Caps vs Flyers - 01/02/13

[IkeaMonkey*]

I'm glad the Caps are the template for the Wizards are the template for the Caps.

This post seems like Inception.

 

[tycoonheart]

I miss the days of Ovi Semin and Green completely missing the net on most of their best scoring chances. Yet still scored a ton of goals.

We have fallen so far, I even miss all the misses. Because we at least had an offense.

Ribs to Ward if our offense now.

They used to take a boat load of shots back then. They just seem to refuse to do it now. Ovi particularly. He would shoot from everywhere. He seems to be looking to make passes these days. Is that what Oates is telling him? I don't know what part of that is Ovi and what part of that is Oates and the system.

 

[BTCG]

They used to take a boat load of shots back then. They just seem to refuse to do it now. Ovi particularly. He would shoot from everywhere. He seems to be looking to make passes these days. Is that what Oates is telling him? I don't know what part of that is Ovi and what part of that is Oates and the system.

Mickey Redmond noted the other night that the league has changed... and the instance of players blocking shots is rising... making it harder to get shots away. We kinda saw that last night as AO circled the goal. Hard to get the puck in through so many bodies.

 

[Roughing]

Someone start tweeting the players until they understand there's a 3rd period.

 

[RandyHolt]

Just my observations.

I see what you are seeing and largely agree.

But to assemble a PP now, he has to shake up 3 lines. Nick Ovi and Ribs.

I am not proposing Ovi on PK duty, just using him as an example.

Oates lines are considered mish mash by many to start the game. In game, they are getting mashed up even more.

And then, like Clockwork Orange, late in the game, hey look there is Ovi and Nick. Dale pulled out his trump card SOB late in game 7 against the rangers. He waited far too long.

My thinking since special teams WILL largely decide this seasons outcome, at least have two players from PP1 be on the same line.

Have some sort of foundation to his line structure that can stand up to all the ticky tack calls that are clearly being enforced. In a feeble effort IMHO to increase commercial breaks or scoring, or both.

 

[BTCG]

Someone start tweeting the players until they understand there's a 3rd period.

Yep.... and I still say, if you're only gonna play 2 periods, play the last 2.... please!

 

[BTCG]

I see what you are seeing and largely agree.

But to assemble a PP now, he has to shake up 3 lines. Nick Ovi and Ribs.

I am not proposing Ovi on PK duty, just using him as an example.

Oates lines are considered mish mash by many to start the game. In game, they are getting mashed up even more.

And then, like Clockwork Orange, late in the game, hey look there is Ovi and Nick. Dale pulled out his trump card SOB late in game 7 against the rangers. He waited far too long.

My thinking since special teams WILL largely decide this seasons outcome, at least have two players from PP1 be on the same line.

Have some sort of foundation to his line structure that can stand up to all the ticky tack calls that are clearly being enforced. In a feeble effort IMHO to increase commercial breaks or scoring, or both.

And I too, agree with what you're saying.

But as to the scrambling being done, and that will be done in the immediate future, I still think we were right years ago:

A monkey throwing darts at a labeled dartboard is much more scientific than what we're currently doing.

 

[RandyHolt]

Mickey Redmond noted the other night that the league has changed... and the instance of players blocking shots is rising... making it harder to get shots away. We kinda saw that last night as AO circled the goal. Hard to get the puck in through so many bodies.

I don't doubt they are rising, in what is a playoff run season.

Let me know the next time you see a Cap go out of his way, give up his body, to block a shot.

The collapsing play of defenses results in many BS by default, so maybe that is what Redmond is basing it on. Sheer stats.

But they fail my eye test. I do not see players laying down, or doing "The Laich" on one knee.

Summoning Brooks Laich, he may well be glue for our team.

 

[BTCG]

I don't doubt they are rising, in what is a playoff run season.

But when few to no one are shot blocking, it won't take but one block shot a game to increase the BS numbers.

Let me know the next time you see a Cap go out of his way, give up his body, to block a shot.

The collapsing play of defenses results in many BS by default, so maybe that is what Redmond is basing it on. Sheer stats.

But they fail my eye test. I do not see players laying down, or "The Laich" on one knee.

Summoning Brooks Laich, he may well be the glue on our team.

And I cannot argue with that. I definitely gotta quit apply hockey logic to this group.

I wonder if the zoo would loan us a monkey?

 

[NoMoreChoking]

3 periods. Not 2.

K thx bye

 

[Atlas]

The old Caps teams from the 80s and early 90's (Kelly Miller, Mike Ridley, Huntsy) always outhustled the other, more skilled teams. We could be up on SOG 14-2 in the first period and be down a goal. That happened a lot. They were short on O skill and goalies but they were a team. They played their hearts out all year.

This team just has no heart at all. Ovechkin always had the heart of a lion that would've fit perfectly with those old teams. If we are questioning his heart then this team really has crashed and burned. We don't have an enforcer. Ovie isn't allowed to body check guys without getting fined and thought immoral. It's a stupid game now.

