Series Discussion: Capitals vs Bruins

[AussieCapsFan]

Uhhh....guys? There is a playoff series going on and it involves the Caps.

Talk about your pet off-season moves when it actually is the offseason.

Somebody needs to tell the Caps there's a playoff series going on

 

[ovikovy817]

Well, the 2OT Game 7 loss in 2019 starts to hurt more and more, year after year.
It didn't hurt too much in 2019 because we had the Cup the year before but t was a great chance to win the 2nd Cup.

 

[HecticGlow]

Not thrilled with coaching so far this series. The PP isn’t working, yet they’re making no discernible adjustments. At ES we’re still not defensively solid, yet can’t respond when Boston shuts down our offense. The last 5 or 6 periods have been embarassing.

Shake up the lines.

Ovi-Backstrom-Wilson
Sprong-Kuzy-Oshie
Sheary/Raffl-Eller-Mantha/Raffl
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway

I’m not seeing enough from Mantha, honestly. He’s pretty invisible a lot of the time, and it’s dragging down our top-6. I’d much rather have Sprong or... no that’s about it. Maybe give Dowd some extra shifts at 2LW. Mantha just looks disinterested and like this is any other game. Kuzy isn’t much better but, in fairness to him, has just come off a several game layoff. I’m doubtful that Backstrom is 100% healthy, too.

Put Kuzy, Carlson, Wilson, Mantha and Ovi/Sprong on PP2, Backstrom, Eller, Oshie, Ovi and Schultz on PP1. Move Ovi around the ice - interchange him with Schultz/Carlson. Put Eller, Oshie, Wilson and Mantha much closer to Rask and actually take away his sight of the puck, and dig deep for rebounds and greasy PP goals.

Give some of Schultz’s 5v5 minutes to Jensen. Increase Orlov’s minutes, while you’re at it. Hell maybe just throw Orlov-Jensen out there a few shifts each period. They’re about the only two D-men who have any kind of energy or wheels right now.

 

[Melkor]

With all due respect to players like Oshie and Wilson, That's a third first round exit in 3 years. This has never happened in the post lockout era to this franchise. They had gone past the 1st round at least once off the 3 attempts in the past. There needs to be a major retool. I'd call it a rebuild but realistically 8 and 19 are staying however people may perceive that.
But everybody else from front office to players should be made available and the rest is the matter of what has been offered in exchange or in case of FO and coaches...let's be honest they all should be fired. All of them. PP is atrocious and has been for years. Their 5 on 5 game folds God knows what year in a row when it matters most. Crazy amount of useless signings that made this team's life miserable in terms of getting a real gamebreaker that would change the flow of their game. Not playing their few young talents when it's obvious the elderly just needs to sit and watch how it's done in today's NHL.
This team needs a legit #1 C, top-line winger, top-pairing D and a respectable goalie. Basically it needs a rebuild. Have zero clue how they're going to get this done, suspect they're not but it's become obvious in recent years that Carlson is a fraud, the league isn't blind, the reasons why he never got and never will get Norris are screaming in your face in big games. Backstrom might be hurtm I'm not claiming he's not but let's be honest he never performed like a true #1C in the playoffs. Never. I don't remeber a single run where he led the charge and the team followed him. Some timely goals here and there, reliable and consistent defensively and in terms of matchups but is it really what defines a #1C? The main guy controls the tempo and flow of the game, makes it his line's motto to keep the puck possession and occupy the offensive zone. He's not that and they need somebody else. Kuznetsov...yeah I don't know who really wants him to stay at this point. Wilson's ultimate value lies within the physical nature of his game. He's a good player, he can score yet he can't score enough to hold onto him because of his scoring. What has always separated him from the rest is his bone crushing, game breaking hits that sometimes would erase the line between legal and illegal stuff. The end of this season after the Panarin debacle makes you question will he ever return to what made him a star in this league. And if the answer is no he needs to be made available.

