Speculation: Caps General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines etc) - 2021 Regular Season Part 3

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

Hags' spot is 100% secure until someone supplants him as a PK master
(hint: ain't gon' be hap'nin' anytime soon)

He is an over paid paper weight.

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

The youth has looked great lately. They seem faster to my eyes. Hard not to be disappointed if they go full retirement home when everyone is healthy again.

 

[txpd]

The youth has looked great lately. They seem faster to my eyes. Hard not to be disappointed if they go full retirement home when everyone is healthy again.

If they go retirement home?

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

If they go retirement home?

Their fully healthy line up I refer to as the retirement home.

 

[txpd]

Their fully healthy line up I refer to as the retirement home.

Ok then

 

[Caps8112]

Got to Seattle yesterday. Seen a few other caps fans out and about.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

People want him gone simply because he (and probably Schultz) seemingly have the worst ROI on the team.

could they still make a run with those 2 on the roster? I think so.

could they have a better chance at a longer run with 6.75 in better ROI?

good chance of yes. But also a lesser chance of no.

Fill me in on how that works successfully. We downgrade our 3rd pair D from a 4 mil guy with skill and Cup experience (who is certainly disappointing) to what?

Where does the rest (including Hags $) go?

 

[zappa4ever]

He is an over paid paper weight.

Easiest thing in the world to do is criticize and shit on things instead of standing up for what positives someone brings

I think most ppl only see a FLASHING 2.75 MILLION DOLLARS!!! in Giant Caps and nothing else and don't value the defensive side of hockey (comparatively... anyone think JC74 is earning anywhere near that 8MIL right now?)

If Hags made 2 Million I wonder how many would still hate him

Defensive Forwards don't put butts in the seats but every team needs a cpl

Somehow some fans expect there to be a perfect world where every Contract/Term is perfection and every player's an All-Star, and if not, it's easy to trade anybody

Granted Hags has a big 0g so far (and recently Wilson, Eller, Sheary, Hathaway and Sprong all were well under their normal G #'s). Hags averages 1 goal per 10 games so he's not yet 2g under his average

 

[Ridley Simon]

Fill me in on how that works successfully. We downgrade our 3rd pair D from a 4 mil guy with skill and Cup experience (who is certainly disappointing) to what?

Where does the rest (including Hags $) go?

Obv it’s based on an internal promotion for one of the roles, and then a trade for a good upgrade somewhere else. Not sure why that’s a hard thing to do?

 

[txpd]

Setting Hagelin aside for a moment. The defense corp. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This defense is working too well together to start monkeying with it.

 

[Caps8112]

So been to a couple of the bars near climate pledge stadium now and asked for espn+ to watch the caps tonight and the bartenders are telling us they can't even show the kraken games.

 

[HTFN]

Just because a guy is deployed heavily on the PK doesn't mean the coach thinks he's the best PKer, it means the coach thinks that him having the PK minutes will help the team the most. There may be other players the coach feels are superior PKers, bu the coach wants to manage their PK minutes so they can be used more in other situations (whether it be even-strength, the powerplay, etc). Oftentimes the first wave PKers aren't even the best PKers, but rather the PKing center with the best of winning the first draw.

In that post I mentioned them as pairs, but there are also solo evaluations you can perform. One of the off-season roster threads had a few page discussion on PK efficacy that was a solid read. It was primarily focused on Chara at the time, but I believe Hagelin made a few guest appearances IIRC.

Right, but all that makes it kind of exactly what he's talking about anyway. There are things beyond analytics that the coaching staff may be asking for or placing value in, so to determine whether Hagelin is a "good" PKer or not seems very dependent on what he's being asked to do, and if he's filling those roles so that other better players don't have to that's got value in itself.

For the record I don't really care for him either, but even @twabby recognizes that it's a hard role to quantify meaningfully (although they don't really take the logical next step and accept it as an intangible but valuable part of the sport either so, still work there)

 

[traparatus]

There are a few stats that I've been keeping an eye on this season but didn't want to bring up until there was a substantial sample size. I think 18 games in, it can be talked about.

This season Caps are spending an average of 4.17 minutes a game shorthanded, good for 5th in the NHL.
Last season Caps spent an average of 5.16 minutes game shorthanded, good for 25th in the NHL.

This season Caps are spending an average of 5.59 minutes a game on the power play, good for 15th in the NHL.
Last season Caps spent an average of 5.39 minutes a game on the power play, good for 25th in the NHL.

For reference, two seasons ago, in 2019-2020, Caps spent 6.43 minutes a game on the PK and 6.36 on the PP.

 

[Roshi]

Setting Hagelin aside for a moment. The defense corp. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. This defense is working too well together to start monkeying with it.

Yeah, very much this.

I was very much in ”dump Schultz” to have cap space to updtae G or O, but thats got to wait for now. Schultz maybe as an invidual isnt worth the 4m, but as part of a def group working very good it adds up and it would not be smart to start messing with that.

