Are you sold on Marcus Johansson as the new full time 2C?

[AlexBrovechkin8]

He's our most improved player, without a doubt, and in the discussion for biggest pleasant surprise as well (which I'd have to give to Ward -- 9 goals already?? Or Chimmer, whom I thought was done last season).

If he turns out to be as good as he's showing, and we can lock up Grabo to a fair extension, I really like our center depth moving forward. Backs, MaJo, Grabo, Latta would be top 3-4 in the EC.

 

[Calicaps]

He's our most improved player, without a doubt, and in the discussion for biggest pleasant surprise as well (which I'd have to give to Ward -- 9 goals already?? Or Chimmer, whom I thought was done last season).

If he turns out to be as good as he's showing, and we can lock up Grabo to a fair extension, I really like our center depth moving forward. Backs, MaJo, Grabo, Latta would be top 3-4 in the EC.

Basically what he said, but I voted no, not yet. I really like how he's played since moving to C, but the sample size is still too small to draw major conclusions. Will keep watching his play closely and with optimism.

 

[txpd]

sold? yes and no. is he as good a 2c as the better in the league? no. could he be and is he still growing as a player? yes. he is a player to plan that position around ? of course. this is why McPhee has been sticking one year contracts in that role the last couple of years while many here have been demanding a long term solution.

Johansson is the long term solution.

btw...with some hindsight available now. go back and look at that draft. look at the 5 players below and 10 players above where he is drafted and see how many are still trying to establish themselves as nhl players much less already delivering top half of the lineup production.

 

[BobRouse]

sold? yes and no. is he as good a 2c as the better in the league? no. could he be and is he still growing as a player? yes. he is a player to plan that position around ? of course. this is why McPhee has been sticking one year contracts in that role the last couple of years while many here have been demanding a long term solution.

Johansson is the long term solution.

btw...with some hindsight available now. go back and look at that draft. look at the 5 players below and 10 players above where he is drafted and see how many are still trying to establish themselves as nhl players much less already delivering top half of the lineup production.

NOTE: You can look at Green, Carlson, Varlamov, and Kuznetsov and make an argument that they all should have gone considerably higher as well.

I don't know if MJ is the long term solution or not but he is developing more and more every year.

He just seems to have more chemistry with 8+19 as of now on the LW.

Brouwer and Laich seem to drag everyone down. What a couple of buzzkills so far this year. Poor MJ

 

[Hivemind]

Interesting stat from an article on Japer's Rink this morning. Ovechkin has 7 even-strength goals this year. Johansson has had the primary assist on 6 of them.

 

[Stewie G]

Interesting stat from an article on Japer's Rink this morning. Ovechkin has 7 even-strength goals this year. Johansson has had the primary assist on 6 of them.

That is interesting indeed. I thought a number of his ES goals had come from shots directly off faceoffs won by Backstrom.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

That is interesting indeed. I thought a number of his ES goals had come from shots directly off faceoffs won by Backstrom.

There's at least one FO goal (I'm pretty sure it was against Edmonton) where Backstrom won the draw clean and MJ fed a perfect pass to AO. It happened so quick it was barely noticeable.

 

[BobRouse]

I saw that MJ stat as well.

Combine that with the fact the Grabovski's play has taken a huge upturn since being moved off the 2nd line it really leads me to believe Laich and Brouwer have sucked far harder than I suspected.

I'd have to think its only a matter of time before they get demoted. I guess they have to stick together since Oates feels they PK together. I think this is a good thing because we don't need their suck spread to two separate lines.

 

[Hivemind]

I saw that MJ stat as well.

Combine that with the fact the Grabovski's play has taken a huge upturn since being moved off the 2nd line it really leads me to believe Laich and Brouwer have sucked far harder than I suspected.

I'd have to think its only a matter of time before they get demoted. I guess they have to stick together since Oates feels they PK together. I think this is a good thing because we don't need their suck spread to two separate lines.

My personal hope is that breaking them up won't spread their suck to two separate lines, but thin out the suck enough that the linemates can compensate for it. Or to put it another way, I'm hoping they can find better chemistry when they're not together at even-strength. Sometimes having two north-south guys works (Chimera+Ward), other times they need to be around creative/skilled players to get the most production out of them (as has been the case with Brouwer and to a lesser extent Laich through their careers).

