GDT: G5: Leafs @ Caps - 6:08pm

[SecretaryofDefense5]

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#winning

 

[Holtbyisms]

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Never to early to start the draft party watch!

 

[Misery74]

A maybe on Milano. You could have possibly signed him $400k lower per year. To Milano's credit, he has been consistent on the same points total for 2 straight years with two different teams.

Milano for 3 years was unnecessary. We were competing against ourselves.

 

[SherVaughn30]

Just looked at the Nylander and Matthews goals. They were bad goals given up by Kuemper. He's cheating off his near-side posts too much! I'm concluding the Scott Murray goalie coaching is a problem! Nylander shoots right-handed. Why would a goalie give up room and get beat on the near-post glove-side?! Force Nylander to go wide and either shoot fore-hand far post or go very wide back-hand on the far-post!

Matthews has a good shot left-handed, but why as a goalie give him room on near-post stick-side?! Challenge Matthews in that instant to fire a wrister far-post!

I'm telling all here. Scott Murray is coaching Kuemper to make the wrong reads and techniques, and as a result the Caps are not getting the best goaltending from Darcy Kuemper!

SCOTT MURRAY has F'ed up every Caps goalie except Grubauer! Somehow I think Grubauer just played the way Mitch Korn improved him and anything Murray said to Grubauer just went through one ear and out the other!

Even if the Caps lose to the Devils tomorrow(which I'm 100% expecting), if Hunter Shepard has a strong game then it's on Scott Murray for sure. This is the worst I have ever seen Darcy Kuemper play of the 4 teams he's played for. And at age 33 he's not washed up yet.

 

[IafrateOvie34]

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I knew I could rely on you. Your memes will make the rebuild easier and less painful For me.

 

[um]

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Seems like its always Us vs. Pens.

 

[usiel]

Had no clue the game started at 6pm est. Started watching live as the 2nd period started. See the caps look pretty decent and then give up two goals. Turns off TV.

 

[shtorm2005]

I knew I could rely on you. Your memes will make the rebuild easier and less painful For me.

 

[RedRocking]

Never to early to start the draft party watch!
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I can handle the losing, if it means we will get a true 1C or #1D in the lottery. Hopefully Ovi will still get his 30+ goals.

Otherwise, the sooner we’re drafting elite talent for the rebuild, the better. “Re-tool” is just a nonsense PR term, and we probably should have kept that 1st instead of trading it for Sandin.

But, of course, the organization has to draft better. Look at this Bruins kid - Poitras. Picked 54th, 19 years old - looks legit with 3 goals the past two games. And we can’t do better than CMM, Lappy with later 1sts? Plus all that draft capital spent on LDs, who are all currently shitting the bed and throwing it at Kuemper. Come on GMBM, Mahoney - do better, or get replaced.

Anyways, I am more than ready to start a new era with some fun, young faces like Leonard, Miro, Cristall, etc… Maybe CMM as a middle six center.

Oh, and I’ll lose my f**king mind if the Pens somehow win the lottery, lol.

 

[troyerlaw]

Definitely have to wonder if they're not already thinking ahead about the wisdom of buyouts next summer, as unpalatable as it may be. So many cooked vets on terrible contracts with no market. If it's a long season--as it certainly looks to be--then they can't possibly shrug their shoulders and run the core back out yet again, right? Not like there's an easy shake-up to be made or else they would have done it in the off-season like they clearly wanted to. At this point a top six shake-up wouldn't (and won't) go far enough anyway.

Probably no use bundling assets to dump Mantha either. If anything maybe waive him to make room for Miroshnichenko. Add someone eager to go to work and make their mark. Any restructuring/punting may have to start with moving Jensen or TVR since both should at least have an actual trade market. Might as well be honest about their defensive capacity and start over with players that are at least developing like an Iorio. Not much to lose shifting to that mentality before long (to the degree they're even able roster-wise to do so).

While there's a wide degree of latitude for MacLellan in terms of the core, their decline and ownership decisions, he's hasn't added much to offset/combat any of this. Strome, Milano, Phillips, Sandin...none industrious and complete to the point where they're going to make any difference as leadership material. Until they add more of that element--even Wilson looks cooked in that regard--they're just a dense country club easy out seemingly incapable of dialing it in.

