Speculation: Caps General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines etc) - 2021 Regular Season Part 2

[895]

Listening to Laviolette talk it sounds like he doesn't think they have game to give away for development. That they need every point they can get to make the playoffs. He has said several times that a good team is going to miss the playoffs.

Have the kids given away any points?

Any points lost has been either bad goaltending or veterans not playing well.

 

[pman25]

Carl Hagelin has eliminated the caps in the playoffs in 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, and 2017. We are playing with fire if we move him. At the same time, Carl Hagelin caps teams have been bounced in the 1st round for his entire caps tenure. He can't keep getting away with this!

 

[Langway]

They don't need a new coach but they need a process more in tune with all-around performance and not just play favorites for the sake of it. They run the risk of hitting a wall a month or two from now if they don't make some key adjustments. The staff needs to pivot toward more experimentation in what players are capable of in order to truly evaluate. That can't happen with training wheels firmly in place and an extremely quick trigger finger in shortening the bench. Trusting CMM's & Leason's instincts seems like a fairly rational conclusion even based on their typical criteria. Should they manage it with enough quality they may even be in the relatively rare position to trade a roster player, go younger/cheaper and net an asset while improving depth and upside when it matters. With some of these call-ups around for some time they need to treat their stay as more than just stopgap fill-ins in throwaway minutes. They need to know how much they can be relied upon.

Particularly right now they need to experiment given the offensive struggles of Hagelin, Hathaway and Eller in more demanding roles. Continuing to reward them isn't paying off so more accountability is needed. If it weren't for the top line they'd be struggling so it's hard to be overly impressed by the staff's involvement to this point. They've juggled tough situations but this next stretch is going to be far tougher. More serious grooming of secondary offensive pieces can't happen without giving them some rope. If it costs them, so be it. They're not going to really find out until the staff gives them more of a vote of confidence in not being so kneejerk about usage.

 

[txpd]

Have the kids given away any points?

Any points lost has been either bad goaltending or veterans not playing well.

Ok. Fire the coach then. I am just posting what he said

 

[pman25]

Ok. Fire the coach then. I am just posting what he said

This is like your favorite bit

 

[txpd]

They don't need a new coach but they need a process more in tune with all-around performance and not just play favorites for the sake of it. They run the risk of hitting a wall a month or two from now if they don't make some key adjustments. The staff needs to pivot toward more experimentation in what players are capable of in order to truly evaluate. That can't happen with training wheels firmly in place and an extremely quick trigger finger in shortening the bench. Trusting CMM's & Leason's instincts seems like a fairly rational conclusion even based on their typical criteria. Should they manage it with enough quality they may even be in the relatively rare position to trade a roster player, go younger/cheaper and net an asset while improving depth and upside when it matters. With some of these call-ups around for some time they need to treat their stay as more than just stopgap fill-ins in throwaway minutes. They need to know how much they can be relied upon.

Particularly right now they need to experiment given the offensive struggles of Hagelin, Hathaway and Eller in more demanding roles. Continuing to reward them isn't paying off so more accountability is needed. If it weren't for the top line they'd be struggling so it's hard to be overly impressed by the staff's involvement to this point. They've juggled tough situations but this next stretch is going to be far tougher. More serious grooming of secondary offensive pieces can't happen without giving them some rope. If it costs them, so be it. They're not going to really find out until the staff gives them more of a vote of confidence in not being so kneejerk about usage.

Laviolette has been pretty consistenty conservative with the rookies in road games. It will be interesting to see how that works with a back to back on the road. He cant both protect and shelter them and spread the mins at the same time.

I suspect he is going to throw them in the deep end in the first game which will give him more veteran mins available in the 2nd game if the first doesnt go well. The wild card is Samsonov

 

[Calicaps]

Have the kids given away any points?

Any points lost has been either bad goaltending or veterans not playing well.

I haven't checked the full stats on this, but I wonder if maybe they haven't because they've been used conservatively and put in positions to be successful while the vets have taken the tough assignments. Maybe not, but it's possible.

 

[txpd]

This is like your favorite bit

This like what I do. Yup. I listen to what he says and then post it when its on the subject. Its valuable when in particular what he says goes against the tide of the conversation. It also may explain why he is doing things the tide doesnt like.

I can stop. If you feel like it doesnt contribute anything.

 

[tenken00]

Lavi might be hesitant to go younger, but GM BMac sure isn't. It's almost as if MacLellan is trying to force feed Laviolette a steady diet of youth ever since the offseason, and Lavi refuses to eat the medicine.

 

[txpd]

I haven't checked the full stats on this, but I wonder if maybe they haven't because they've been used conservatively and put in positions to be successful while the vets have taken the tough assignments. Maybe not, but it's possible.

I think part of what Langer is saying there is that they havent failed because they havent been given a chance while all the failure is on the regular players.

 

[txpd]

Lavi might be hesitant to go younger, but GM BMac sure isn't. It's almost as if MacLellan is trying to force feed Laviolette a steady diet of youth ever since the offseason, and Lavi refuses to eat the medicine.

I am not sure why you would feel that way. How much youth was force fed into a healthy lineup? Fehervary and the goalies. Who else? The rest have all be result of injured players.

