GDT: G3 Caps - FLA 1pm

[Devil Dancer]

Kuzy's passing was pretty terrible today, but he looks good otherwise. He's skating well and pressuring Cats, and is engaged in board battles. He's not Harry Potter right now, but maybe he's the Kuzy we need?

 

[DWGie26]

Also just back from the game with few thoughts Starting with Playoff hockey baby!

• Crowd was loud… but i have heard it a lot louder. Still a fun atmosphere
• I sit a few seats to the left of visitor penalty box. Was chirping Hornquist and Gudas relentlessly - fans around me were laughing
• All 4 lines looked good - need this. McMichael definitely held his own on third line. Played smart
• We got punched in mouth first 10 minutes and bad goal - incredible response from there. The first nuggets goal was awesome!
• OV, Oshie, MoJo, Mantha were just veteran beasts. JC74 was great on dee and had a great stick in the board battles
• What can you say about Sammy. He was calm and in the right position all night after the goal. Don‘t think he lost his stick once
• I was really impressed with Larsson. He is small but feisty as hell. The fourth line needs to stay together. Don’t break them up please
• Lastly… Lavi outcoached Brunnette again. Right lines in. Great line changes. Had them playing the system. I love watching the line changes live. Very smart changes today.

 

[zappa4ever]

Great win for Sammy and the Boyz

Very happy Samsonov got his 1st Playoff W, at home, with the fans giving him some love

Much needed, and maybe it vaults him to a new level of confidence and performance


Big games for our 'terrible' Deadline Acquisitions too

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

 

[TRASHCAT]

slept through the game. had to double check the score

 

[DWGie26]

dupe

Bears need Leason tomorrow night. And Caps need to roll the same lines in game 4.

 

[DWGie26]

I thought the fourth line played a lot more than the box score shows. They were definitely noticeable when they were out there. CMM only 8:35. OV, Oshie, and Backstrom all with big minutes. JC74 with 23+

 

[notDkristich]

Lloyd approves. Hail Lloyd...

 

[kicksavedave]

Guys over on the Florida boards are acting like the season is over LOL lots of hockey left to play.

I will say that it is nice to watch an opposing team struggle to change anything and just get beat by better play and a better system....Nice to be on the other side of it this time.

We were saying the exact same things here Thursday night. I've never seen a collective bigger bunch of bi polar people than NHL hockey fans in the playoffs.

I'm just happy we're not losing the series in 4 or 5 games. If Florida is going to beat us, they are going to have to earn it big time.

I feel good about the Caps in 6 or 7.

Next game is everything!

 

[DWGie26]

Love Lavi’s presser. “If we don’t follow this game up then that is on us.” Man he is focused. Team will follow.

 

[BallardEra]

Was Wilson a game time decision today. Any chance we see him in Game 4?

 

[RandyHolt]

Shoutout to Larsson finally getting his first playoff point. As he crashed into the boards. I was happy to see him chirping at someone - he can finally brag after 9 years in the NHL.

 

[marcel snapshot]

I’ve liked Larson’s game. Think he’s slotted in pretty seamlessly with Dow’s and Hath, which is exactly what GMBM was looking for. Hopefully Lavi will now holster the idea of separating those guys as a way to offset Willy’s absence from the lineup

 

[DWGie26]

Shoutout to Larsson finally getting his first playoff point. As he crashed into the boards. I was happy to see him chirping at someone - he can finally brag after 9 years in the NHL.

He was going after Hornquist near the end of the first. Wouldn’t back down. Larsson is feisty!

I’ve liked Larson’s game. Think he’s slotted in pretty seamlessly with Dow’s and Hath, which is exactly what GMBM was looking for. Hopefully Lavi will now holster the idea of separating those guys as a way to offset Willy’s absence from the lineup

Agreed! Keep that fourth line in tact! And give them more minutes. They were surprisingly low. But guess that is life of a 4th line But they are noticeable on every shift they take. And as someone said earlier no penalties on that trio.

 

[kicksavedave]

Was Wilson a game time decision today. Any chance we see him in Game 4?

I don't think he has skated since Game 1. Not game time decision. Looks like it will be a while

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Was Wilson a game time decision today. Any chance we see him in Game 4?

He was expected to be out for Game 3. There are rumours that he might be out for the entire 1st round. Hopefully the Caps survive without him.

 

[tycoonheart]

Not knocking on Larson's play but he was advertised as a possession monster when we traded for him. Not quite seeing that. But he has been a good fight on that line.

 

[Jags]

I’ve liked Larson’s game. Think he’s slotted in pretty seamlessly with Dow’s and Hath, which is exactly what GMBM was looking for. Hopefully Lavi will now holster the idea of separating those guys as a way to offset Willy’s absence from the lineup

Really liking Larsson's game, too, and he's really played C well in the past. Also a very solid PKer. It'll be interesting to see what the market's like for him in the offseason. That kind of versatility is pretty valuable. I'd really like to see some prospects make the team next year though, but if the price is right...