Agreed. I’ve been living and dying with this team since their first season, I’ve seen some very good GMs, e.g. David Poile and yes, McPhee (despite the Erat debacle), and then some not so good ones. So far — and it’s not personal, I’m sure he’s a good guy — I put GMBM in the second category, unfortunately.

Not saying he won’t one day be effective, but he isn’t right now. He has bet hard on the wrong horses. Reirden was a downgrade from Trotz; Kuz has consistent effort/character issues, he not only eats up cap space and playing minutes, his selfish, erratic style of play sets a bad tone for team; Backstrom and Oshie are ancient and often injured and massively overpaid.

I get what people are saying about having to reward players for their role in the Cup, but there are GMs in this league who are much more cutthroat and strategic and long-range oriented than our guy is, and it shows. Hell, Cory Conacher was on his way to finishing second in rookie scoring when Yzerman decided to sell high and trade him for Ben Bishop. Yzerman also played absolute hardball with Drouin, and time has revealed that there too, he was legitimately seeing something missing from Drouin’s game or effort level or whatever.

Imagine how some of the GMs with sharper business practices would’ve responded to the last five years of Kuz performance, incl. him s***-talking the front office during most recent offseason in Russian language interview.

Sure, you can say, Leonsis wouldn’t employ that type of GM. Maybe that’s true. But i think that type of GM wins more Cups.

 

[SherVaughn30]

Some extra thoughts after seeing the recap video. I disagree with goalie interference call on OV on that PP. Woll was completely flat on his back on the ice and thought the puck was under him. OV drove the net, partially tripping forward by other players legs. He could have landed on top of Woll, but lunged over and behind Woll. Woll could have got up but he didn't because he did not know exactly where the puck was.

I reviewed on 4 goals on Kuemper and I strongly believe he was capable of stopping all 4 of them! Rielly shot on the their PP squeezed through Kuemper's 6-hole. That is a shot he must squeeze shut. The Tavares goal redirecting a wide pass/shot, Kuemper should have cut more angle off by being on top of the crease. Had he done so, I think he had long enough of a right leg to stop the redirected puck. As I said before, Kuemper could have stopped near-side goals on Nylander and Matthews.

Had Kuemper played better, then this might have been at least 1-1 game. To out shoot the Leafs 37-17 and lose 4-1 is extremely disappointing!

 

[SherVaughn30]

Agreed. I’ve been living and dying with this team since their first season, I’ve seen some very good GMs, e.g. David Poile and yes, McPhee (despite the Erat debacle), and then some not so good ones. So far — and it’s not personal, I’m sure he’s a good guy — I put GMBM in the second category, unfortunately.

Not saying he won’t one day be effective, but he isn’t right now. He has bet hard on the wrong horses. Reirden was a downgrade from Trotz; Kuz has consistent effort/character issues, he not only eats up cap space and playing minutes, his selfish, erratic style of play sets a bad tone for team; Backstrom and Oshie are ancient and often injured and massively overpaid.

I get what people are saying about having to reward players for their role in the Cup, but there are GMs in this league who are much more cutthroat and strategic and long-range oriented than our guy is, and it shows. Hell, Cory Conacher was on his way to finishing second in rookie scoring when Yzerman decided to sell high and trade him for Ben Bishop. Yzerman also played absolute hardball with Drouin, and time has revealed that there too, he was legitimately seeing something missing from Drouin’s game or effort level or whatever.

Imagine how some of the GMs with sharper business practices would’ve responded to the last five years of Kuz performance, incl. him s***-talking the front office during most recent offseason in Russian language interview.

Sure, you can say, Leonsis wouldn’t employ that type of GM. Maybe that’s true. But i think that type of GM wins more Cups.

Poile was good in drafting d-men and goalies, but he really did stink in drafting forwards. It was evident both with the Caps and Preds. Most of those years Poile's Caps rosters made the playoffs, goal scoring was always an issue.

 

[SherVaughn30]

I’m not talking about OV and Oshie. I’m taking about Backstrom who already openly admitted his body was failing him before he signed the new contract. I’m talking about Wilson. I’m talking about Carlson. I’m talking about Kuemper. OV is a bad contract and we all knew it but you had no choice.

