Speculation: Caps General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines etc) -- 2018-19 We Are The Champions Edition - Pt. 2

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g00n

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Blocked shots and takeaways per game were also not unusually high vs the competition and teams that passed the first round.
 

Silky mitts

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I don’t think it’s that complicated, if you’ve got 2 guys who play like they’re top 3 players in the world and the rest of the team plays responsibly recent history indicates you win the Cup. With playing responsibly I think choosing Eller over Mojo is big.
 
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Ridley Simon

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Eller was huge. He was our Bonino this year. Very important.

To the poster claiming “you guys don’t listen”? We listen just fine. Always have. Your assumption is that all posts are worth hearing. Maybe you are looking at this from the wrong angle. People listen to who they want to listen too.

My 2 cents.
 
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Langway

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Blocked shots and takeaways per game were also not unusually high vs the competition and teams that passed the first round.
Only San Jose averaged more blocked shots among the final eight teams. VGK/WPG/NSH/PIT were all close but WSH outblocked VGK 99 to 53 in the Final. It was closer in the ECF but they did outblock TBL 35 to 19 in G6+7. Score effects played a part of that but they were also pretty consistent in not having defenders caught up ice and out of position. I don't think it's accurate to say it was this or that. It was everything coming together at the right time, from tactics to execution and overall mentality. Sure, they scored more and got more key contributions from depth players but also finally had a coherent answer for handling opposition pace. It was beautiful all the way around.
 

g00n

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Only San Jose averaged more blocked shots among the final eight teams. VGK/WPG/NSH/PIT were all close but WSH outblocked VGK 99 to 53 in the Final. It was closer in the ECF but they did outblock TBL 35 to 19 in G6+7. Score effects played a part of that but they were also pretty consistent in not having defenders caught up ice and out of position. I don't think it's accurate to say it was this or that. It was everything coming together at the right time, from tactics to execution and overall mentality. Sure, they scored more and got more key contributions from depth players but also finally had a coherent answer for handling opposition pace. It was beautiful all the way around.

post the numbers. It's not a significant difference.

Where would you rank team defense among the winning factors?
 

PB12

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We have learned over the years that both offense(2016 and 2017 Caps) and defense(2010 Caps) are needed. I think we won it because of offense for one reason. Other guys shot the puck. In the past 2 playoffs only OV and Oshie shot the puck. All the other guys kept skating with the puck in the opposing teams defensive zone and kept on passing. There was almost that "deer in the headlights" look when it was time to shoot. That changed this year.
 

Devil Dancer

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We have learned over the years that both offense(2016 and 2017 Caps) and defense(2010 Caps) are needed. I think we won it because of offense for one reason. Other guys shot the puck. In the past 2 playoffs only OV and Oshie shot the puck. All the other guys kept skating with the puck in the opposing teams defensive zone and kept on passing. There was almost that "deer in the headlights" look when it was time to shoot. That changed this year.

Applies to Kuzy in particular.
 

g00n

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We have learned over the years that both offense(2016 and 2017 Caps) and defense(2010 Caps) are needed. I think we won it because of offense for one reason. Other guys shot the puck. In the past 2 playoffs only OV and Oshie shot the puck. All the other guys kept skating with the puck in the opposing teams defensive zone and kept on passing. There was almost that "deer in the headlights" look when it was time to shoot. That changed this year.

Right. In any given year we've had any number of virtuoso goalie or defensive performances punctuated by a terrible letdown Game 7 or similar.
Nobody wanted the puck with the game on the line. They all wanted to pass to Ovie or wait for him to score on the PP.

Never have we seen the entire team so active and effective offensively, top to bottom. At least not in the Ovie era.
 

twabby

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Also none of the goalies they faced played above their heads. Bobrovsky let in a bunch of ordinary goals, Murray let in softies against Niskanen and Chiasson in eventual 1 goal wins for WSH, Vasilevskiy was brutal in the first 2 games, and Fleury reverted to very average.

Not to take anything from Washington since these breaks are needed to win a Cup most years and they certainly did the job creating traffic, but could you imagine Lundqvist for instance being that bad in 2015, or Halak in 2010, or Fleury in 2017?
 
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Holtbyisms

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Also none of the goalies they faced played above their heads. Bobrovsky let in a bunch of ordinary goals, Murray let in softies against Niskanen and Chiasson in eventual 1 goal wins for WSH, Vasilevskiy was brutal in the first 2 games, and Fleury reverted to very average.

Not to take anything from Washington since these breaks are needed to win a Cup most years and they certainly did the job creating traffic, but could you imagine Lundqvist for instance being that bad in 2015, or Halak in 2010, or Fleury in 2017?
Definitely think that was part of it but also the tenacity the forward group played with pressured the defenses and impacted the goalies tremendously. We made them look bad, they didn't do it all on their own.
 

Silky mitts

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Also none of the goalies they faced played above their heads. Bobrovsky let in a bunch of ordinary goals, Murray let in softies against Niskanen and Chiasson in eventual 1 goal wins for WSH, Vasilevskiy was brutal in the first 2 games, and Fleury reverted to very average.

Not to take anything from Washington since these breaks are needed to win a Cup most years and they certainly did the job creating traffic, but could you imagine Lundqvist for instance being that bad in 2015, or Halak in 2010, or Fleury in 2017?
Counter argument is the goalies in the second paragraph made ordinary saves against them, the Caps just didn’t make the plays, and the goalies you mention in the first paragraph Murray excluded were actually the 3 best goalies in the NHL this year and the Caps lit them up.
 