 

[Calicaps]

They don't need a new coach but they need a process more in tune with all-around performance and not just play favorites for the sake of it. They run the risk of hitting a wall a month or two from now if they don't make some key adjustments. The staff needs to pivot toward more experimentation in what players are capable of in order to truly evaluate. That can't happen with training wheels firmly in place and an extremely quick trigger finger in shortening the bench. Trusting CMM's & Leason's instincts seems like a fairly rational conclusion even based on their typical criteria. Should they manage it with enough quality they may even be in the relatively rare position to trade a roster player, go younger/cheaper and net an asset while improving depth and upside when it matters. With some of these call-ups around for some time they need to treat their stay as more than just stopgap fill-ins in throwaway minutes. They need to know how much they can be relied upon.

Particularly right now they need to experiment given the offensive struggles of Hagelin, Hathaway and Eller in more demanding roles. Continuing to reward them isn't paying off so more accountability is needed. If it weren't for the top line they'd be struggling so it's hard to be overly impressed by the staff's involvement to this point. They've juggled tough situations but this next stretch is going to be far tougher. More serious grooming of secondary offensive pieces can't happen without giving them some rope. If it costs them, so be it. They're not going to really find out until the staff gives them more of a vote of confidence in not being so kneejerk about usage.

Are we sure he's doing this? Is it possible he has his own reasons? I'm not taking a position on the kids playing more or less, just questioning some of the assumptions being made about Lavi's choices.

 

[tenken00]

I am not sure why you would feel that way. How much youth was force fed into a healthy lineup? Fehervary and the goalies. Who else? The rest have all be result of injured players.

Because usually with this many injuries by now in previous years, we would have heard rumors of looking outside the organization to bring in someone by now. Nope. Here is another kid. Oh and here is a different one. Here is another kid right back up. And here have another.

 

[txpd]

Because usually with this many injuries by now in previous years, we would have heard rumors of looking outside the organization to bring in guys by now. Nope. Here is another kid.

Disagree. Any cap overage brought in to cover LTIRd players must be removed before that player can be activated. That means two trades from a position of weakness. Yes, you hear rumors but actual trades are rare. The Caps arent buying a new player except maybe a waiver claim

 

[pman25]

I like the suggestion of testing the youth a lot more now in case we really need to rely on them later in March, April, and May. Now is the time with the injuries. I would not really be in favor if everyone is healthy, but everyone is not healthy. I think Lavi is getting there, just slower than we like. McMichael is stepping up, just wish we saw him on the powerplay. He's been so good generating chances near the goal line that I have to think he'd be good in the Sheary spot, retrieving pucks or pouncing on rebounds. He just has a way of finding the puck. He's also a better option to gain the zone. Sheary doesn't offer much there

 

[Langway]

I think part of what Langer is saying there is that they havent failed because they havent been given a chance while all the failure is on the regular players.

Mostly, yes. They haven't failed terribly much collectively but I can't really think of actual performances where shortening the bench was justified. They were just afraid of what might happen and that's a poor precedent to set.

Eller, Hagelin & Hathaway have gotten a lot of leeway and you'd think it's due to defensive play, identity and team performance keeping the status quo largely in play. OT losses and PP performance have been just as important in their losses so far but they've got to get more out of their depth and this basic approach should be considered very suspect.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

I like the suggestion of testing the youth a lot more now in case we really need to rely on them later in March, April, and May. Now is the time with the injuries. I would not really be in favor if everyone is healthy, but everyone is not healthy. I think Lavi is getting there, just slower than we like. McMichael is stepping up, just wish we saw him on the powerplay. He's been so good generating chances near the goal line that I have to think he'd be good in the Sheary spot, retrieving pucks or pouncing on rebounds. He just has a way of finding the puck. He's also a better option to gain the zone. Sheary doesn't offer much there

I think he’s going to be on power-play 2 with Eller and Sprong

 

[tenken00]

Disagree. Any cap overage brought in to cover LTIRd players must be removed before that player can be activated. That means two trades from a position of weakness. Yes, you hear rumors but actual trades are rare. The Caps arent buying a new player except maybe a waiver claim

Mantha is not coming back any time soon. Typically it takes 4 or 5 months of recovery for athletes to recover from shoulder surgery. I don't know the exact type or surgery Mantha has had, but it will be a long time before he's back.

 

[Baszie]

Not sure if anyone mentioned it here, but McMichael replaced Eller today on pp2. Eller and Hags weren’t playing well. Looks like they had a lot of credit, but run out of it and got sort of demoted.

 

[txpd]

Mostly, yes. They haven't failed terribly much collectively but I can't really think of actual performances where shortening the bench was justified. They were just afraid of what might happen and that's a poor precedent to set.

The Killorn goal v TB off the face off was pretty ugly. Thats only one that comes to mind right away.

 

[Baszie]

I think he’s going to be on power-play 2 with Eller and Sprong

No, McMichael instead of Eller. Ovie was on pp1 and 2.

 

[illpucks]

How about signing Marleau to league min deal? Any use?

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Lavi just gonna play 8 all game lol

 

[895]

How about signing Marleau to league min deal? Any use?

Marleau has been a walking corpse for 3 years. Was only around to get the GP record. Not a fan.

 

[txpd]

Mantha is not coming back any time soon. Typically it takes 4 or 5 months of recovery for athletes to recover from shoulder surgery. I don't know the exact type or surgery Mantha has had, but it will be a long time before he's back.

Edit: Vrana's optimistic timetable is 4 months after his own shoulder surgery.

We dont know squat about any of them. Just speculation. Also rumors involving the Caps in the media are rare. The regular local coverage doesnt do that kind of writing and that Canadian media doesnt have Washington sources.

If you think Laviolette is bucking the system, I can't disprove that. I have never felt like trades were gonna happen