Post-Game Talk: Cup Champions vs. The McJesus’ Team

[txpd]

You still think Grubauer is going to be a #1?
Copley played fine but he is not a great technical goalie.

Sorry. Are you suggesting that 2nd tier goalies....backup goalies are great goalies in any way? If he was a great technical goalie he wouldn't be a backup goalie. As for Grubauer, most here and apparently the Aves, thought Grubauer was worth a first round pick. That suggests they saw him as a starter. I have not seen him play this season nor have I seen his stats. I wouldn't pay attention to a guy's stats out of the gate with his first new team in years.

But that's me. You know everything so, I demure to your superior intellect.

 

[Sam Spade]

Jaskin is a beast. He's a bit slow and you wish he had better hands but I can't remember the last time I saw a player that dominant along the boards and protecting the puck. He seems like a really solid pick up.

This is almost word for word what Blues fans said when he was picked up by the Caps.

See we, the fans, really know the players we watch night in and night out.

 

[VaCaps Fan]

Gruby was about the same in the rebound department with Copley...

 

[Raikkonen]

This is almost word for word what Blues fans said when he was picked up by the Caps.

See we, the fans, really know the players we watch night in and night out.

We dont know shit. We thought Ted was not about winning and Caps would never win.

 

[Grudy0]

You still think Grubauer is going to be a #1?

Sorry. Are you suggesting that 2nd tier goalies....backup goalies are great goalies in any way? If he was a great technical goalie he wouldn't be a backup goalie. As for Grubauer, most here and apparently the Aves, thought Grubauer was worth a first round pick. That suggests they saw him as a starter. I have not seen him play this season nor have I seen his stats. I wouldn't pay attention to a guy's stats out of the gate with his first new team in years.

I think Grubauer will end up being the Avs #1. There's no reason to trade a second and basically pay $4+ million to release one of the guys you traded for, simply to extend the goalie on a $10 million, three-year contract as an RFA.

Grubauer is 3-1-1 with an .893 save percentage and 3.55 GAA.
Holtby is 4-3-2 with an .888 save percentage and 3.62 GAA.

There's room for improvement this season.

 

[um]

We dont know ****. We thought Ted was not about winning and Caps would never win.

weird that he always spent to the Cap but didn't care about winning.

 

[txpd]

weird that he always spent to the Cap but didn't care about winning.

Doesn't it sometimes suck to have a team called the Caps in a salary cap league?

 

[VaCaps Fan]

 

[Raikkonen]

weird that he always spent to the Cap but didn't care about winning.

His fault wasn't spending to the cap but tolerating mediocrity, nobody had an issue with Ted spending money on Brooks Laich and other albatrosses.

 

[um]

His fault wasn't spending to the cap but tolerating mediocrity, nobody had an issue with Ted spending money on Brooks Laich and other albatrosses.

Yea all owners and GMs make mistakes, It's unfair to equate that to not caring.

And mediocrity was far from what the Caps were. Sure we didn't win the Cup until last year but theres only 7 other teams to win the cup since the lockout, that's an unfair standard for being mediocre.

 

[twabby]

And mediocrity was far from what the Caps were. Sure we didn't win the Cup until last year but theres only 7 other teams to win the cup since the lockout, that's an unfair standard for being mediocre.

Could not agree more. I'll take 10+ seasons of regular season excellence and a Stanley Cup over all but a few teams in the league right now.

 

[amjay13]

I bet on over 29.5 goals in the 5 NHL games last night. The total came in at 29. Could have used those empty net misses!

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

Could not agree more. I'll take 10+ seasons of regular season excellence and a Stanley Cup over all but a few teams in the league right now.

I honestly can't understand how Caps fans feel even the slightest bit of angst towards anything right now. We won the Cup. We did it. Game over. Ovie raised the Cup. Full stop - we reached the pinnacle. This team has been supremely fun to watch for over a decade with the only thing missing being a Cup and now we have it. I will never feel as much joy in hockey as I did last spring and summer... and I am completely ok with that. If you can't enjoy this era of Caps hockey I do not know what to tell you because it's almost certainly never going to be better than this.

I also can't understand the angst coming from DC sports fans in particular. This isn't Chicago, Pittsburgh, or Boston where multiple teams have won championships in different sports over the past few years. The Redskins and Wizards have ping-ponged between awful and mediocre with the occasional flash-in-the-pan season for decades. The Nats finished their string of dominance with nary a NLCS appearance. The Caps have been it, man... just enjoy the ride, people.

 

[txpd]

His fault wasn't spending to the cap but tolerating mediocrity, nobody had an issue with Ted spending money on Brooks Laich and other albatrosses.

Sorry...What? Since 2007-08 the Washington Capitals lead the NHL in total regular season standings points. They had 3 Presidents Trophy teams and a Stanley Cup. The playoff monkey is the only thing keeping the Ovechkin/Backstrom era Capitals from being one of the great juggernauts of all time.

Edit. In that time the Caps are second in goals for. First in pp%. They are ranked 23 in most shootout games won. The Penguins were second and Blackhawks 8th in that stretch. So the Caps regular season points advantage is legit.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

some people need year round therapy even when things are good...

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

His fault wasn't spending to the cap but tolerating mediocrity, nobody had an issue with Ted spending money on Brooks Laich and other albatrosses.

I think you’re confusing Ted believing in his course as owner back then as tolerating mediocrity....

It’s not like GMGM and Co had the entire equation wrong. Lots of other franchise owners would kill for the Caps successes, even if only in the regular season.

 

[kicksavedave]

I think you’re confusing Ted believing in his course as owner back then as tolerating mediocrity....

