Post-Game Talk: Nordiques @ Caps

[4thTierSport]

Wilson skated toward Iginla than flopped to draw a penalty. Its not working anymore and he needs to stop before his reputation gets even worse.

Skip over the elbow/stick up in Wilson's face. Also Iginla was the one that initiated the whole situation. Refs probably didn't catch that part considering it was away from the play. No idea why the refs stepped in there.

His rep seems to be ok for the most part. I think there may be some refs that hold a "grudge" but that is mostly eye test speculation. He has been playing his game and the refs have been predominantly ok with it.

Mojo:
He looked great at the start of the season. He was playing well without the puck. Getting to the net, smarter possession/decisions and ok physical play. He's reverted back to the player that kind of hangs around, coughs the puck up and tries to out skill hits. The team as a whole has had spurts of that too recently.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

I wonder why he doesn't PK now. Trotz didn't even mention him when asked how the PK was going to replace Brouwer, Ward, and Fehr.

Butter doesn't stop pucks from going in?

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Just so I understand what are these expectations?

Last year he put up 20 goals and 27 assists in 82 games. He had 3 PP goals and 15 PP points. He got 138 shots on goal and shot 14.5%.

So far this year he has 3 goals and 6 assists in 19 games. He has 1 PP point. He has gotten 33 shots on goal and is shooting 9.1%.

As far as I can tell he is 2 goals/points off of last year's pace. He is actually a point above his ES pace from last season. He's getting slightly more shots on goal so far, they just aren't going in a the same rate.

He's on pace for roughly 8 fewer points over an entire season than my general expectations for him. Maybe others were expecting him to turn into Hossa in his prime or something, I'm not sure why but whatever, but at this point he is within the bell curve of my expectations so I'm not concerned.

Rich fan's problems IMO...

It absolutely is a rich fan's problem.

That said, what are your expectations? I was hoping for 25g/50+ pts in another contract year. As you've pointed out above he's regressed/is behind pace from last season. That's not disappointing to you? Sure is for me so far.

 

[trick9]

Johansson is a good defensive player. He's a low mistake player, who's good positionally. He was a good PKer earlier in his career.

I wouldn't say good, but not bad either.

Steen was elite defensive guy when he was used in the center role. He's still good as a winger obviously but has far less defensive duties now.

I don't see a lot of people clamoring to retain Mojo. I think he's got the talent to score 30 in the perfect scenario. Unfortunately it's looking like that will likely not be on a good team. Similar to Flash, he's just enough of a Tweener to price himself out of town.

Speaking of Flash, wild to see him scoring last night and getting almost 17 mins on a very good Canadians team. Semin meanwhile is back in the lineup after being scratched forever and got 11 mins last night, 9 mins Fri night.

Who had Flash having a better NHL career at this point as compared to Semin. Mind blown....

Canadiens have big injury issues now. 3 of their regular forwards are already out and add Gallagher to that list now.

Semin needs to improve to stay in their line-up when it's fully healthy.

 

[Ajax1995]

You clipped my quote. I said he has expectations that LAICH DOESN'T... and in the context of my paragraph, that refers to their current contract situations, not simply stats. Mojo's situation is more dynamic and at a different career stage.

The other gameplay expectations should be obvious after all these years and posts. Mostly looking for improvement in well-known areas, not just stats maybe hitting the same ballpark figures by the end of the year.

His overall play is fine IMO. A little less productive than I had hoped but I'd say the same thing about Oshie but he's not so far off of it either so it isn't a problem. Though if Brouwer had done so little with so many grade A chances on the PP last game as Oshie had the usual suspects would have been apoplectic. Oshie's on pace to put up pretty much the exact same numbers as Johansson did last season, 20 goals 47 points. Everyone good with that?

If you were expecting something substantially different than the Johansson from last year I'm not sure what to tell you. Why?

 

[Ajax1995]

That said, what are your expectations? I was hoping for 25g/50+ pts in another contract year. As you've pointed out above he's regressed/is behind pace from last season. That's not disappointing to you? Sure is for me so far.

My realistic expectations? 15 goals and 45 points give or take a couple each way. Was there a hope that he would build on 20 goals? Sure but based on his 8 goals the previous season I wasn't expecting it necessarily.

Sure he is on pace for a little less than I had expected so far but not nearly enough to have it matter. Honestly if he had 2 more goals and thus was on pace for pretty much exactly the same as last season's numbers would the peanut gallery be happy? Not a chance as it isn't about what he brings to the table it is only about what he doesn't...

 

[Ajax1995]

I think the people that want to keep Mojo are hoping that he will have an Alex Steen type career trajectory. Steen was a first round pick, put up average numbers in Toronto before being traded to St. Louis. Put up the same numbers for a few years then managed to put it together and now puts up good numbers.

Steen turned 27 in the season be first broke 50 points. Johansson just turned 25 in October and had a career high 47 points last season.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

His overall play is fine IMO. A little less productive than I had hoped but I'd say the same thing about Oshie but he's not so far off of it either so it isn't a problem. Though if Brouwer had done so little with so many grade A chances on the PP last game as Oshie had the usual suspects would have been apoplectic. Oshie's on pace to put up pretty much the exact same numbers as Johansson did last season, 20 goals 47 points. Everyone good with that?

