Pre-Game Talk: Caps @ Pens 2.7.2013

[msrulo]

2 more losses until someone says goodbye... Boudreau had 10 losses in a 12 game period and got fired, I expect a similar pattern by McPhee.

 

[RandyHolt]

Change the prefix. SS you can do it.

\ˈprē-ˌ, prē-ˈ\ [partly from 2prefix] : to place in front; especially : to add as a prefix <prefix a syllable to a word>. Examples of PREFIX. Prefix “GDT” or “Pre-Game Talk”...

Its a threshold moment. Step through.

 

[swimmer77]

If nothing else I just hope they play "correct hockey". And a couple of mistakes are okay too. We have Hamrlik to bag skate if that happens.

Go Caps!

 

[Brave Sir Robin]

It definitely looks like the new system is too sophisticated and the players are confused. Frankly, I'm not surprised, because:

1. Our core grew up during the BB run and gun days, and that system was far from complex.

2. This team is riddled with low IQ players. The only guys that I would say have above average hockey IQ are Ribeiro, Backstrom, Ovi, Alzner, Orlov (who's yet to play) and Hamrlik.

 

[RandyHolt]

I assume all teams are filled with low IQ players. Just like society, or your local bar.

Is it better to have a dumb boss that can fully relate to the players, or a Mensan?

Just outwerk'em vs compute the derivative

Idiots.

Maybe it's better to have a dumb bench boss. Name the smartest player Captain / alternates, and be done with it.

 

[BobRouse]

Well, they are pretty dumb.

I don't get this logic at all. 95% of NHL players don't finish college at the very least and they are all distracted through high school as they focus on hockey.

If we go up and down the lineup there is no more "dumb" on this team than on any other team in the league.

What I think it is? We have very young players playing key minutes who have been thrown into the fire and have had 3 different systems with different coaches in the last year. It really started going bad when the "voices" told BB to change his style. Ever since we have been going back and forth with no consistency and expecting these raw players to absorb all this information.

Before what made our young players successful in many cases is that most played for the exact same system in Hershey for the same coach and we kept it that way for a few years and were a true heavy weight.

I think we have to pick a system, pick a coach, get the right players to fit that system, let the young players grow into it and we will have success. This does not happen overnight and it would be horrible to fire Oates this season no matter how bad it gets.

This "dumb" theory is pretty dumb itself. I wonder what metrics this nameless coach used to judge this?

2. This team is riddled with low IQ players. The only guys that I would say have above average hockey IQ are Ribeiro, Backstrom, Ovi, Alzner, Orlov (who's yet to play) and Hamrlik.

Ok...enlighten us. How did you come to this conclusion? Did you admister IQ tests to each player? Is there such a thing as a hockey IQ test? Do you know all of them on a personal level? Do you know every player in the league so you can get a good comparison? Or is it more about being frustrated and trying to find something to put blame on?

 

[tycoonheart]

It definitely looks like the new system is too sophisticated and the players are confused. Frankly, I'm not surprised, because:

1. Our core grew up during the BB run and gun days, and that system was far from complex.

2. This team is riddled with low IQ players. The only guys that I would say have above average hockey IQ are Ribeiro, Backstrom, Ovi, Alzner, Orlov (who's yet to play) and Hamrlik.

They WERE confused the first few games, no doubt about it. They've played pretty well the last few games. They've played within the system. You can tell they're still learning though. They're still trying to figure out where someone is supposed to be. For the most part, they seem to have it down but there are still a few moments here and there where you can tell they're learning. Once they know where other players are w/o having to look for them, they'll start looking very cohesive. I like the system. I like Oates. We'll turn this thing around, even if its too late for this season.

 

[tycoonheart]

Look, they say Terry Bradshaw was one of the dumbest (general IQ wise) QBs to ever play football. But the guy was a great QB and won 4 Super Bowls.

My point? These guys have played hockey their entire lives. Their general IQ might be horrible but they know how to play hockey, how to play within different systems. Any time a team is struggling to pick up a new system, the "the players are so dumb" nonsense gets thrown around. Its horse-manure if you ask me.

 

[swimmer77]

Hmmmm...........agree with a lot on the list of another poster............Backstrom, definitely Ribeiro, Orlov, Hamrlik but not Ovechkin. Alzner to some extent but I have that one recent play in mind which clouds my view of his IQ.

It's not a matter of some written test, it's a matter of watching them on the ice. And sometimes some of the above make other players look even dumber. LOL

Backstrom and Ribeiro are playmakers and I just think of those types as having a higher IQ. Guys that see the ice.

Hamrlik has a more subtle higher IQ. I've never seen another d-man do what he does but when headed for a corner to block a pass he'll use his skates and hockey stick to the fullest extent. Watch the Wolski goal against Tampa Bay and that's what I mean. That wasn't in the corner but it was the same idea.

