Speculation: Caps General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines etc) - 2021 "Season" Pt. 2

[kicksavedave]

Sure, lots of excuses you COULD make for an underperformer....


Play well, get ice time. Simple formula.

Not making excuses. Saying there are many possible reasons for his PT including the coach trying to solve his "underperformance".

 

[traparatus]

2019 playoffs vrana not scoring was a pretty big factor but 2020 nobody showed up outside of very few players. There was no depth scoring and outside of Ovi, Carlson, Kuznetsov, and to an extent Oshie there wasnt much from the big boys either. To put lots of the blame on Vrana is unfair imo although I do agree his unability to score in the playoffs 2 playoffs in a row is somewhat concerning

Caps can't keep relying on older, slower players to carry all the burden of production in the playoffs. That's what Vrana is supposed to be. Young legs to take the load off of Ovechkin/Backstrom. The team cleared roster and cap space to accommodate him. He should absolutely be working on multitude of deficiencies in his game.

I don't consider Kuznetsov and Vrana to be similar, by the way. Kuznetsov knows how to be an effective player when time and space come at a premium. He doesn't practice those concepts very often because... well, he is a very special boy but at least I know that he is capable.

 

[Calicaps]

Excellent!



I have repeatedly criticized Laviolette's player usage this year, and given that Washington has blown lead after lead this year I don't think player usage and ice-time allocation has been a strength of his so far. To wit, he plays John Carlson, perhaps their worst defensive defenseman, way too much.

In terms of who is delivering in real terms, it's Kuznetsov and Vrana, who both enjoy the best 5v5 goal differential on the team among forwards. If your argument is they aren't delivering then I don't know what to say other than you're wrong unless you don't really care about goal differential and winning?



I mean if we're going by TOI allocation then we are to conclude that Carlson has been their best defenseman this year which uhhhh.

OK. I'm going with the guy who's been to 3(?) cup finals over number-crunchers on the interwebs, at least until I have good reason to do otherwise.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Not making excuses. Saying there are many possible reasons for his PT including the coach trying to solve his "underperformance".

apologies then if you’re not....because when there has been no mention of an injury, throwing out the injury card kinda seems like looking for an excuse, to me, especially when you’re chiding other posters for not valuing him properly, but that the “coaches” do...(to the tune of 3 mins in crunch time).....

just sayin....

 

[kicksavedave]

apologies then if you’re not....because when there has been no mention of an injury, throwing out the injury card kinda seems like looking for an excuse, to me, especially when you’re chiding other posters for not valuing him properly, but that the “coaches” do...(to the tune of 3 mins in crunch time).....

just sayin....

I'm saying that when a player is benched, there can be many reasons and us message board warriors rarely know the whole story. We love to connect our assumptions to things we see, but behind the scenes there is usually more going on. If it is as simple as "player isn't playing well in our eyes, he should be benched" then why the hell is Carlson still getting so much PT? Why would Carly be treated different from Kuzy? We don't know all the stuff the coaches see or think or say behind the TV footage.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Ahh yes.....”message board warriors”......fans can’t possibly intelligently dissect the game and understand things.....it must be something behind the scenes, that we have no view of....

...silly mortals we are.

Kuzy isn’t playing to his ability....that’s the issue.


Carlson eats minutes and even playing poorly does it better than or at least arguably as well as anyone on the right side IMO. That’s not rocket science.

 

[kicksavedave]

Ahh yes.....”message board warriors”......fans can’t possibly intelligently dissect the game and understand things.....it must be something behind the scenes, that we have no view of....

...silly mortals we are.

Kuzy isn’t playing to his ability....that’s the issue.


Carlson eats minutes and even playing poorly does it better than or at least arguably as well as anyone on the right side IMO. That’s not rocket science.

Don't be offended. We're all mortals. Some of us just understand that the coaches see and know more than we do. Others think they know more.


Its definitely as simple as "playing to one's ability", that explains everything.

 

[traparatus]

Carlson's situation is just bizarre. The guy is obviously struggling. GM went out and purchased a veritable truck load of defensemen in the offseason. You'd think there would be a way to scale Carlson's ice time back for a while.

I'm no 3-time Cup finalist coach but I think that directly leading to goals against shouldn't be a cause for double shifting.

 

[Devil Dancer]

Kuznetsov knows how to be an effective player when time and space come at a premium. He doesn't practice those concepts very often because... well, he is a very special boy but at least I know that he is capable.

I laughed at the highlighted section, well done. It sums up Kuzy nicely.

 

[Calicaps]

Don't be offended. We're all mortals. Some of us just understand that the coaches see and know more than we do. Others think they know more.


Its definitely as simple as "playing to one's ability", that explains everything.

Now I'm confused (honestly) which side of this you're arguing. IMO and I think @twabby's too if I'm following, the fancies disagree with Lavi's decisions. I am arguing that Lavi's choices seem to align more with the eye test and that the fancies are silly/wrong/think they know more (as you say). Is that also your position or am I misunderstanding?

 

[twabby]

Now I'm confused (honestly) which side of this you're arguing. IMO and I think @twabby's too if I'm following, the fancies disagree with Lavi's decisions. I am arguing that Lavi's choices seem to align more with the eye test and that the fancies are silly/wrong/think they know more (as you say). Is that also your position or am I misunderstanding?

My intention wasn't to say the stats indicate Laviolette isn't making good decisions in general, but rather that criticism of Kuznetsov and Vrana is unearned at this time.