Same goes on Hags, on some level. He is liked in the room, he does his thing. The team is doing good. Just let it roll.

Only reason id do any ”dump”-trades and mess with the locker room is if our goalies shit on the bed and we need the cap to work out for a clear update. Lately our goalies has done good.

 

[PlushMinus]

Orlov doesn't PK?? I have heard him mentioned on a few of the broadcasts this past week (Caps on West Coast road trip and was really surprised given his all round defensive game.

I also saw the Caps are tied for equal lowest PIMs per game (with Toronto. Not surprised to see that cos they are butter soft). That seems totally at odds with previous season. There is a guy on youtube called THG who covers all the teams and he
was saying he thinks the Caps have changed their style of play to be more defensive (he thinks they have done some modelling from the Isles after the recent 1st round exits). I wonder if it's more a Lavi thing from the previous teams he coached?

 

[txpd]

Orlov doesn't PK?? I have heard him mentioned on a few of the broadcasts this past week (Caps on West Coast road trip and was really surprised given his all round defensive game.

I also saw the Caps are tied for equal lowest PIMs per game (with Toronto. Not surprised to see that cos they are butter soft). That seems totally at odds with previous season. There is a guy on youtube called THG who covers all the teams and he
was saying he thinks the Caps have changed their style of play to be more defensive (he thinks they have done some modelling from the Isles after the recent 1st round exits). I wonder if it's more a Lavi thing from the previous teams he coached?

He has never been anything more than a spare penalty killer for when one of the regular 4 is the guy in the box. He has been on the shutdown pair going back to Niskanen but he does not pk. Couldn't tell you why. At this point if they had a critical pk going I wouldnt want him out there

 

[tenken00]

I also saw the Caps are tied for equal lowest PIMs per game (with Toronto. Not surprised to see that cos they are butter soft). That seems totally at odds with previous season. There is a guy on youtube called THG who covers all the teams and he
was saying he thinks the Caps have changed their style of play to be more defensive (he thinks they have done some modelling from the Isles after the recent 1st round exits). I wonder if it's more a Lavi thing from the previous teams he coached?

I love Shannon, The Hockey Guy, on YouTube.

That said, I think it's been mentioned several times before on here that Laviolette's teams tighten up on defense - and most times at the expense of offense even as his systems favor Dmen jumping up on the rush very often. It was the criticism that he got in Nashville, that their offense dried up after their Cup appearance although they were good defensive teams. But the Caps have more high end offensive players than he had in Nashville and perhaps all of his other coaching stops. So we'll see.

Plus last year, Laviolette was the only new coach in the league, the year with a 1 week or so training camp and no preseason. And also the defensive corps is markedly different this year to fit a more modern style. So any defensive improvements was probably going to happen this year anyways.

 

[GretzkytoLemieux]

Sorry if this is a repost but what do you think the lines look like when backstrom (and mantha) do re-enter the lineup?

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Obv it’s based on an internal promotion for one of the roles, and then a trade for a good upgrade somewhere else. Not sure why that’s a hard thing to do?

not seeing a path that’s not a D group downgrade.

 

[AtNightWeFly]

So been to a couple of the bars near climate pledge stadium now and asked for espn+ to watch the caps tonight and the bartenders are telling us they can't even show the kraken games.

Did they say why?

 

[Kuz]

I also saw the Caps are tied for equal lowest PIMs per game (with Toronto. Not surprised to see that cos they are butter soft). That seems totally at odds with previous season. There is a guy on youtube called THG who covers all the teams and he

A lot of that also comes from switching out Chara and Dillon for Fehervary and Van Riemsdyk. Chara and Dillon where the most penalized dmen on the Caps with 49 and 44 PIM last year. Orlov was third with 20 PIM. Also Wilson havent been fighting so he has around 1PIM pr game and had around 2 PIM pr game last year. The same with Hathaway have around 0,5 PIM pr game this year vs a little ove 1 PIM pr game last year.

Orlov has never been one of the main guy on the PK. The only year he was one of the four most used players was in 17/18 when he was fourth on the team.

 

[Kuz]

not seeing a path that’s not a D group downgrade.

There are probably possible to find an equal option for Schultz at a lower cost. Still he is a decent backup option on the PP if Carlson goes down.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

There are probably possible to find an equal option for Schultz at a lower cost. Still he is a decent backup option on the PP if Carlson goes down.

I won’t hold my breath, but if we can get another TVR-type, I’m game. Would prefer a guy with Cup experience.

I doubt GMBM makes a move.

 

[Misery74]

Sorry if this is a repost but what do you think the lines look like when backstrom (and mantha) do re-enter the lineup?

It’s tough to predict. I’ll give it a try:

8-92-43
39-19-10
24-20-77
73-26-21

Some people are not going to like this. But my prediction is Hagelin works on golf game in Arizona come TDL.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Why do some posters care so much about cap space when we have 15mill on injury list we arent spending?