I'm in favor of radical change towards becoming as young as possible even if results will suffer. Get all the failed draft picks from other teams that just waren't a good fit with them but have a lot of potential ala Sprong/Bennett, get your own prospects, make some trades for younger players, get an experienced goalie who is not waaaay past his prime and give it a go. Ovechkin and Backstrom are not capable of leading this team anymore. They'll still score some points but having them as main option is a recipe for a slow and painful demise in which they're finding themselves right now

 

[trick9]

Who in our PP1 is playing well?

Answer is nobody. You can't win if all the top guys go missing. But we've seen this movie before.

 

[AussieCapsFan]

I think Mantha would have been pumped when he first arrived. Traded to a team that felt like a Cup contender, 4 goals in his first 4 games, etc. But over the last 3 weeks the team had injury problems, Kuzy and Sammy situation, and the cracks started to appear.
If he seems to be off his game a little you just have to look around at the rest of the team. He is probably thinking "what the hell just happened in the last 3 weeks??"

Some of our top players are definitely injured and not playing to the best of their abilities, but I think there is more to this than we are seeing. These guys were playing with confidence, there was fantastic chemistry among the players, and the "next man up" thing was working really well when guys were out injured etc. Now they are the complete opposite. I bet that is a very uncomfortable locker room to be in and I think it's been that way and getting worse since the Kuzy / Sammy "incident".

I mean, if they even remotely looked like they were playing well I would believe otherwise. But they finished the regular season with a bit of a whimper and have looked terrible in these 4 playoff games. They have gotten worse every single game.

 

[HecticGlow]

Who in our PP1 is playing well?

Answer is nobody. You can't win if all the top guys go missing. But we've seen this movie before.

At the same time:

Ovi - only returned from injury the last game of the RS and hasn’t found his rhythm
NB - out for the penultimate RS game injured
Oshie - multiple injuries over the last month, and loss of his father
Carlson - recurrent injury that kept him out for the end of the RS
Kuzy - out for the last few weeks with COVID, and rather thrown back into the lineup

The fact that guys like Dowd, Raffl, Jensen, Orlov and Hathaway have looked the best this postseason maybe reflects the fact they haven’t been plagued by serious injuries or held out of the lineup at all. I think Laviolette needs to temporarily reassess which players he puts in certain positions in Game 5, to avoid relying on guys who are collectively too banged up or out of shape to get the job done.

 

[Empty Goal Net]

Caps' mgmt tracks season ticket renewals. Although this is a period unlike any other (over the past 14+ months hockey has gone from no games to games without fans, then with some fans, and sometime soon being able to sell every seat in the arena), after you get past the excitement of diehard fans getting back into an arena to see live hockey, it's hard to imagine the fan base being super-excited to put out good money over an entire season for a product like the one we've seen the last couple of games. Absent a significant turnaround this series, this team will be hard to market - an aging Ovie, injured Nicky, toothless Willie, spacey JC, immature Sammy. Other than 8 chasing 99, what's there to sell? And that will get tough if 8 has a slow start whenever the season resumes. Anyway, I'm hoping that Ted and Dick understand that this group doesn't have it. Maybe the window has closed and it's time for a wholesale retooling.

 

[Empty Goal Net]

oh, and (with a stellar team in front of him) Yeah Gruby! It's too bad he's not here.

 

[g00n]

3 weeks ago: Yeah! We're ready. Don't trade anyone! Chemistry!

Today: BLOW IT UP! FIRE LAVI! TRADE EVERYONE!!!


The team is clearly hurt. Kuz and Sammy pulling their shit did not help. They put the team behind the 8 ball. Caps were lucky to split the first 2 games, still using that bit of "next man up" determination they had before. Then Kuz and Sam come back and...we saw the result. Kuz ineffective and Sammy no better than VV or Anderson, with some bad mistakes that may have cost a game/series.

Everyone plays injured in the postseason but I think our guys are playing to not get hurt worse. They threw themselves around in G1 and have been increasingly timid since. As a result the Bruins have been taking more and more liberties and gaining more and more momentum. When was the last time you saw a team beating up Ovechkin on a regular basis, AND GETTING AWAY WITH IT?

This has got to stop. The Caps are intimidated by the Bruins right now and it shows. They're afraid of the DOPS, of injuries, and of the refs more than they're afraid of losing.