 

[McVechkin]

Thought CMC was good for what he was given. Good scoring chance. Responsible defensively

 

[DWGie26]

There will be a lot of decisions in the offseason. How the playoffs go will dictate a lot.

 

[twabby]

What more do you want from Ovie? He's clearly leading the team by example with his effort, he's playing a team game, and is putting up points. Hit physicality early helped set the tone and dig them out of their funk from G2.

Kuzy has kind of been a force of chaos out there. Even when he's not shooting or scoring he's affecting the game, most notably by getting under the FLA players' skin. I'm not sure we win today if he doesn't knock them off balance early on with all his shenanigans.

Not surprised by Mantha or Mojo. The former is playing the way some thought he could play and Mojo had been performing very well in the regular season after a rough start.

This is the team I imagined in the playoffs based on their upside. The only surprise so far is Larsson has a little more speed than I thought following surgery though he doesn't threaten the ASG lap record for sure. And maybe Sammy righting the ship after the softie but we'll see how it goes.

Only complaints are Oshie has been scoring but needs to limit some of the bonehead plays. Sheary must shoot instead of pass sometimes but otherwise he's been a spark plug. Nick is playing a cagey veteran game but has to be careful about the cute stick work when there's nobody left to support behind him.

Expecting a massive effort by FLA on Monday. Be ready, boys!

I’d like to see Ovechkin and Kuznetsov be a bit more threatening at even strength.

It’s not that they have been bad, but they also haven’t been excellent. I think Florida is likely to raise their game and Washington is going to have to respond. I think both Ovechkin and Kuznetsov have it in them to be more assertive at even strength and I think that is going to be necessary to eliminate the Panthers and hopefully go deep this postseason.

 

[Langway]

I think the Brunette inexperience angle is definitely rearing its head. Loading up with Huberdeau & Barkov doesn't strike me as a grand idea. Giroux with Marchment & Lundell is also kind of baffling. Bennett I guess is their de facto power forward and that's not ideal. I also don't get the huge disparity in TOI between Reinhart & Duclair. I can't say I've noticed Reinhart terribly much. There's a better mix to be had than what they've gone with but we'll see if they figure it out. I'm also surprised they haven't gotten Thornton into the lineup.

Better to be lucky than good. The Caps were fortunate in a lot of ways to get the bounces but then they've earned an awful lot of them. Hopefully they continue to bring it and their passing game more regularly looks like it did in the third period. McMichael only got eight minutes but showed well enough to get another game. Onward.

 

[DWGie26]

I think the Brunette inexperience angle is definitely rearing its head. Loading up with Huberdeau & Barkov doesn't strike me as a grand idea. Giroux with Marchment & Lundell is also kind of baffling. Bennett I guess is their de facto power forward and that's not ideal. I also don't get the huge disparity in TOI between Reinhart & Duclair. I can't say I've noticed Reinhart terribly much. There's a better mix to be had than what they've gone with but we'll see if they figure it out. I'm also surprised they haven't gotten Thornton into the lineup.

Better to be lucky than good. The Caps were fortunate in a lot of ways to get the bounces but then they've earned an awful lot of them. Hopefully they continue to bring it and their passing game more regularly looks like it did in the third period. McMichael only got eight minutes but showed well enough to get another game. Onward.

Bounces are part of hockey. We got good ones today. But we also played the right way. The third period was a thing of beauty. We kept sending them behind the goal one making them go 200 feet and we clogged the neutral zone. counter attack. In a lot of ways you create your own bounces!

 

[YippieKaey]

What a game! This is the Caps playing their system at full capacity and we've seen it at times throughout the RS. And when we play this way it's very hard to win against us. Especially when Sammy looks like a starting goaltender. Very surprised by the pretty dominant game played by the Mojo-Bäckström-Mantha line. Impressive.

And as a low-key fan of TvR:s game im very happy he got a goal today.

And very nice to see old-school Ovi scoring goals, wrecking people and even doing that nice deke on Chiarot even though he didn't score. Captain is leading the charge for sure.

Mantha is playing like the 6'5 230 lbs man that he is. Manthony!

Not sure how next game will turn out but in many ways Caps have been the clearly better team for all 3 games so far. Game 2 would have been won with better goaltending. So The Panthers are likely to start changing things up and given the inexperience of their coach and the massive experience on the Caps roster i would think that's a good thing for the Caps.

Best playoff series since 2018 so far. Hope they keep it up!

 

[RandyHolt]

I like how we stood up on our blue and became much harder to play against. Seeing Carlson do it tells me it was a Lavi directive. f*** yeah its a glorious Sunday meanwhile the poor FL fans are on tilt. As a fan I wish we could quantify next day how different it feels after a glorious playoff win vs losing amid high expectations. I think it takes minutes off ones life. It almost defines you as a real fan vs fair weather. Yes after 40 years of playoff choking vs 1 cup there is still a difference here but damn that 1 cup helped the last 3 exits.

One thing I love about the playoffs are the unexpected hero's emerge that we can't predict despite our obvious collective all star grade GM fandom. Let's extend Mojo. I love pissed off Swedes. I think it was Dale that said/lived if you aren't mad you aren't playing your hardest.