Post-Game Talk: G13: Washington @ Pittsburgh... Valentine’s Day/Lucky 13/Sunday Funday Edition | 2/14 3:00p ET NBC

[Barry Amsterdam]

Also lateral mobility is much better, Nick doesn't move much at all

ha he dosnt need to

 

[JMUcapsfan07]

My God, some of you all are extremely eager to go back to being a bottom tier team. I'm afraid I don't see a quick fix except for the guys currently on the roster starting to play better.

 

[McVechkin]

Losing faceoffs kills this team.

yup. Something they’ve been bad at for years and haven’t don’t anything to fix it.

 

[Ovie's Neighbor]

yup. Something they’ve been bad at for years and haven’t don’t anything to fix it.

Hard to fix it other than trade for a different center. I would hope the players are working on getting better but maybe not.

 

[Calicaps]

Well shit. Screwed up the time difference and missed this one... But it seems maybe that's for the best. Hate the Pens. Whatever. A bunch of guys in their first game back since weeks ago. Hopefully next game is better.

 

[Misery74]

Panik, Jensen and VV need to watch from off the ice Tuesday.

Play Anderson, TVR and Sprong.

You need to shake things up ASAP.

Maybe they play better in front of Anderson.

 

[Peeri]

How did Ovechkin end up with almost 26min ice time without overtime? Probably not the best idea. Something has to be done with the second PP unit, so he can actually get some rest between.

 

[DrewGl]

goaltending is so bad. that's the problem. not an easy fix.

 

[AussieCapsFan]

Didn’t mean to suggest that. As I said before I’ve been out of the loop. Since COVID started I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to the Caps. Not sure why.

Thanks for the reply.

Luckily for you they are playing just as poorly as they were before COVID, so you're not missing anything at all!

 

[AussieCapsFan]

Well shit. Screwed up the time difference and missed this one... But it seems maybe that's for the best. Hate the Pens. Whatever. A bunch of guys in their first game back since weeks ago. Hopefully next game is better.

I was watching the replay on NHL.com and with 12 mins to go in the 3rd it suddenly jumped to the final score haha - I was initially angry and then thought "oh we lost 3-6, didn't need to see that last 12 mins anyway".

Even so, I pay for that service so it really shouldn't be doing that. But then we're talking about the NHL's very own streaming service, which literally has TWO 30 second highlight reel ad breaks that have been playing EVERY SINGLE commercial break in every single game
since the season began. They have access to every single goal, save, hit since time immemorial and they play the same two over and over again.

 

[AussieCapsFan]

Panik, Jensen and VV need to watch from off the ice Tuesday.

Play Anderson, TVR and Sprong.

You need to shake things up ASAP.

Maybe they play better in front of Anderson.

Yeah at this stage it's a WTF?? with regards to TVR and Sprong being out. Those guys are better than Jensen and Panik.

 

[DWGie26]

I’d like to see Sprong and TVR get a sweater. Not sure about Anderson. Other guys just need to play some games together.

 

[WanderingCapsFan]

I actually didn't mind the Panik signing at the time. But, boy, was I wrong. Just nothing there.

At least, for the same price, Hagelin actually brings some value. He may be overpaid, but he brings something.

Not sure what the answer is with Kuzy. Layoff or no layoff, he's the same soft, low effort, fly-by guy we've seen for a while. I miss the Kuzy from the 2018 playoffs, especially the guy who showed up while Backy was out. It's just ugly now and I have no idea what the answer is.

It's looking more and more that there is trouble in goal. I'm afraid that we're ruining Vanecek by keep running him out there after bad outings (even if he was going to be the answer). I have never been convinced about Samsonov (happy to be wrong), and obviously Anderson is not the answer. Another couple of bad games in goal and GMBM is going to have to do something.

 

[SherVaughn30]

I’d like to see Sprong and TVR get a sweater. Not sure about Anderson. Other guys just need to play some games together.

So would I. Sprong has shown he can score goals(he's like a young Connolly, but better along the boards) and TVR has shown he can get pucks to the net, unlike Jensen or a terribly struggling Orlov.

 

[HecticGlow]

I think it should be obvious that Anderson is not the solution. That said, I wouldn’t mind them waiving a guy like Jensen (to send him to the taxi squad for a couple of games for cap relief) in order to have Copley as Vanecek’s backup. It’s clear they’ve no intention of giving Anderson a start any time soon, and that puts huge pressure on a guy who entered the year as the number 3 with zero NHL games played. Especially if Samsonov is unlikely to provide us elite goaltending any time soon, figuring out if Copley can win us some games again is important, surely?