 

[YippieKaey]

Keep Wilson, 4th line, Orlov, Jensen and Samsonov. Rest is not helping at this point

 

[DrewGl]

With all due respect to players like Oshie and Wilson, That's a third first round exit in 3 years. This has never happened in the post lockout era to this franchise. They had gone past the 1st round at least once off the 3 attempts in the past. There needs to be a major retool. I'd call it a rebuild but realistically 8 and 19 are staying however people may perceive that.
But everybody else from front office to players should be made available and the rest is the matter of what has been offered in exchange or in case of FO and coaches...let's be honest they all should be fired. All of them. PP is atrocious and has been for years. Their 5 on 5 game folds God knows what year in a row when it matters most. Crazy amount of useless signings that made this team's life miserable in terms of getting a real gamebreaker that would change the flow of their game. Not playing their few young talents when it's obvious the elderly just needs to sit and watch how it's done in today's NHL.
This team needs a legit #1 C, top-line winger, top-pairing D and a respectable goalie. Basically it needs a rebuild. Have zero clue how they're going to get this done, suspect they're not but it's become obvious in recent years that Carlson is a fraud, the league isn't blind, the reasons why he never got and never will get Norris are screaming in your face in big games. Backstrom might be hurtm I'm not claiming he's not but let's be honest he never performed like a true #1C in the playoffs. Never. I don't remeber a single run where he led the charge and the team followed him. Some timely goals here and there, reliable and consistent defensively and in terms of matchups but is it really what defines a #1C? The main guy controls the tempo and flow of the game, makes it his line's motto to keep the puck possession and occupy the offensive zone. He's not that and they need somebody else. Kuznetsov...yeah I don't know who really wants him to stay at this point. Wilson's ultimate value lies within the physical nature of his game. He's a good player, he can score yet he can't score enough to hold onto him because of his scoring. What has always separated him from the rest is his bone crushing, game breaking hits that sometimes would erase the line between legal and illegal stuff. The end of this season after the Panarin debacle makes you question will he ever return to what made him a star in this league. And if the answer is no he needs to be made available.

I'm in favor of radical change towards becoming as young as possible even if results will suffer. Get all the failed draft picks from other teams that just waren't a good fit with them but have a lot of potential ala Sprong/Bennett, get your own prospects, make some trades for younger players, get an experienced goalie who is not waaaay past his prime and give it a go. Ovechkin and Backstrom are not capable of leading this team anymore. They'll still score some points but having them as main option is a recipe for a slow and painful demise in which they're finding themselves right now

Agree to some extent but Ovi can def still lead this team. He did it 3 years ago. As the captain he'll always get the blame to some extent but he is far from the "problem" imo.

 

[DrewGl]

Keep Wilson, 4th line, Orlov, Jensen and Samsonov. Rest is not helping at this point

So get rid of the best goal scorer we've seen in decades...that will surely help us. He's aging, yes but he still puts pucks in the net on a pretty constant basis. He's not going anywhere and I think we all know that. He's hurt and you know he wanted to hit 30 goals this year during the regular season. No way he'd just sit out at the end of the season if there wasn't something really bothering him.

 

[max21]

1/7 on the PP with the talent we have is inexcusable, really not sure how they keep Forsythe next year. As far as Mantha goes he’s still been disappointing to me, he drives play decently but he needs to score goals, that’s why we got him. Then again no one else is really scoring goals either so whatever. Just really disappointed in that game last night

 

[trick9]

At the same time:

Ovi - only returned from injury the last game of the RS and hasn’t found his rhythm
NB - out for the penultimate RS game injured
Oshie - multiple injuries over the last month, and loss of his father
Carlson - recurrent injury that kept him out for the end of the RS
Kuzy - out for the last few weeks with COVID, and rather thrown back into the lineup

The fact that guys like Dowd, Raffl, Jensen, Orlov and Hathaway have looked the best this postseason maybe reflects the fact they haven’t been plagued by serious injuries or held out of the lineup at all. I think Laviolette needs to temporarily reassess which players he puts in certain positions in Game 5, to avoid relying on guys who are collectively too banged up or out of shape to get the job done.