 

[BobRouse]

My personal hope is that breaking them up won't spread their suck to two separate lines, but thin out the suck enough that the linemates can compensate for it. Or to put it another way, I'm hoping they can find better chemistry when they're not together at even-strength. Sometimes having two north-south guys works (Chimera+Ward), other times they need to be around creative/skilled players to get the most production out of them (as has been the case with Brouwer and to a lesser extent Laich through their careers).

Thats awful risky! ha The problem I think is that I wouldn't put either of them on lines 1 or 3. Thats a non starter.

So that leaves line 4 who they themselves have played well and all are excellently molded 4th liners. I think that Volpatti is a superior 4th line LW to Laich due to his energy and physical play.

Its becoming difficult to ignore how bad these two have been. I'm more and more warming up to the idea of trading one or both at this point. PK be damned.

I really do feel bad for Erat or MJ. One of them will be stuck with these two.

To make matters worse I doubt Oates can bench either guy without making the GM lose face or just lowering their trade value.

 

[HeyMattyB]

I'll reserve judgement on Mojo as a 2C until I've seen him play with a legitimate 2LW and 2RW.

 

[Stewie G]

I know Brouwer and Laich have been good on the PK, but trading one of them isn't going to send it spiraling into the abyss. Fehr looked pretty good to me as a PKer. He might not be one of the first 2 sent out, but he can do a decent job. I wouldn't let their PK ability be even a tiny factor when considering a trade.

 

[BobRouse]

I know Brouwer and Laich have been good on the PK, but trading one of them isn't going to send it spiraling into the abyss. Fehr looked pretty good to me as a PKer. He might not be one of the first 2 sent out, but he can do a decent job. I wouldn't let their PK ability be even a tiny factor when considering a trade.

One thing we can't value however is the disruption it may or may not cause in the locker room.

I know people give them a hard time but both Brouwer and Laich are vocal outgoing guys and are integrated into the team.

I've seen trades (Bulis/Zednik and Flash) that were great on paper. Guys who didn't seem important who brought in better value than what was lost. However both trades ended up hurting the fabric of the team.

Its something that has to be kept in mind and its hard for us armchair GMs to valuate.

That said I certainly am loosening my stance with each passing game that one of them should be made available depending on the return. Obviously if they are THAT important in the locker room.

 

[HOLDITHERE*]

Absolutely not.

 

[artilector]

My personal hope is that breaking them up won't spread their suck to two separate lines, but thin out the suck enough that the linemates can compensate for it. Or to put it another way, I'm hoping they can find better chemistry when they're not together at even-strength. Sometimes having two north-south guys works (Chimera+Ward), other times they need to be around creative/skilled players to get the most production out of them (as has been the case with Brouwer and to a lesser extent Laich through their careers).

I'd much rather see one or both traded, but until then, sure, Caps have to find some combination that is better than the current zero.

This is where the problem with the "untouchable" Backstrom-Ovi pairing comes up again. Unlike the "3rd" line that is great in reality, the "1st" line is only great on paper, but for some reason splitting Backstrom and Ovi is still a heretical proposition. The laugh-or-cry aspect of it is that it is physically impossible to rearrange the 1st and 3rd lines in a way that would make them offensively less effective than they are now, because their current ES production is for all intents and purposes zero!

So split up Ovi and Backstrom, throw dice to rearrange 1st and 3rd lines in arbitrary fashion, we'd be better off, it's that simple, short term at least. And long term... we'll all be dead

 

[Hivemind]

Thats awful risky! ha The problem I think is that I wouldn't put either of them on lines 1 or 3. Thats a non starter.

So that leaves line 4 who they themselves have played well and all are excellently molded 4th liners. I think that Volpatti is a superior 4th line LW to Laich due to his energy and physical play.

Its becoming difficult to ignore how bad these two have been. I'm more and more warming up to the idea of trading one or both at this point. PK be damned.

I really do feel bad for Erat or MJ. One of them will be stuck with these two.

To make matters worse I doubt Oates can bench either guy without making the GM lose face or just lowering their trade value.