OV a bad contract?! He's been the face of the team his whole career and he scored a combined 92 goals in the first 2 years of his 5 year extension! At age 38 and in the 3rd year of the extension, OV is still showing to be the most dangerous offensive threat over the rest of the forwards that are all younger than him, despite just getting his 1st goal of the season. OV's cap hit is still deserved, but Backstrom's and to some extent Kuzy's are not!

Kuemper has be better for what he's being paid. I just hope he starts ignoring Scott Murray's coaching to improve his game!!

 

[ovikovy817]

OVI has another milestone with that goal
More goals scored on Tuesdays : 146th (2nd Trottier 145)

+

He played his first game against Woll. So he is the 170th GK to concede a goal from Ovi.
Jagr scored against 178 goalies
Marleau against 177
Ovi is 3rd.

 

[Acallabeth]

Caps played probably their best game of the season tonight. They pretty handedly controlled play but that’s hockey sometimes. If they play like this consistently they’ll have better times ahead.

It is what it is at this point.

Yeah, I think just 1 goal was a bit unlucky, and Kuemper played a substandard game. It's a poor start even for an old team after a 6-month off-season, but they were pretty competitive.

 

[Roshi]

Cristall-Celebrini-Leonard actually feels like a naturally good line. Playmaker, goal-scorer, power forward.

About the game? Yeah, we finally played pretty well. But not doing "the little things" right and this team will lose against good teams. Just too predictable, and no drive. Playing like this will get us close enough of playoffs to miss on Celebrini/Eiserman, but not close enough to actually make it. So they need to find the way to win games quickly, or they need to get back down on the level they played the first 3 games.

On Kuemper, he needs to save that first one. On a losing streak, you just to need to make those saves to keep the momentum when your team is buzzing. I dont blame him on others, its just overally coming from where the team is at. Missing self confidence to make the timely saves. On the fourth goal im more interested knowing what Carlson is thinking. why does he feel he needs to lazily reel over towards the corner where theres zero risk being scored on and leave Matthews open to set-up the onetimer. Thats game IQ zero defence. And just to mention, i think JC has been actually pretty good so far, but he tends to make too many on those lazy plays that just dont make any sense on his own end. Instead of preventing the scoring chance he kind of forces it to happen.

 

[SherVaughn30]

Cristall-Celebrini-Leonard actually feels like a naturally good line. Playmaker, goal-scorer, power forward.

About the game? Yeah, we finally played pretty well. But not doing "the little things" right and this team will lose against good teams. Just too predictable, and no drive. Playing like this will get us close enough of playoffs to miss on Celebrini/Eiserman, but not close enough to actually make it. So they need to find the way to win games quickly, or they need to get back down on the level they played the first 3 games.

On Kuemper, he needs to save that first one. On a losing streak, you just to need to make those saves to keep the momentum when your team is buzzing. I dont blame him on others, its just overally coming from where the team is at. Missing self confidence to make the timely saves. On the fourth goal im more interested knowing what Carlson is thinking. why does he feel he needs to lazily reel over towards the corner where theres zero risk being scored on and leave Matthews open to set-up the onetimer. Thats game IQ zero defence. And just to mention, i think JC has been actually pretty good so far, but he tends to make too many on those lazy plays that just dont make any sense on his own end. Instead of preventing the scoring chance he kind of forces it to happen.

It seems like he has a lack of determination to stay with the play, almost like he just gives up defensively. As a goalie I would get on his case or any other d-man for playing that way! Only a Berube, Torts, Trotz or Tocchet type coach would make the player accountable for not staying with the play defensively.

 

[trick9]

This went about as expected. Propably going to be similar results against Jack Hughes and the Devils too.

Atleast we got the ''hey we tried -trophy'' for this effort even if it was a complete blow-out that was over after 26 minutes.

Quick, trade Jensen before anyone sees another game from him. He looks absolutely terrible to start the season.

 

[HecticGlow]

Our PK needs some adjustments certainly - and I’m sure it’s not coincidental that they’re trying to integrate Protas, CMM and Malenstyn in when none of have meaningful NHL PK reps prior to this season. Plus Dowd is currently out and hasn’t looked his normal self lately.

The goaltending also really needs to improve, because this isn’t a team that can score their way out of a 3 goal deficit.