I feel like this is an yearly excuse. I mean it's true that they are banged up, no doubt. But so are every other team. Marchand has taken a beating in these series and has went back to the bench lingering in god knows how many times. Bergeron left game 1 for a while. Pastrnak went head first into the boards in G3 and came back. Every team is banged up come Playoff time. Good teams play through it or if you can't help the team then you should just be sitting for a healthy player.

They haven't won a Playoff series in nearly 3 years. I don't buy it that it's because they are banged up year after year. I do see your point though. I just don't think it has more to do with that the hunger isn't there anymore. They give it a go and when things don't go their way they fade away and start packing their golf gears ready.

It's so much different than it was in 2018. They made mistakes there too. They were behind in games. They didn't just quit and wait for PP's, but fought their way back in games. They had each others back and beat the other teams until they got their way. It didn't matter if they were down in the series. It didn't matter if they gave up the first goal or had a bad start to a game. They came back with effort and changed the course. Who here is confident of their ability to come back when Bruins take the lead? I'm not. Tonight was just one of those nights. They were outshot brutally when they eventually gave up the first goal and i was actually hoping that okay, maybe they start giving an effort now that they have their backs on the wall. And what happened? Absolutely nothing.

High-danger chances 1-9 5-on-5. Heat maps show that the Bruins had an open road to our net where as the Capitals had nothing around the net. Nothing but perimeter shots. They were lucky to get that 1 goal. Backstrom 0-4 high-danger chances. 4 scoring chances created 5-on-5, none of those high-danger. 12 against. Kuznetsov 0-2 high-danger chances. Wilson 0-3. Oshie 0-3. Mantha 0-4. Ovechkin 0-3. Carlson 0-3. That's all our top guys. Creating absolutely nothing 5-on-5 and for some of them they are absolutely bleeding high-danger chances against. It's incredible that we are loading up these 2 lines in Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson and Mantha-Backstrom-Oshie and they are still getting dominated out there. Maybe try switching something up? Move guys around to put more of a scoring threat on every line. Atleast try to do something if that top-6 doesn't start contributing 5-on-5.

 

[g00n]

1/7 on the PP with the talent we have is inexcusable, really not sure how they keep Forsythe next year. As far as Mantha goes he’s still been disappointing to me, he drives play decently but he needs to score goals, that’s why we got him. Then again no one else is really scoring goals either so whatever. Just really disappointed in that game last night

From 2013-14 through last year the Caps PP had been 3rd overall in the NHL in PP% at 24.1%

This playoffs they're at 17.7% which is the 20th spot over that same span.

It seems like the problem isn't the PP structure so much as THIS YEAR, and possibly THIS OPPONENT, who had the 2nd best PK in the league during the regular season.

Caps have the 3rd most PPopp/G in the NHL this postseason so there's no excuse when it comes to chances.

Bruins pressure the puck on the PK and that prevents the perimeter work our PP relies on. They have to skip-pass and get the middle spot more involved to make the Bruins pay for that tactic.

 

[pman25]

You all are posting too much, caps in 7

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

If they flame out again in the first round this year big changes will be needed. It’s obvious you can’t have a retirement community in your top six and win in today’s NHL. I think anything and everything should be on the table this summer. I think Lavi has done a decent job and the problems that remain are more with the players but who knows.

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

You all are posting too much, caps in 7

I want whatever you are having.

 

[max21]

From 2013-14 through last year the Caps PP had been 3rd overall in the NHL in PP% at 24.1%

This playoffs they're at 17.7% which is the 20th spot over that same span.

It seems like the problem isn't the PP structure so much as THIS YEAR, and possibly THIS OPPONENT, who had the 2nd best PK in the league during the regular season.

Caps have the 3rd most PPopp/G in the NHL this postseason so there's no excuse when it comes to chances.

Bruins pressure the puck on the PK and that prevents the perimeter work our PP relies on. They have to skip-pass and get the middle spot more involved to make the Bruins pay for that tactic.

