Capitals review: 1/4 season mark.

[Calicaps]

I voted A. I wouldn't have given them an A+ had that been an option, but it's a solid A so far.

 

[Blades of Steel]

I voted A. I wouldn't have given them an A+ had that been an option, but it's a solid A so far.

agree, A- / B++ IMO

 

[Caps2Fan]

Excuse me for not reading the rest of the thread, but thought I'd throw in my quick 2 cents.

Gave a B. Definitely things can improve. I actually like the current D set up. Schmidt on that top line looks pretty good. I'll be sad to see him back on the third.

Burakovsky needs tons of work, but he'll get there and it's exciting to think how good he can be. I would love another year in Hershey for him.

MoJo needs to go go. He is now referred to as the Black Hole in my household.

Love the fourth line, love the top 6 (5) most of the time (8, 19, 77, 92, 14). I think I'd almost rather see Galiev in place of MoJo on that line, but I understand why MoJo is staying on the ice.

I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't foresee Kuznetsov being this good. He was decent last season, but man I didn't see this coming. Dude is ridiculous.

After buying a Grabovski jersey and seeing him leave quickly, I swore I'd never buy another jersey of someone who could potentially not be around very long. So much for that, and got an Oshie jersey...love that guy. Technically, the girlfriend bought it, so no harm no foul if he leaves These jersey's are INSANELY popular in DC. Everyone and their mother is getting an Oshie jersey. There are NONE in my size (small), so I went to have it custom made in the Verizon Center and they are completely out of SEVENS!!!! They have been for over a week. Poor inventory management? perhaps...but still.

 

[ThePsychicSaw]

How people are not happy with oshie is beyond me

Guy has been amazing. Snakebitten, He could easily have another 10pts, but bottom line is he drives different possession and type of play that this top6 has sorely needed. Williams as well.


Ideally, buraka gets back to form and no team chemistry is lost by trading laich and mojo and shoring up the bottom 6 legitimately.

But practically they just pickup a good bottom 6er at the trade deadline and not mess with chemistry and roll to at least ECF

 

[Raikkonen]

I don't know about anyone else, but I didn't foresee Kuznetsov being this good. He was decent last season, but man I didn't see this coming. Dude is ridiculous.

Dude was ridiculous from his youth days. Some claimed he was the best player not in NHL not long ago. Not only that, he was also a winner. Everybody knows that (c)

He had problems with shoulder injuries and then decided to sign a contract in KHL to get into Olympic roster. That went wrong obviously, but it seems that it helped to set his head straight.

Not long ago I said something along the lines of Kuzy being the best Russian C in 5 years. Yeah. Scratch that. There is a chance he's one next Fall in Toronto already. Especially if there is a decision to play him on a line with Ovi

His health and muscle strength still concerning me. But I don't remember if he was hit more than 5 times this season so far. I can recall only one huge hit (by Ovechkin ofc).

And maybe he doesn't need to bulk up much. Semin wasn't that heavy in his upper body, and he was hard to hit too just by his skating. While Kuz is this quick he can just avoid hits most probably. Bulking up will make him slower.

 

[Portable Mink]

A

Ive watched every minute of every game and for the most part, we have only really had 2 bad games. There have been some off periods like today, but thats going to happen.

Everyone is playing the system very well after a tiny 3 game slow start to the season (which also happens).

What can improve? well not a great deal. Perhaps recovering from a bad 5 minutes quicker but thats being picky. This team is great and overall has been great and the stats back it up.

 

[g00n]

How about we knock it off with the typical OT player value speculation and stick to the stated topic?

 

[msrulo]

I gave an A. I didn't expect it.

 

[BobRouse]

A easily.

Orlov, Schmidt and Kuznetsov all have had leaps in their play.

Orlov Corsi 5v5 is 56.3 and in close situations its 56.8. Schmidts has dipped to 52 largely due to tough assignments since Orpik has been out.

Kuznetsov has been awesome.

Oshie has been good. Williams has been outstanding. Chimera has been good and fortunate.

We have 5 regulation losses. I'd say we have outplayed the opponent in 4 of those! (Rangers, Detroit, Stars and Penguins...we outchanced and outshot all those teams and didn't get the breaks)

The other regulation loss was vs the Sharks sans Ovie and Backstrom.

 

[Chokingdogs]

B from me, yes, im picky. B+ maybe. only thing, IMO, keeping from an A is they still have a bad habit of playing 40 or 50 minute games every so often.

dont care if they lose while playing a 60 minute game, as long as it's 60 minutes. Id feel better about those than i do winning a game they played poorly.

the biggest thing ive noticed this year that i haven't in the past is their overall puck control. my untrained eye test sees them being stronger and more creative. before, it'd be a case of pass pass pass - score/penalty/turnover if they werent on the PP or the player's surname ended in -strom had the puck.

it used to infuriate me watching them play "bad" teams and those teams would run circles around them in the D zone while they couldnt mount more than a one and done shot on goal while in the O zone.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

B from me, yes, im picky. B+ maybe. only thing, IMO, keeping from an A is they still have a bad habit of playing 40 or 50 minute games every so often.

dont care if they lose while playing a 60 minute game, as long as it's 60 minutes. Id feel better about those than i do winning a game they played poorly.

Nobody has ever or ever will play a 60 minute game. There are ebbs and flows to every single hockey game. Perhaps you should adjust your expectations.