If you were expecting something substantially different than the Johansson from last year I'm not sure what to tell you. Why?

Of course nobody is Loving 77's numbers. I expect more, but he's also been here for less than 2 regular season months. I wasn't expecting Oshie to suddenly have unrealistic offensive output from day one, were you?

That aside the discussion is about 90. Enough with the diversionary tactics,.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

My realistic expectations? 15 goals and 45 points give or take a couple each way. Was there a hope that he would build on 20 goals? Sure but based on his 8 goals the previous season I wasn't expecting it necessarily.

Sure he is on pace for a little less than I had expected so far but not nearly enough to have it matter. Honestly if he had 2 more goals and thus was on pace for pretty much exactly the same as last season's numbers would the peanut gallery be happy? Not a chance as it isn't about what he brings to the table it is only about what he doesn't...

So in a contract year, after a personal best season, you expected a regression. I didn't. I'm confident the Caps didn't either. You're either lowballing to attempt to drive your point, or something else is off.

 

[Ajax1995]

So in a contract year, after a personal best season, you expected a regression. I didn't. I'm confident the Caps didn't either. You're either lowballing to attempt to drive your point, or something else is off.

Regression? What I outlined as my expectations were more or less the same as last seasons. Sure the goals were down a little but given he had never topped 14 before least season and even with 20 last year his 2 year average was 14 then I think 15 give or take a few is very realistic. And the points were basically the same. Realistically 20 goals last year might have been a bit of an outlier. If he does it again then maybe I'll start expecting 20 goals from him. If he ends up putting up 15-30-45 then I won't consider that a regression at all.

 

[HockeyTS32]

So in a contract year, after a personal best season, you expected a regression. I didn't. I'm confident the Caps didn't either. You're either lowballing to attempt to drive your point, or something else is off.

How is what Millhaus said saying he expected a regression. Mojo had 20/27 last year for 47 points. Millhaus just said he expects roughly 15 goals and around 45 points. Sure that's a little regression goal wise, but right on target point wise. I'm pretty sure what Millhaus was saying was his expectations of Mojo is to get right round the same amount of points as he did last year. And like Millhaus said he's a little off pace right now, but nothing to be concerned about. Especially, IMO, because of how much of the little things he's doing that don't get your name on the score sheet (getting the puck out of the zone when you should, not making stupid passes right inside the off blue, hitting a little bit more, and getting to the front of the net and screening the tenders and creating traffic).

Having said all that I would love for him to get more quality shots on net instead of making the extra pass.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

In my math 15g, 45 pts "give or take a couple each way" is not an improvement. So yeah 13g 45 pts would be a regression as I see it. It would be a colossal bad year for a young guy hoping to land his career deal given his role, his quality skilled teammates and his goalscoring year last year. I doubt Mojo, his agent, or the Caps have such pedestrian expectations.

 

[PuckBuddy]

I'm really happy for Flash (until the post-season). BB said he was "my Ovechkin" when he was coaching the Bears and Flash really just got dealt a few bad cards with weird injuries and a tough LW depth chart early in his NHL career.

 

[Ajax1995]

In my math 15g, 45 pts "give or take a couple each way" is not an improvement. So yeah 13g 45 pts would be a regression as I see it.

So you are either improving or regressing? There is no staying the same? My realistic expectation is about the same as last season, a points number he has basically hit a few times in his career. Your expectation, not hope mind you, is another career year? He just turned 25 so should I assume your 'expectations' for his next 7 seasons are 7 career years then? Hey, why not...

 

[Ridley Simon]

And who do you think wants to take a 4th liner with a cap hit of 4.5M?

Highly doubt anyone is going to take that contract from the caps.

Please.

Clarkson and Pronger just got traded within the last 365 days. Obviously Horton too, based on the Clarkson deal. Anything can be bartered.

Just need to get creative and push for it.

I'd take back an LTIR guy for Laich, as you can then use the salary slot. But it's not my money.....however Ted should sense that this 2yr window is an important one if he really wants that Stanley Cup added to his bucket list.

 

[HockeyTS32]

So you are either improving or regressing? There is no staying the same? My realistic expectation is about the same as last season, a points number he has basically hit a few times in his career. Your expectation, not hope mind you, is another career year? He just turned 25 so should I assume your 'expectations' for his next 7 seasons are 7 career years then? Hey, why not...

Millhaus...it's not even worth the argument on here anymore. Some people's expectations of players on here are just ridiculous. They just find reasons to hate certain players (ie Mojo). What's worse is they just look at stats and not how the player is actually playing.

 

[HockeyTS32]

Please.

Clarkson and Pronger just got traded within the last 365 days. Obviously Horton too, based on the Clarkson deal. Anything can be bartered.

Just need to get creative and push for it.

I'd take back an LTIR guy for Laich, as you can then use the salary slot. But it's not my money.....however Ted should sense that this 2yr window is an important one if he really wants that Stanley Cup added to his bucket list.

My point is I highly doubt anyone wants to take on Laich's contract. Never said it couldn't be done...I for one would love to trade it so the caps could use the cap space on a veteran D for the 3rd pair or possibly a 3c who is a little bit better offensively than beags...just don't see it happening.



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