They’ve also basically shut down Ovis shot, doesn’t help Carlson is off with his passes mainly Ovi has to collect with his foot. I liked Mantha on the PP2, I would consider him over Kuznetsov or even Backstrom. Oshies shot from the slot has disappeared also

 

[Langway]

I'd legit dump Lavi after this...you hire a guy like him to get peak performance from older stubborn teams knowing his lifespan isn't very long. If he can't get it done year one before his message gets stale he ain't getting it done year two. Trash him, make some huge shakeup trades and hope for the best next year with whoever else you hire.

It would reek of a deluded, unstable organization that doesn't know what it wants. The organization has pretty much given free reign to players and their flippant disregard for Barry Trotz has come home to roost many times over the last three seasons. To go from hiring Reirden to canning Lavi after one year would leave even more egg on their faces. There's plenty of evidence that they've peaked organizationally regarding decision-making and player evaluation. It would be hard to back an off-season that didn't include some serious self-assessment from them as well. They can try to hide behind the flat cap but they've had options and made loads of questionable decisions when it comes to priorities and identity. If anything there's more evidence supporting moving on from MacLellan's constantly all-in mentality toward a more coherent and sustainable process but it won't happen since ownership 100% backs it. Organizationally I think they need to make changes and bring in new ideas to freshen up the process. Maybe get Bondra involved in personnel moves given his international experience, fire Forsythe and sign Halpern away from TBL to provide an infusion of new ideas. Navigating a pretty tricky downswing era of 8/19 while remaining highly competitive won't be easy and the current thought process seems very limited. A superficial all-in mentality while sporting what's objectively a fairly limited roster and adherence to process isn't realistic. The approach has to fundamentally be better. Is MacLellan too old school to learn new tricks and adapt to where the game and his core players are headed? Their issues aren't unforeseeable and now the problem may be crafting a playoff team at all.

I'm sure they'll look at all sorts of shake-up trades that keep the 8/19 retirement tour intact and presumably add more pace. I question whether Lavi will play a McMichael over Sheary or a Raffl type next season but he'll get a chance and Carbery will be available should an in-season change be needed. A more honest, cerebral, developmental approach may be needed but it's not what they signed up for with Lavi. They signed up for blood and guts and fire and brimstone and trying to ring every last drop out of a group that doesn't want to put everything on the line for something they've already achieved. But the game also needs to be fun. It should be fun. Under Lavi I'm not sure it's fun...and it may be why he doesn't have staying power. Either way the organization owns this. They own years of personnel and organizational/cultural decisions that have led to weakened teams. They own never replacing Niskanen and tweaking the fringes while overseeing a fundamentally weakened core. They need a reset and it's fair to wonder if it can happen with the same general approach as the past five years. They could roll with something like:

Ovechkin - Monahan type - Wilson
McMichael - Backstrom - Mantha
Upgrade/Sheary - Eller - Sprong/Sheary
Hagelin - Dowd - Hathaway

Orlov - Carlson
Dillon - Upgrade/TVR
Fehervary/Alexeyev - Jensen

...but that doesn't seem all that different. Swap Carlson for Seth Jones or something and it's still pretty similar barring new ideas and maturation. They're mainly going to need a new approach and I'm guessing Forsythe, esp. after Backstrom's comments last night, will be the first sacrificed should their season end in the coming days.

 

[John Price]

They need to play with desperation Game 5!

 

[John Price]

Well, the 2OT Game 7 loss in 2019 starts to hurt more and more, year after year.
It didn't hurt too much in 2019 because we had the Cup the year before but t was a great chance to win the 2nd Cup.

I was there at that game

things ain't been the same since

during that year they didn't win a single away playoff game either. Kind of sad. In 2018 they were great on the road

 

[StrikingDistance]

This whole thing went downhill when the freaking birthday boy made the game 2 game day thread. We’ve gone soft. Should’ve been an insta-ban.

LOL

You make the next GDT.

If they win, I'll ban myself for a year.
If they lose, you're banned for a year.

Deal?

It's a win-win for me. Save me some time from doom-scrolling through all the faceless weirdo crying on here.

 

[895]

How pissed will you be if we get eliminated tomorrow and Ovechkin flies to the world championships?