Jags

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Counter argument is the goalies in the second paragraph made ordinary saves against them, the Caps just didn’t make the plays, and the goalies you mention in the first paragraph Murray excluded were actually the 3 best goalies in the NHL this year and the Caps lit them up.

Yeah, I think the "we ran into a hot goalie" argument was a little overblown in years past. I don't want to take anything away from those keepers, but we went out of our way to make every goalie we faced look way better than they actually were. Not driving play up the middle, not setting screens, no deflections, an inability to set up the bang-bang play, very few rushes... We didn't make them work very hard.

There were certainly a couple series where the opposing keeper was their best player, but more often than not it was us just not executing. Very few of those goalies actually went on to win anything after beating us, so other teams didn't have the same problems figuring them out.
 

Lindemann

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Sort of O/T

Was thinking today, what team in your mind had the best chance to win the Cup before this year?

I was thinking 2011-2012 with Hunter as coach. Yeah I know he played a weird system with our offensive team but that was the most "team" I saw us play until this year
 

PB12

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Sort of O/T

Was thinking today, what team in your mind had the best chance to win the Cup before this year?

I was thinking 2011-2012 with Hunter as coach. Yeah I know he played a weird system with our offensive team but that was the most "team" I saw us play until this year
16-17 if we are talking about during the season.
 

g00n

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Sort of O/T

Was thinking today, what team in your mind had the best chance to win the Cup before this year?

I was thinking 2011-2012 with Hunter as coach. Yeah I know he played a weird system with our offensive team but that was the most "team" I saw us play until this year

First year under Trotz when they were a minute or so from moving on to the ECF and then blew a 3-1 lead to the Rangers. They'd already won a g7 vs the Isles but choked away the next series with each game decided by 1 goal. I think we also got hosed on a goal review.

If they'd had it all together mentally that year, with their "not gonna suck" attitude from this year, they could have won it.
 
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Silky mitts

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At some point basically every year I think they’re winning the cup. All the Presidents Trophy years I knew they’d lose the games when they went out. But the Huet year, 07-08 when Ovy scored 65 I never accepted that they’d lose, I really think that team was robbed.

On that Capitol Gains NHL Tonight show Rupp said “you’ve got to work so hard to score goals now, you need a bunch of things to go right, you can’t beat a goalie with just a shot, except [Ovechkin] can.” And so many of the big goals by the other lines, like the Cup winner Bura sets up Connolly, Eller in the crease, against Tampa DSP clears it, Stephenson beats out the icing, great pass by Beagle, great shot by DSP, against Vegas Oshie breaks Miller’s nose, someone sets up Kempny, or Orpik keeps it in and DSP kicks it back to himself - it took so many things going right, but it’s part of the breaks of the game.

With Ovechkin, he can beat the goalie from the point with nothing else going right, it’s why he’s so consistent in the playoffs and they always had a chance. A great player like Schiefle can’t beat Fleury by himself with consecutive chances, it’s like he could never make back to back stops like that on Ovy. But now the Caps have a 2nd guy like that, like nothing was exceptional about the Pens winner except everything Kuzy did. And he can beat a team with a pass like when he set up Wilson through 4 guys against Vegas, or the threat or the pass on that break against Vegas. Backstrom can beat people with his pass and Oshie from the slot but they don’t normally score when nothing else goes right.
 
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txpd

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Fleury dominated the Jets conference finals

As he did the previous series.

The Capitals broke down the Knight s center core defense. They were able to pass the puck thru their defense wing to wing. Fluery had to move post to post a lot more.

The Caps also broke down the Knights neutral zone and forecheck. The Capitals had more odd man rushes in 5 games than Vegas had allowed in the 3 previous series combined.

Hit goalie exists.
 

Silky mitts

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As he did the previous series.

The Capitals broke down the Knight s center core defense. They were able to pass the puck thru their defense wing to wing. Fluery had to move post to post a lot more.

The Caps also broke down the Knights neutral zone and forecheck. The Capitals had more odd man rushes in 5 games than Vegas had allowed in the 3 previous series combined.

Hit goalie exists.
I don’t see how the middle 2 paragraphs reinforce the myth of the hot goalie. When the Caps play like that no goalie can get hot against them. In fact, just like when the Caps make the other goalie look hot in past years, with the trap Vegas would come into the zone all discombobulated and get too fine. You make one or 2 great plays like The Save, when you get a clear shot like Neal had in game 4 Holtbys stick starts to look enormous. Every shot is either too fine or center mass, I’ve seen the Caps become that every year, made the semis and finals such a treat.
 

RandyHolt

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Scoring was up a good margin this year league wide, so comparing this playoff year to previous isn't exactly comparing apples to apples.

Has the effectiveness of the Goalie Pad Reduction Act of 2017-18 been determined?

Maybe we have our answer. I have been clamoring for it for many years now.

It wasn't defense vs offense after all ;)
 
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Silky mitts

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Myth? You think the quality of the goaltending is fairly irrelevant?
I think confidence affects the shooters more than the goalies so it’s more that I don’t think goalies perform above their level so much as the team they’re facing plays below it.
 
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