Post-Game Talk: Game 4: The Todd ReirDONE Capitals VS Ex Coach Who Won The Breakup & His NY Islanders

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hb12xchamps

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Dec 23, 2011
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IIRC pre series the general consensus was that Kempny was good and that the layoff was what he needed. That given the choice in the top 4 between using Kempny and using Jensen, Kempny got the votes. I didnt see a lot of whining over Jensen on the 3rd pair
Was he actually good though or was that just the hope of everyone here? We'd all love SC run Kempny back and I think the nostalgia factor definitely clouded that judgement. You weren't going to see whining about Jensen on the 3rd pairing because the majority of this board thought he was awful and he has slowly proved them wrong. I've said multiple times breaking the Orlov-Jensen pairing up was stupid. Seemed the coaching staff outsmarted themselves
 

Tweedsuitcase

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Sep 28, 2009
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Its all the same thing. Either the players arent given the right game plan or arent motivated to provide execution and effort. The Trotz/Reirden Caps style of hockey doesnt come together quickly. Its both complicated and requires quick, precise movement. If its not sharp, its not good. It needs repetition to be sharp. The Caps dont tend to hit their stride til 20 games into a season. I think people are not entering that into their thinking.

This is a good team that is built to play its best a certain way and it takes a month or two of playing regular to play that certain way with quality.

It doesnt help that the team has 3 top 4 defensemen. Once of which is a short timer with the team and still trying to find his way in their style of game

this is pretty much where i'm at. The players/our roster being good enough to "turn it on" and win like this over the Islanders isn't surprising, and doesn't necessarily mean it was their fault the first three games looked like that.

I think it was a combination of classic Caps Malaise and a bad/no system.
 

Raikkonen

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Aug 19, 2009
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Fever-Gudas could be even better 3rd pair, btw

It seems they found some stability on D (maybe been forced to use certain pairs).

3rd line forwards are a mess though. One big question mark.

Hags-Backstrom-Panik maybe?
 

twabby

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Mar 9, 2010
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Fever-Gudas could be even better 3rd pair, btw

It seems they found some stability on D (maybe been forced to use certain pairs).

3rd line forwards are a mess though. One big question mark.

Hags-Backstrom-Panik maybe?

I don't want Hagelin anywhere near a scoring line. He's been the worst forward on the ice this series. Let him get his PK minutes but limit his time at ES where he generates nothing.

If Backstrom does come back tomorrow then I imagine he'd slot in on the third line given how well Eller and Kuznetsov played yesterday, so I'd probably go Kovalchuk-Backstrom-Panik and then Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway I guess.
 
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Ovie's Neighbor

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Jan 23, 2007
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Fever-Gudas could be even better 3rd pair, btw

It seems they found some stability on D (maybe been forced to use certain pairs).

3rd line forwards are a mess though. One big question mark.

Hags-Backstrom-Panik maybe?
I think you gotta put Backstrom with someone who can finish. Backstrom Hagelin and maybe slot Boyd from center to wing and scratch Kovy.
 
Sep 19, 2008
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It's doubtful they win the series but at least they've kept the games somewhat closer after the debacles in games 1 and 2.
 
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um

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I doubt Backstrom comes back on the 3rd line. They arent going to ease him back in
It’s about waking up the third line for me. Eller can’t set up Panik/Kovalchuk half as well as Backstrom.

It’d be our version of Kessel on the third line
 

Calicaps

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Aug 3, 2006
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Its all the same thing. Either the players arent given the right game plan or arent motivated to provide execution and effort. The Trotz/Reirden Caps style of hockey doesnt come together quickly. Its both complicated and requires quick, precise movement. If its not sharp, its not good. It needs repetition to be sharp. The Caps dont tend to hit their stride til 20 games into a season. I think people are not entering that into their thinking.

This is a good team that is built to play its best a certain way and it takes a month or two of playing regular to play that certain way with quality.

It doesnt help that the team has 3 top 4 defensemen. Once of which is a short timer with the team and still trying to find his way in their style of game
So several posters here took that performance and post-game remarks to mean the players had basically tossed Todd overboard and went rogue starting in the second period last night. Do you agree or are you saying they just finally started clicking? Or something else?
 

JMUcapsfan07

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Jan 29, 2010
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So several posters here took that performance and post-game remarks to mean the players had basically tossed Todd overboard and went rogue starting in the second period last night. Do you agree or are you saying they just finally started clicking? Or something else?