I think it's too early to say on Laviolette, good or bad. Ultimately I think an NHL coach earns his stripes in the playoffs where gameplanning and matchups take a frontseat compared to the regular season which is often just a grind where talent wins out. It's why despite having pretty good regular season results Rierden was a failure IMO: his teams were clearly outcoached in the playoffs. It's also why I have some optimism about Laviolette despite the team having an uneven start to the season.

 

[kicksavedave]

Now I'm confused (honestly) which side of this you're arguing. IMO and I think @twabby's too if I'm following, the fancies disagree with Lavi's decisions. I am arguing that Lavi's choices seem to align more with the eye test and that the fancies are silly/wrong/think they know more (as you say). Is that also your position or am I misunderstanding?

I think my point is that sometimes the fancies disagree with the eye test, and when they do, I put my faith in the coaches to sort it out vs us here on the forum. When we disagree with the coaches, for whatever reason, its usually associated with things we're just not privy to. And while I think we all wish all the players worked as hard as the hardest worker on the team, its not how it works. A higher end (of the depth chart) player has to really be doing something pretty wrong from a coaching standpoint to get benched, or as many here want, traded. Tinkering with situational usage can often lead to the impression that a player has lost favor, when its not always the case. In fact sometimes it could be the opposite, a coach is trying to get a player jump started by giving him favorable starts.

In Kuzy's case, to clarify your confusion on my point.. the fancies and expected crap say he's driving play, but his situational usage suggest he's being sheltered, and both could be true. If he's given good O-zone starts, he can be driving play, and when he's forced to defend more, he struggles, so Lavi deploys him where he's most likely to be successful. Maybe just maybe Lavi knows what he's doing here.

Maybe maybe he can only solve one dumpster fire at a time, so Kuzy first, then on to Carlson LOL

 

[kicksavedave]

My intention wasn't to say the stats indicate Laviolette isn't making good decisions in general, but rather that criticism of Kuznetsov and Vrana is unearned at this time.

I think it's too early to say on Laviolette, good or bad. Ultimately I think an NHL coach earns his stripes in the playoffs where gameplanning and matchups take a frontseat compared to the regular season which is often just a grind where talent wins out. It's why despite having pretty good regular season results Rierden was a failure IMO: his teams were clearly outcoached in the playoffs. It's also why I have some optimism about Laviolette despite the team having an uneven start to the season.

I think this ^ and also I think the RS is where a coach learns what he can count on and what he can't, especially early in the RS and especially with a new coach/team like Lavi is. I'm sure there are a lot of tests happening all over right now, not always obvious to us.

 

[tenken00]

My intention wasn't to say the stats indicate Laviolette isn't making good decisions in general, but rather that criticism of Kuznetsov and Vrana is unearned at this time.

I think it's too early to say on Laviolette, good or bad. Ultimately I think an NHL coach earns his stripes in the playoffs where gameplanning and matchups take a frontseat compared to the regular season which is often just a grind where talent wins out. It's why despite having pretty good regular season results Rierden was a failure IMO: his teams were clearly outcoached in the playoffs. It's also why I have some optimism about Laviolette despite the team having an uneven start to the season.

I tend to think that outsiders (fans or people in the league) have some sort of outdated preconceived notions about the Caps including Lavi.

Just totally the opposite of what we as Caps message board warriors are used to watching pretty much every game since the Cup. Now that Lavi actually sees what he has to work with (weird offseason - didn't get to see them much / no preseason / injuries / COVID), it'll be interesting on how things settle out.

 

[txpd]

but rather that criticism of Kuznetsov and Vrana is unearned at this time.

9 games. 2 evp.

 

[Devil Dancer]

They may not settle much at all though. Some fans of previous teams said Lavi is a line juggler, who will switch things up regularly.

I'm good with that, especially after Todd "maybe it will work next time?" Rierden.

 

[Melkor]

To me Kuznetsov is the worst performing player so far out of their top-6 by a pretty wide margin. And that says a lot because lately I've come close to saying I hate Jakub Vrana's game. 92 doesn't really contribute anything in terms of generating high quality scoring chances. All you can see from him is turnovers, careless low-percentage decisions when it comes to passing, poor shooting ability and you can tell he's easily the most frustration prone player on that team. If it doesnt work for him from the first shift you can bet your wallet it's gonna be a long night for him and his poor linemates.

 

[tenken00]

They may not settle much at all though. Some fans of previous teams said Lavi is a line juggler, who will switch things up regularly.

I'm good with that, especially after Todd "maybe it will work next time?" Rierden.

I am actually ok with this. At least if you do do juggle, juggle early and often. It's a nightmare if you stick with the lines pretty much for a full season and then you start juggling last minute.

 

[traparatus]

I am actually ok with this. At least if you do do juggle, juggle early and often. It's a nightmare if you stick with the lines pretty much for a full season and then you start juggling last minute.

That's one circus trick I don't want to see

 

[tenken00]

That's one circus trick I don't want to see

What can I say? It's a gift.

 

[crab]

9 games. 2 evp.

17 games. 2 evp. Guess who?

 

[Ridley Simon]

17 games. 2 eve. Guess who?

It’s not Orlov ....he only has one point. LOL

 

[Rayquaza64]

17 games. 2 evp. Guess who?

thats hagelin

 

[TheLegendOfPatPeake]

I’d rather see Siegenthaler get a game right now over Orlov.

 

[txpd]

17 games. 2 evp. Guess who?