 

[GRob83]

3 Things that need to change to get a win:

1. Ovechkin needs to be playing with Ribeiro or Backstrom. The Beagle, Crabb, Ovy experiment is a failure.

2. Ribeiro should NOT be taking faceoffs, let someone else take draws and move him to center afterwards.

3. Bench SCHULTZ!!!

Lines i would like to see (if Laich is back):

Ovechkin - Backstrom - Wolski
Ward - Perreault - Ribeiro
Chimera - Johansson - Brouwer
Hendricks - Laich - Crabb

Schultz in pressbox (rest of D wont matter)

 

[IkeaMonkey*]

3 Things that need to change to get a win:

1. Ovechkin needs to be playing with Ribeiro or Backstrom. The Beagle, Crabb, Ovy experiment is a failure.

2. Ribeiro should NOT be taking faceoffs, let someone else take draws and move him to center afterwards.

3. Bench SCHULTZ!!!

Lines i would like to see (if Laich is back):

Ovechkin - Backstrom - Wolski
Ward - Perreault - Ribeiro
Chimera - Johansson - Brouwer
Hendricks - Laich - Crabb

Schultz in pressbox (rest of D wont matter)

Solid 1st post after 3 years of lurking. I wish we had a third frenchman for your Perattuu-Ribs line.

 

[g00n]

Mickey Redmond noted the other night that the league has changed... and the instance of players blocking shots is rising... making it harder to get shots away. We kinda saw that last night as AO circled the goal. Hard to get the puck in through so many bodies.

29.7 shots per game this season (12th in NHL)
28.0 shots per game last season (24th in NHL)

The Caps are shooting more than last year, so far. And the difference betwween this year and, say, 08-09 is only about 3-4 shots per game.

Teams as a whole are averaging about 1 more blocked shot per game.


The problems with Ovie and this team are not in the number of shots taken or blocked.

 

[Carlzner]

Keep up the Tank! Don't stop now!

 

[IkeaMonkey*]

BC drops the B?

Bandwagoner.

 

[RandyHolt]

My Lines Dammit

Ribs Laich Ovi
WW Nick Ward
Hendy Beags "DOG" Brouwer
Chimera MJ/P Crabbb

The extra B is for bum rushing and sitting 2 marlie punks last night.

 

[Brave Sir Robin]

My Lines Dammit

Ribs Laich Ovi
WW Nick Ward
Hendy Beags "DOG" Brouwer
Chimera MJ/P Crabbb

The extra B is for bum rushing and sitting 2 marlie punks last night.

Agreed, except there is no way I would put Laich at center over Ribeiro.

 

[RandyHolt]

Agreed, except there is no way I would put Laich at center over Ribeiro.

Faceoffs only, of course

 

[strungout]

Holtby getting the start tonight (as expected....I guess)

 

[Capitlols]

Holtby fights Talbot, reinvigorates the team. 4-3 Caps.

 

[troyerlaw]

My Lines Dammit

Ribs Laich Ovi
WW Nick Ward
Hendy Beags "DOG" Brouwer
Chimera MJ/P Crabbb

i like 9 & 8 together, immediately, but it didn't seem like Laich and Ovie had any chemistry at all last spring. They seemed to work at cross purposes.

As much as I love Ovie, i think he's a head case. Sometimes his heart is in it, sometimes it's not. Sometimes he plays with confidence, more and more frequently he doesn't. He went on goal-scoring tear toward end of last season and finished 5th overall. He did very well in KHL. But now he's gone stone-cold again, and he has stopped hitting too. He seems tight, tentative, out of sync. Animal Line ought to be mothballed.

All that said, rest of team doesn't look any better. I assume they'll get better and trend toward middle, but making the postseason will be tough enough, let alone making any kind of run.

I really wish Hunter would have stuck aroun for another year. I wonder whether they could lure him back by making him both GM and coach.

I think Brian Burke would be a disaster.

 

[g00n]

Caps are 2nd most penalized team in the league with bleh PK whose stats were helped by killing so many penalties early last night. Fortunately, the Flyers are even worse than the Caps on the PPP.

Caps will be tired and possibly looking past Philly to the Pens on Sunday. Not optimistic.

4-3 Flyers.

 

[RandyHolt]

I am glad we seeing Holtby. Not to piss off the Neuvy fans. But he had a solid chance to steal some for us and didn't. I can hear it now, "but he kept us in the games". Well, that's the minimum all goalies have to do every night.

I think Ribs has got to play with a faceoff winger. He has had a lot of success with WWW but if there is a way to get faceoff help, why not. But when opposition fans come here and don't credit their own guys for winning in the dot, it's a problem. When we say Beagle was 83%, we never say its because the other guy sucked. When Ovi scores, we don't say its because the goalie sucks. Do faceoffs keep Ribs back from being a 1C?

It Oates needs a penalty free game to provide flow or some ****, his tenure in DC will be short lived.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

It's time to give Neuvy a rest anyways. Here's hoping Holtby makes some timely saves tonight. Those are what he's been missing...the clutch save.

3-1 Caps