Orlov reminds of a younger Hamrlik.

 

[msrulo]

I assume all teams are filled with low IQ players. Just like society, or your local bar.

Is it better to have a dumb boss that can fully relate to the players, or a Mensan?

Just outwerk'em vs compute the derivative

Idiots.

Maybe it's better to have a dumb bench boss. Name the smartest player Captain / alternates, and be done with it.

Oates is dumber to implement this system to these guys. You want a smart hockey team please, please rebuild.

“He’s a smart hockey player. And a lot of times penalty killers are smart guys,”
~ Oates on Ovechkin

 

[Hivemind]

If Tom Poti is too stupid to understand this system, we're doomed. That guy's a ****ing nerd.

 

[RandyHolt]

If he was a rock in our lineup, I think Poti would have made a fine captain

I wonder if Oates has the sack to rip it off Ovi if he feels he is setting a bad example.

I vote sackless

He knows who is going to be buttering his bread. Assuming he does get to eat one day.

 

[Hivemind]

Do you think Ted would allow someone to rip the C off of Ovi? I'm not sure he would, at least not mid-season.

 

[SlappaDaBass]

I would love to see it happen though. There's nothing more you could do to spark a flame under Ovie's ass than to strip him of his Captaincy. But, knowing Ovie, he would cry and pout about it in the locker room and on the ice because he didn't get his way.

 

[um]

I would love to see it happen though. There's nothing more you could do to spark a flame under Ovie's ass than to strip him of his Captaincy. But, knowing Ovie, he would cry and pout about it in the locker room and on the ice because he didn't get his way.

when has OV ever done that?

 

[RandyHolt]

I think he would be relieved to get rid of it. It carries responsibility. Maybe pressure to speak up at times. Maybe he is not the prototypical C. No one would blame him.

Now is not the time to do it. Oates needed to do it before camp even started. I want to decide who the captain is.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

If Tom Poti is too stupid to understand this system, we're doomed. That guy's a ****ing nerd.

From here, this thread has nowhere to go but down.

 

[swimmer77]

I wouldn't want the captaincy to go to one of the team mouthpieces in Laich or Brouwer. They just like to hear themselves talk.

Give it to Alzner. IMO he's the most level-headed, would own up to his own poor play if necessary and I think actually takes the time to understand his teammates.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

I dont see how Ovie wearing the C or not has anything to do with how he plays on the ice

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Joey Crabb is a first line winger AND a Slytherin prefect. He should be captain.

 

[BobRouse]

The only thing that removing the C from Ovechkin will do is to publically humiliate him and create locker room turmoil.

There is no value in doing that unless he is completely slacking and you have exhausted every other option to get him motivated.

He has played much better the last 4 or 5 games and he probably should have scored 3 or 4 goals. He's not fanning or whiffing on shots like he did over the last couple years. They are getting on target.

 

[RandyHolt]

I am not sure how humiliated he would have been back in September, or when Oates was named. I am not sure anyone would have cared since the season was not likely to even happen.

I still contend, he may well have been relieved.

I do not think its unheard of for a new coach to decide his own teams captain. Maybe Oates wants a vocal locker room type. The on ice only captain can only do so much.

 

[BobRouse]

I am not sure how humiliated he would have been back in September, or when Oates was named. I am not sure anyone would have cared since the season was not likely to even happen.

I still contend, he may well have been relieved.

Whatever the case the risk far outweighs the reward IMO. You will put the newly named captain in a tough spot and risk completely losing Ovechkin.

Either way the hockey media will be all over it and they will talk about it every game and I can see it being a lingering distraction.

The Captain "C" in hockey is highly overrated. Locker room captains develop inside the locker room and the "C" itself is just for media and public consumption.

 

[tycoonheart]

The only thing that removing the C from Ovechkin will do is to publically humiliate him and create locker room turmoil.

There is no value in doing that unless he is completely slacking and you have exhausted every other option to get him motivated.

He has played much better the last 4 or 5 games and he probably should have scored 3 or 4 goals. He's not fanning or whiffing on shots like he did over the last couple years. They are getting on target.

Agreed. I think people are trying to find something... anything... as an excuse for this horrible start this season. The regular whipping boy Semin is gone, so we have to find something else. And that something else is Ovi and his captaincy.

 

[BobRouse]

Agreed. I think people are trying to find something... anything... as an excuse for this horrible start this season. The regular whipping boy Semin is gone, so we have to find something else. And that something else is Ovi and his captaincy.

Good point. At first I thought Green would be the obvious choice as Whipping Boy of the Day but he has played very well I think.

Really..Oates is right..we are playing well and its absolutely crazy that we didn't win several of these previous games. Seems like every single bounce both offensively and defensively is going against us and all our players are snakebit at the same time. Not sure I've seen this since the 80s Caps who would always start the season slow like this.