to have - both components at a high level.

I guess you can be closer to average and still compete if you can slow the game down to your level by using physicality, size, elite cycling game. Ducks, Bruins, Kings... Well, after Ward-Fehr-Chimera came to an end, the Caps don't really have the personnel to be elite in that category.

For this season... Trotz is not gonna change his stripes, BMac is not gonna be able to significantly change the composition.. but there's always hope for some insane chemistry, somehow, and individual brilliance. With solid defense and Holtby, that should give a chance!
 

bur and 666 others

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Jun 13, 2012
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Columbus won 14th straight and Minni 12th. Will be an interesting match between two on Dec 31, Checked up the end of the columbus game, they are themselves even tired from winning. No one (besides tortorella) is happy after the game lol.
 

txpd

Registered User
Jan 25, 2003
69,649
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New Bern, NC
a look at the standings. the top wild card team has a legit chance of having more standings points than the division winner opponent in the first round, montreal. hilarious.

the first round metro match will have the 2 and 3 seeds while the first round match in the other division will be 7 vs 8
 

twabby

Registered User
Mar 9, 2010
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14,439
a look at the standings. the top wild card team has a legit chance of having more standings points than the division winner opponent in the first round, montreal. hilarious.

the first round metro match will have the 2 and 3 seeds while the first round match in the other division will be 7 vs 8

4th in the Metro could be a very coveted position to be in.
 

Revelation

Registered User
Aug 15, 2016
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IMO, out of the players you listed, only (maybe) Johansson and (maybe) Vrana are consistently above average fast. Also, Schmidt - definitely.

(Mojo definitely has the wheels, but he rarely dials his speed up. Vrana.. a bit hard to tell his real level yet).

Beagle is definitely fast. Not a burner but he gets to pucks before anybody because of his motor/anticipation and his skating ability is above average.

Burakovsky is pretty fast, Kuzy is our fastest guy with the puck. He's like Scott Gomez... breezes through the neutral zone with it then does Scott Gomez stuff in the offensive zone :facepalm: Winnik scores most of his goals off of odd man rushes. Eller has good top speed

If they wanted to exploit the speed for this roster

Ovechkin Backstrom Williams
Johansson Kuznetsov Oshie
Burakovsky Eller Connolly
Winnik Beagle Vrana

Oshie is slow but crafty enough to be in the right place at the right time, and every player in the bottom 6 can skate well.
 

AlexBrovechkin8

At least there was 2018.
Sponsor
Feb 18, 2012
26,743
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District of Champions
I seriously doubt anyone is going to covet having to play against Carey Price.

I'd much rather play Price and the Habs than either the Rangers or Penguins. Plus, whoever wins that series stays in the Atlantic division, right? So you get the winner of Ottawa/Boston/Toronto/Tampa/Florida as opposed to Columbus/Pitt/NYR/Philly? Maybe I'm wrong. I hate this format.
 

Hivemind

We're Touched
Oct 8, 2010
37,008
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Philadelphia
I'd much rather play Price and the Habs than either the Rangers or Penguins. Plus, whoever wins that series stays in the Atlantic division, right? So you get the winner of Ottawa/Boston/Toronto/Tampa/Florida as opposed to Columbus/Pitt/NYR/Philly? Maybe I'm wrong. I hate this format.

I'm just saying that nobody looks forward to facing off against an elite goaltender in the playoffs. A couple dominant games and your season is over. The Atlantic is definitely the easier path overall, but the wild card team will still have to get past a Vezina-candidate in order to get to the squishier opponents.

Plus a healthy Tampa should be on par with the Metro teams, but there's no guarantee Tampa will get healthy and gel in time.
 
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