Thanks lads for all the responses.
Roy is your biggest problem. Maybe the guys who hired him, too. But you have a lot of great young talent. There's a lot to feel good about.
As for the 2016 vs. 2010 Caps, I'd say defense mainly. Our top 6 in 2010 wouldn't crack the lineup today. Avs seem to play soft on D and rely too much on Varly. Goalies matter a lot, but they can't do it alone. As good as Holtby's been this year, when our D was depleted, he struggled too.
He might well be, just the amount of blown leads and stupid decision making by top players at worst times...it's definitely not all on him. So majority of your team was in different progression levels in 2010? All of us are frustrated in terms of Avs defencive structure, which I talk more about below.
Just defense. Seems like they need to add two legit D-men. They have loads of talent up front and between pipes (Varlamov). They don't actually seem that far away. On paper anyway. But it doesn't help to be in Western Conference. Lots of strong teams there this year.
Just defence?!Trotz didn't add a more calm and structured system?
1. Defense:
The 2016 Caps are 1st in GA in the league, while the 2010 Caps were 16th in the league.
Defensemen used in 2010: John Carlson (rookie), Tom Poti, Mike Green, Joe Corvo, Jeff Schultz, Shaone Morrisonn
Defensemen used in 2016: John Carlson, Brooks Orpik, Karl Alzner, Matt Niskanen, Dmitry Orlov, Nate Schmidt
The current defense corps is top 5 in the league, and infinitely better than the one used in 2010.
2. Goaltending:
Starting oaltenders used in 2010: Jose Theodore, Semyon Varlamov (rookie), Michal Neuvirth (rookie)
Starting goaltender used in 2016: Braden Holtby, likely the Vezina winner this year.
Varly was good but he wasn't quite ready yet, ditto for Neuvirth. Theodore choked in game 2, allowing 2 goals on the first 2 shots of the game.
The Caps also employ the best goalie coach in the business, Mitch Korn.
3. Coaching and system:
Boudreau was a good coach, but not as experienced as Trotz. The 2010 Capitals played run and gun, while the current iteration of the Caps are a defense first team.
4. Experience:
Ovi was named captain in 2010 at the age of 25. Since then, he's matured a lot, and while he's not as explosive as he used to be, he's a smarter player today than his younger self.
The leadership core of the current Caps is very experienced, with 3 players who won the Cup at least once and played a significant role in those Cup wins (Orpik, Williams, Richards).
Backstrom matured a lot too, he's one of the best two-way forwards in the game and should get some consideration for the Selke. In 2010, he wasn't that good defensively.
The 2016 Caps don't have a single rookie. The least experienced player on the team is Burakovsky, playing in his 2nd NHL season.
Now, regarding the Avs, I made a paragraph on the coaching issues I spotted yesterday. I think you guys need to upgrade your blue line.
Too many bottom pairing D, and Beauchemin needs to be replaced eventually. Barrie, Johnson and Zadorov are the three pieces I would hold on to no matter what, the rest can be moved.
I don't know what your prospect pool looks like, perhaps you already have a good D on the way.
Best of luck to your team.
Thanks for the detailed response. I will say that Avs definitely use a run and gun system, actually more that it's around counterattacking since our team has the speed to kill (obviously you guys didn't see it yesterday
). Roy employs this system where they cycle the centre to break out of the zone with speed through the neutral zone. It does work, but it's hard to replicate since this team doesn't have enough talent on the depth. The system is very similar to Benoit Groulx's system when Canada won their latest WJC Gold if any of you remember or watched it. But more times than we like, Avs do this ultra ******** long stretch pass which only has a 50/50 success rate with 50% of it turning into icings. Then they try to do this also idiotic Kopitar flip through pass which realistically works once in like hundred times.
It really just gives the opposing team back possession. I'm not an analytic guy, I don't understand how people think that just because you have better possession it should equal into wins. It doesn't work that way, but Avs truly do need to be better in possession, no 30th ranked team will either make the playoffs or even come close to winning a series. No doubts about that.
One area which is frustrating to watch as you guys saw yesterday was the collapsing defensive system to shot block. Maybe Roy and Farrish think this defensive core lacks the talent to play as they want, so they have to collapse everyone downlow and allow the team to shoot the puck from the outside. Sometimes it works aginst teams that lack a good shooting defenceman, but Varlamov absolutely SUCKS on pointshots. He definitely has some weaknesses when it comes to puck tracking. So when we play a team like Boston or Nashville who both have awesome defensive cores in terms of shooting accuracy, they normally win from that factor.
I do think experience is overrated though, Avs might have a problem with players at being over all ages, but we have Beauchemin and Iginla, two of the best leaders. But this team has the worst winning percentage when it comes to leading the game (as I mentioned, all those blown 3rd period leads as well).
Is Avs defensive core that bad? I know it's not the best in the league, but I don't think it's the worst either. EJ, Beauchemin, and Barrie is a solid top 3, again not the best, but not the worst. Holden has been atrocious in the position he's being asked to play, but he won't be an awful number 6 if Avs get a better midpairing defender. Avs do have two very good prospects coming up for defensive line, Zadorov and Bigras. Zadorov has top pairing potential, but will take some time to get there and Bigras challenged DeAngelo as defenceman of the year award in the OHL. He showed a very good offensive game, but he's going to be a lite version of Vlasic/Hjalmarsson where he relies on smarts and IQ. Definitely won't come close to their defensive games, but I think his offensive potential is better than either of them IMO. But they won't come into impactful players overnight, they will need seasoning and learn from their mistakes as Bigras counted for on Beagle's goal yesterday.
Now though, it's been seven season and even though this team isn't a bottom-feeder anymore (while also having the worst possession stats), they haven't taken the next big step to say they could become better. There are serious rumours that if Avs don't make the playoffs this year, Sakic will legitimately trade a core piece. Duchene was rumoured to be that guy earlier on, and probably still is since his mentality is weaker than a bowl of ice cream orbiting the sun. But there are talks that Johnson should be upgraded on. He's not a bad player, but will never have Norris contending smarts while having an inability to stay healthy from injuries. Then you have Varlamov who has been widely inconsistent from also having a poor mental game. He's that type of goaler who needs a lot of shots to be good, but not facing a shot in 6 minutes, he then lets in a weak one. And Avs haven't been playing bad hockey in two weeks, they played decent, but the results just weren't coming. Then during that time frame, Avs lose both Duchene and MacKinnon to MCL or ACL injuries to miss a couple of weeks. That game against Wild and Caps game last night were both the poorest efforts in probably the last three to four weeks of hockey.
Well that's my incoherent rant for rumbling on. Thanks for reading if you want to.