The Erat-Backstrom-Ovechkin line has yet to score a goal when all three of them are on the ice, so that's hardly something that's untouchable. Their possession numbers have been good (aside of the Minnesota game), so there's hope that they start producing soon, but if the "2nd line" continues to suck, something has to be done. Backstrom and Ovechkin have worked well with a puck retriever/net front guy in the past, so there is some hope that Laich could work there.

As for the 4th line, I think Volpatti has played fine, but that line plays less than 7 minutes a game and 'Patti doesn't play on the PP or PK. I think Laich's penalty killing is worth changing that line up some for the few minutes it plays in order to keep Laich available of the PK (and 2nd powerplay unit, which he's somehow still on). And Laich has been a good 4th liner in the past (the Laich-Steckel-Bradley line was good).
If the change is at the RW position, I think Brouwer definitely could play on the 4th line without any issue. Obviously he wouldn't produce much there, but the 4th line isn't exactly lighting the lamp as it is. Where that leaves Wilson and Fehr is questionable (maybe give Wilson a game or two as 2RW and see what happens?). Hell, Laich-Latta-Brouwer could be used as the most expensive 4th line in the game if they really wanted.

And that Chimera-Grabovski-Ward line is going to cool down eventually. I wouldn't mind Laich being moved to 3C at that point one bit. Grabovski and Erat seem to have a bit of chemistry together, and could potentially spark the 2nd line if put together there. Hopefully Laich can rekindle his chemistry with Chimera and Ward, and at the very least it would be a good territorial/checking line.

I'd much rather see one or both traded, but until then, sure, Caps have to find some combination that is better than the current zero.

I don't disagree that one (preferably Brouwer) should be traded. Both is more questionable, unless a forward is coming back. Remove them both, and suddenly the forward depth on the team goes from being its biggest strength to a weakness, and we'd be putting a lot of eggs in the Chimera-Grabovski-Ward basket as a scoring line for the full season (Chimera would essentially become the full-time 2LW). Fully healthy it would be passable, but if an injury or two hit, the center and left wing depth would start looking awfully ugly.

 

[vippe]

MJ leads the league in primary assists with 12. Nicky for instance has only 4 and Crosby with just 6.

 

[SpringfieldSkins]

I'm not sold yet. I don't think he will ever be able to carry a line and his line mates aren't really helping things along. He needs a finisher on that line.

 

[Langway]

MJ leads the league in primary assists with 12. Nicky for instance has only 4 and Crosby with just 6.

His speed is such a major asset. With added strength and confidence he's starting to put it together.

Too early to tell if he's 2C material per se but I don't think there's much doubt he's a quality top six player. He needs to shoot more and become a bit more selfish, much like Backstrom, but otherwise there's a lot to like. He would look very good centering Burakovsky down the line I think.

 

[discobob]

75% sold, and very hopeful. Would be awesome if Kuznetsov's game translates as we hope...putting Backs-OV and MJ-Kuz could be a great 1-2. Just need to find complementary players as the third wheel on each line.

 

[FloridaCap]

Well he's back to 1LW instead of 2C because the first line blows with Erat.

That didn't last long.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

His speed is such a major asset. With added strength and confidence he's starting to put it together.

Too early to tell if he's 2C material per se but I don't think there's much doubt he's a quality top six player. He needs to shoot more and become a bit more selfish, much like Backstrom, but otherwise there's a lot to like. He would look very good centering Burakovsky down the line I think.

Did you see that burst through Center ice when it was 3 on 3??! Sick wheels.

Certainly 2C talent IMO. He's got holes in his game that he needs to close and he's a keeper in the top 6.

 

[txpd]

the holes in his game is what makes him a 2nd line level player. should he close those holes he would very likely be a legit top 3 player. I doubt the caps could afford to keep that.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

the holes in his game is what makes him a 2nd line level player. should he close those holes he would very likely be a legit top 3 player. I doubt the caps could afford to keep that.

Not IMO, it's the dropoff in his talent that makes him more likely a 2nd liner. There are plenty of 2nd liners in the NHL that are there because that's where they slot in their particular team (typically playing behind a better player on the top line), not because they're soft as marshmallow or have the upper body strength of a newborn.