It’s not like GMGM and Co had the entire equation wrong. Lots of other franchise owners would kill for the Caps successes, even if only in the regular season.

I think the only thing accurate in that prior post (not yours) was that Ted tolerated GMGM too long, and GMGM was mediocre, which is very debatable. For as much as he was our whipping boy for the playoff failures and how he constructed a roster, he wasn't mediocre, he was good to very good. Not as good as GMBM at all, but George wasn't "average" or "mediocre" by any measurement except bias.

Ted changed coaches as needed and spent whatever money was needed, including a TON of money off the ice for virtually everything he could spend money on. He was probably too patient with GMGM, but its understandable, if not still frustrating.

 

[Raikkonen]

Bad wording on my part perhaps.

But Ted + Dick Patrick, GMGM and a string of rookie coaches was a common concern here several years ago.

I can't give you names but it was really common. Like Ted is ok with maintaining revenue (due to Ovi being extraordinary mostly) and the cup as afterthought.

Edit: some of you are pretending there never was doom & gloom here. There were concerns and there is no problem with that. That Caps won doesn't change the past and the board feelings back then.

 

[kicksavedave]

Bad wording on my part perhaps.

But Ted + Dick Patrick, GMGM and a string of rookie coaches was a common concern here several years ago.

I can't give you names but it was really common. Like Ted is ok with maintaining revenue (due to Ovi being extraordinary mostly) and the cup as afterthought.

Edit: some of you are pretending there never was doom & gloom here. There were concerns and there is no problem with that. That Caps won doesn't change the past and the board feelings back then.

Of course there were concerns, and there was tons of doom and gloom. And people would have been right to question Ted's judgement, his personnel choices, and criticize his patience with GMGM, among other things. But it would been wrong then and now to ever suggest Ted cared only about money, or that he cared more about money than winning, and specifically winning a Cup. He cared very deeply about winning (a Cup), for the fans of DC, and he would spend whatever he could to help the team win, that could not be disputed. Thats not to say he was a perfect owner, but I'd take Ted over 30 other owners, 7 days a week!

 

[txpd]

Bad wording on my part perhaps.

But Ted + Dick Patrick, GMGM and a string of rookie coaches was a common concern here several years ago.

I can't give you names but it was really common. Like Ted is ok with maintaining revenue (due to Ovi being extraordinary mostly) and the cup as afterthought.

Edit: some of you are pretending there never was doom & gloom here. There were concerns and there is no problem with that. That Caps won doesn't change the past and the board feelings back then.

It depends on what you are trying to say. There were many complaints about numerous subjects after the Caps failed to get close to a cup with one legit cup contender after another. There were many that said they weren't even a contender when they clearly were. That's all true.

To call them mediocre, however, is wildly false. A team that has the best record over a 10 year period that had the best record in the league on 3 seasons and a cup in a 4th can not be called mediocre.

 

[TRASHCAT]

The man stilll employs ernie grunfeld so....

 

[Silky mitts]

The 2 Ted Caps screw ups besides odd coaching hires are the Jagr extension and making GMGM GM out his contract creating the atmosphere for Erat deal.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Bad wording on my part perhaps.

But Ted + Dick Patrick, GMGM and a string of rookie coaches was a common concern here several years ago.

I can't give you names but it was really common. Like Ted is ok with maintaining revenue (due to Ovi being extraordinary mostly) and the cup as afterthought.

Edit: some of you are pretending there never was doom & gloom here. There were concerns and there is no problem with that. That Caps won doesn't change the past and the board feelings back then.

I mean I feel that maybe they wasted the youth of some good/great players (Ovy, Backstrom, Semin, Green), hiring those rookie coaches, maybe not acquiring a big name vet (or not acquiring them sooner, see Feds) to help them mature sooner back then....who knows...maybe last year was Cup 3? Hard to say, but I don't care honestly now.

The thing is, maybe Ovy and Backy needed to feel that pain. Maybe that's what ultimately allowed them to help push through last year?

One thing I tried to constantly remind myself of back then, is first and foremost Ted is a businessman and not some lucky one. He's pretty brilliant. His priority #1 was always building a sustainable playoff team, one that would challenge yearly and not have massive playoff appearance gaps. McPhee proved himself to be an excellent Exec and is doing so again in Vegas. We wanted him fired, some sooner than others, but Ted was looking at a guy who turned his franchise around. Yeah the losses hurt, but the asset, the team, Ted's biggest baby was going up each year and the team was right there knocking on the door with a legit HOF STAR player. Only after some turmoil with assets and playoff flameouts and a fanbase who had lost faith could he (probably sadly), let GMGM go.

 

[maacoshark]

Sorry. Are you suggesting that 2nd tier goalies....backup goalies are great goalies in any way? If he was a great technical goalie he wouldn't be a backup goalie. As for Grubauer, most here and apparently the Aves, thought Grubauer was worth a first round pick. That suggests they saw him as a starter. I have not seen him play this season nor have I seen his stats. I wouldn't pay attention to a guy's stats out of the gate with his first new team in years.

But that's me. You know everything so, I demure to your superior intellect.

The Avs didnt give up a first round pick for Grubauer.
I'm suggesting that any NHL goaltender should be technically sound. Obviously some will be better than others.

 

[txpd]

The Avs didnt give up a first round pick for Grubauer.
I'm suggesting that any NHL goaltender should be technically sound. Obviously some will be better than others.

They gave up a 2nd and ate Orpik. Remove Orpik and that is a 1st. You know that. You know that not every NHL player is an NHL player because they are technically good. There are a lot of technically good players that aren't good enough to be NHL players. You know that too. It might be Copley is a backup goalie because he is not as book good as he needs to be. But he is a backup goalie that has won 2 games in a row with solid play.