I didn't necessarily mean to imply that if mine is one of the posts you are referring to. I did find some of the comments interesting though and was curious what others thought.
 
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Tweedsuitcase

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Sep 28, 2009
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Dillon is the latest new Caps player to comment on how detailed and complicated the Caps system is. To suggest there is no system is silly
yeah, that's true. now the problem is they have no room for error to adjust to anything Trotz does.
 

Ovie's Neighbor

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Jan 23, 2007
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Let me see if i understand you. You have to put Backstrom with someone that can finish. So...Hagelin. ????
Lol I was just responding to the previous post. I’m just thinking out loud because the third line is such a mess.
 

txpd

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Jan 25, 2003
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It’s about waking up the third line for me. Eller can’t set up Panik/Kovalchuk half as well as Backstrom.

It’d be our version of Kessel on the third line

Thats not going to happen. I see your point but Reirden is going to use Backstrom as much or more than Kuznetsov, Eller will get the 3rd amount of TOI. So ask yourself....do you want Kovalchuk or Panik playing more than Oshie?
 

txpd

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Jan 25, 2003
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So several posters here took that performance and post-game remarks to mean the players had basically tossed Todd overboard and went rogue starting in the second period last night. Do you agree or are you saying they just finally started clicking? Or something else?

Oh hell. No way did they throw the head coach overboard and do their own thing. Who is coordinating that stuff? Ov? Carlson? Oshie? Their game is a rhythm game and Kuzy plays in his own world. I am confident that they found a groove and started to get that old feeling and confidence came with it.
 

txpd

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Jan 25, 2003
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Lol I was just responding to the previous post. I’m just thinking out loud because the third line is such a mess.

I am just spitballing here, but maybe the 3rd line sucks because Boyd isnt an NHL player and even if he is one he is not close to being in the same class of player as Lars Eller. Put Eller back on the 3rd line and you have a legit 3rd line. I think its also fair to question 17 a little. His post season is costing him money. Might be costing him a job all together. If Backstrom is going to get someone going i would prefer it be Vrana than Kovy
 

crab

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Jan 26, 2019
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My read on that is that the team knew why Niskanen had a down year and would know if his playoff damage was permanent or just needed the rest. I suggested at the time that trading Orlov and keeping Niskanen was the way to go and didnt get a lot of support. I think in the end though that MacLellan knew he needed to move Nisky because of the salary cap and that is why he got Jensen. Jensen just took a year to find his way. It doesnt look so bad now....except for what the Flyers are doing with Niskanen

Keeping Niskanen over Orlov would have been an awful decision.

You also said there was no chance Carlson would play in the playoffs...
 
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txpd

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Keeping Niskanen over Orlov would have been an awful decision.

You also said there was no chance Carlson would play in the playoffs...

I dont think i said no chance. Feel free to quote me. Not sure why it would have been an awful decision but it was definately outside of the box.

Dillon Niskanen isnt as good as Orlov Jensen?
 

Ovie's Neighbor

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Jan 23, 2007
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I dont think i said no chance. Feel free to quote me. Not sure why it would have been an awful decision but it was definately outside of the box.

Dillon Niskanen isnt as good as Orlov Jensen?
I thought Niskanen was done based on his skating, he looked so slow. Maybe he was just injured. I am not as down on Orlov as some of the other posters here but I agree he has not been playing up to his potential since the restart.
 

crab

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I dont think i said no chance. Feel free to quote me. Not sure why it would have been an awful decision but it was definately outside of the box.

Dillon Niskanen isnt as good as Orlov Jensen?

Semantics. You posted multiple times with your expert txmd knowledge that he wouldn’t be playing. Here is one below:
“ It sounded like some progress was the best spin he could put on it without lying. Sounds to me like Carlson isnt close to playing.”

Caps didn’t even have Dillon on the team at the time. Why are we comparing two different pairs when we could compare the players? Orlov is better, younger and cheaper. Terrible idea.
 

Tweedsuitcase

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Sep 28, 2009
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Thats not how it works at all. We have gone from there being no system to having a system so rigid that you cant adjust it?
i'm not going to spend any time defending the "no" system comment. i mostly thew it in with "bad"as an option some people were saying. regardless of how "rigid" their system is, they have 0 room for error to adjust to anything trotz does now. not sure how you can argue with that. they have to be almost perfect from here on out - and that includes coaching decisions. that's all i was really trying to say.
 
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