 

[EroCaps]

This team did nothing to address its bad bottom 6, continues to rely on a primadonna 2nd line C, and is trotting out its' 3rd string goalie for the last month.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

This team did nothing to address its bad bottom 6, continues to rely on a primadonna 2nd line C, and is trotting out its' 3rd string goalie for the last month.

Pretty much. I’ve long maintained the bottom six is too redundant and BMac swung the pendulum too far towards “grit and toughness.” None of them are regular threats to score a goal. The 4th line in particular was awful yesterday and gave up both the first two goals which killed their momentum. Their third line wingers when they were a top team were both snipers and now they’re plodders. Not ideal. Barring a trade, I would roll Sheary-Eller-Sprong — I thought Sheary and Eller played well and were unlucky not to get a goal yesterday but Panik is a nothing burger.

We’ve also all long maintained that this team goes as Kuznetsov goes and the results thus far are not encouraging. I actually thought he was ok at times yesterday given it was his first game back but that second line with him and Vrana is warm butter soft if he’s not pushing the pace and driving play.

Vanecek has certainly hit a wall but the team is putting him in a tough position. He’s started what, 11 straight games, and had never even played in the NHL before. He needs to sit and reset for a bit. The Lundqvist situation sucks — he’s exactly what they need right now. And while I’m not going to blame Samsonov for getting Covid, it does suck that this is twice he’s let his team down and been unavailable when they need him. And it’s likely hurt his development too.

Feels like everything that could go wrong is going wrong and I figure that’ll turn around some time soon but yeah, they need to stop the bleeding if they don’t want to be chasing the pack.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I think it should be obvious that Anderson is not the solution. That said, I wouldn’t mind them waiving a guy like Jensen (to send him to the taxi squad for a couple of games for cap relief) in order to have Copley as Vanecek’s backup. It’s clear they’ve no intention of giving Anderson a start any time soon, and that puts huge pressure on a guy who entered the year as the number 3 with zero NHL games played. Especially if Samsonov is unlikely to provide us elite goaltending any time soon, figuring out if Copley can win us some games again is important, surely?

Poor Copley....all he did was do a decent job as a backup in the NHL and got paid for the good job, only to be banished to the minors for it....I’d prefer him also right now over Anderson.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Poor Copley....all he did was do a decent job as a backup in the NHL and got paid for the good job, only to be banished to the minors for it....I’d prefer him also right now over Anderson.

I think his Salary cap hit is to large to bring him up over Anderson

 

[HecticGlow]

I think his Salary cap hit is to large to bring him up over Anderson

Not if they waived Jensen – they're currently carrying 13 forwards and 8D, in addition to Vanecek and Anderson. Put Anderson back on the taxi squad and waive Jensen onto it (without adding anyone in the opposite direction) and you've $2,003,456 in usable cap space. That's more than enough to fit Copley's $1.1million in.

Question is do they really think Jensen would get claimed? Because if not, and they're already healthy scratching him at times, why not give Copley a shot?


(Of course, you could also waive Sheary or Sprong, or another player. But Jensen seemed the most likely to safely claim waivers and not cause a lineup issue).

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Why would you waive Jensen? Hes playing pretty well right now

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I think his Salary cap hit is to large to bring him up over Anderson

I know! Lol....victim of his own price tag....

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Why would you waive Jensen? Hes playing pretty well right now

to hope someone claims him? Lol....

 

[Langway]

I maintain that their biggest issues are 74/9. Both being underwater 5-on-5 is very problematic. Orlov's turnover and defensive play thereafter represented a turning point yesterday IMO. It's not at all surprising they were rusty collectively after so much time off but the defensive play of those two has routinely been pretty bad this year. It's probably at the lowest point that I can recall. In Orlov's case there has been zero offense to go along with it. If he doesn't start rounding his game out I can easily see him being moved in a more short-sighted and desperate move for a goaltender.

They're so desperately win-now but MacLellan needs to take a step back at some point and evaluate what he's putting together. As-is it's too slow, pretty arguably too old and in need of more truly well-rounded skillsets.

 

[Devil Dancer]

I know it's small-time stuff, but I'm really sick of Nick Dowd taking penalties and getting rewarded for it with more ice time.