 

[Devil Dancer]

Anything other than an A is totally unreasonable. They're at the top of the Metro division, their goal differential is excellent, they're getting secondary scoring, Ovie hasn't even been that good yet, and Kuzy has been playing like a 1C since the playoffs started last year.

What more do you want?

Yes, you can nit pick individual players. Bura has been terrible. Mojo has been disappointing. Orlov and Orpik have been up and down. But what about their improvement? Williams and Oshie have been great, particularly Williams. Schmidt looks like a winner. Even Chorney has been OK.

The question is how has the team done, and they're one of the top teams in the league. That deserves an A.

 

[Chokingdogs]

Nobody has ever or ever will play a 60 minute game. There are ebbs and flows to every single hockey game. Perhaps you should adjust your expectations.

taking an entire period off is not part of the normal ebb and flow.

they were much worse in that respect in seasons past, not as much this year, but they still do it.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

taking an entire period off is not part of the normal ebb and flow.

they were much worse in that respect in seasons past, not as much this year, but they still do it.

They play an 82 game season, which equates to a minimum of 246 periods. Expecting them to be "on" for all 246 periods is not realistic, in my opinion.

 

[Caps2Fan]

Dude was ridiculous from his youth days. Some claimed he was the best player not in NHL not long ago. Not only that, he was also a winner. Everybody knows that (c)

He had problems with shoulder injuries and then decided to sign a contract in KHL to get into Olympic roster. That went wrong obviously, but it seems that it helped to set his head straight.

Not long ago I said something along the lines of Kuzy being the best Russian C in 5 years. Yeah. Scratch that. There is a chance he's one next Fall in Toronto already. Especially if there is a decision to play him on a line with Ovi

His health and muscle strength still concerning me. But I don't remember if he was hit more than 5 times this season so far. I can recall only one huge hit (by Ovechkin ofc).

And maybe he doesn't need to bulk up much. Semin wasn't that heavy in his upper body, and he was hard to hit too just by his skating. While Kuz is this quick he can just avoid hits most probably. Bulking up will make him slower.

I understood that he was supposed to be an excellent player. I was never expecting him to be anything less than a top line center, but I just didn't expect what he's doing right now. I love it.

He is incredible at avoiding hits, somewhat like J. Goudreau. I heard a stat recently that Goudreau was only hit something like 40 times last year in 70+ games.

 

[sycamore]

A- here. Top of the Metro, soon to be top of the East, because with Price out for a month, the Habs are suddenly in trouble. Minus, because of Bura -- I thought he'd be ready by now to take Mojo's place on the second line. OTOH Schmidt, Orlov, Chimera and JWilliams have all exceeded expectations.

 

[John Price]

They are playing well and to their capability, very hot start

Few disappointing duds but can't win em all

Keep up the pace for the rest of the way boys

 

[notDkristich]

Too many high risk plays from young defenders, plus Carlson still makes too many boneheaded plays. If you can jettison MoJo and upgrade a 2D we should be in the Cup Finals.

 

[Blades of Steel]

A- here. Top of the Metro, soon to be top of the East, because with Price out for a month, the Habs are suddenly in trouble. Minus, because of Bura -- I thought he'd be ready by now to take Mojo's place on the second line. OTOH Schmidt, Orlov, Chimera and JWilliams have all exceeded expectations.

1/4 of the way in, Montreal is still a good team, filter the stats from NHL.com on OP and you'll see they're solid in all categories except middle of the pack in FO% 14th I believe.

 

[sycamore]

1/4 of the way in, Montreal is still a good team, filter the stats from NHL.com on OP and you'll see they're solid in all categories except middle of the pack in FO% 14th I believe.

I'm not disputing they aren't a good team, but losing Price for a month is a huge blow. They most likely won't be able to keep pace with the Rangers and Caps during that stretch.

 

[Roughing]

A.

It isn't perfect but it looks like very good... and will get better.

 

[Hivemind]

B-

This team needs to do better against the teams they'll meet in the playoffs. Beating up on a bunch of teams near the bottom of the standings isn't all that impressive to me. Of the current winning streak, none of the teams have more than 25 points and three of them have fewer than 20. They've only played 6 teams currently in playoff position, and are 2-4 in those games.

 

[Ajax1995]

B-

This team needs to do better against the teams they'll meet in the playoffs. Beating up on a bunch of teams near the bottom of the standings isn't all that impressive to me. Of the current winning streak, none of the teams have more than 25 points and three of them have fewer than 20. They've only played 6 teams currently in playoff position, and are 2-4 in those games.

What should they be against current playoff teams to earn an A for you? And of course I assume dropping any additional points against the weaker teams would have counted against them also? So what 19-3-1 gets them an A?

I don't care about anything else but 17-5-1 is an A. This isn't some powerhouse coming off a couple of cups or something. They don't get a 100. They aren't perfect and certainly haven't played anywhere close to perfectly but 17-5-1 is an A all day every day for this team at this point in time.

 

[Hivemind]

"A" is darn near 100%. I don't see how anyone can look at a team that's .333 against playoff teams and say, "Yeah, that's close to perfect."

 

[Blades of Steel]

couple of power rankings

1st at bleacher report

2nd at espn.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...s-bleacher-report-experts-week-9-poll/page/15

http://espn.go.com/nhl/powerrankings