But against a good team, the Caps actually looked really dangerous last night.

 

[tycoonheart]

Good effort last night. The goals will start coming I hope. They need to focus on D now. Get that tightened up.

 

[Holtbyisms]

I can handle the losing, if it means we will get a true 1C or #1D in the lottery. Hopefully Ovi will still get his 30+ goals.

Otherwise, the sooner we’re drafting elite talent for the rebuild, the better. “Re-tool” is just a nonsense PR term, and we probably should have kept that 1st instead of trading it for Sandin.

But, of course, the organization has to draft better. Look at this Bruins kid - Poitras. Picked 54th, 19 years old - looks legit with 3 goals the past two games. And we can’t do better than CMM, Lappy with later 1sts? Plus all that draft capital spent on LDs, who are all currently shitting the bed and throwing it at Kuemper. Come on GMBM, Mahoney - do better, or get replaced.

Anyways, I am more than ready to start a new era with some fun, young faces like Leonard, Miro, Cristall, etc… Maybe CMM as a middle six center.

Oh, and I’ll lose my f**king mind if the Pens somehow win the lottery, lol.

The retool was always bullshit and everyone who bought it was laughable. I recall being eaten alive for saying so though. For even suggesting all we'd be doing is running it back with a few Hershey guys in the mix to fill the holes. So many replies about how BMac was a straight shooter and how he does what he says. I should screen shot them all and post them for the lols. I'm fine with the Sandin trade. He's nothing special but equal talent to what that pick could have snagged. Just remember come trade deadline....sell! Sell! Sell!

 

[marcel snapshot]

Poor Spence muttering about greasy goals (not our style bro) and winning one on one battles - we suck at those. Hard to depend on any of Kuzy, Ovie, Nicky, Mantha, and (sadly) increasingly Oshie or Wilson winning a one on one battle - even though that’s the vast bulk of our forward payroll. Wondering if the vets are actually confronting the reality that this on them - and their limits as players going up against teams that play 2023 hockey. Or are they deluding themselves into thinking that it’s on the coaches

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

The retool was always bullshit and everyone who bought it was laughable. I recall being eaten alive for saying so though. For even suggesting all we'd be doing is running it back with a few Hershey guys in the mix to fill the holes. So many replies about how BMac was a straight shooter and how he does what he says. I should screen shot them all and post them for the lols. I'm fine with the Sandin trade. He's nothing special but equal talent to what that pick could have snagged. Just remember come trade deadline....sell! Sell! Sell!

What exactly are you breaking your arm patting your own back over? The dude tried, but nobody wants our shitty players (like 92 who SHOULD have value if he wasn’t a massive disappointment).

Did you predict that absolutely nobody wanted our players? That he would NOT be able to make trades to alter the roster because there would be no market??

Show me those screenshots…..those would be impressive at least.

 

[Ovie's Neighbor]

I can handle the losing, if it means we will get a true 1C or #1D in the lottery. Hopefully Ovi will still get his 30+ goals.

Otherwise, the sooner we’re drafting elite talent for the rebuild, the better. “Re-tool” is just a nonsense PR term, and we probably should have kept that 1st instead of trading it for Sandin.

But, of course, the organization has to draft better. Look at this Bruins kid - Poitras. Picked 54th, 19 years old - looks legit with 3 goals the past two games. And we can’t do better than CMM, Lappy with later 1sts? Plus all that draft capital spent on LDs, who are all currently shitting the bed and throwing it at Kuemper. Come on GMBM, Mahoney - do better, or get replaced.

Anyways, I am more than ready to start a new era with some fun, young faces like Leonard, Miro, Cristall, etc… Maybe CMM as a middle six center.

Oh, and I’ll lose my f**king mind if the Pens somehow win the lottery, lol.

GMBM has been one of poorest drafters in the league so I’m not surprised

 

[Roshi]

Yeah, its hard to sell when everyone knows what you are trying to sell is s**t.

Only way we are getting rid of our baggage is paying picks and retention value to get it done, and most of us dont think that would be very smart. Just let it play out naturally.

Think it this way; if our guys keep on sucking as they have, they are atleast doing the tanking for us. No point forcing guys like Lappy or Iorio up to get murdered in the NHL, while they can enjoy some winning hockey in Hershey.