BrooklynCapsFan
No more choking!
If you still want Ovechkin carrying the puck into the zone at even strength, I question if you've watched this team the past two+ years.
Maybe the shot between the dman's legs is an option again
If you still want Ovechkin carrying the puck into the zone at even strength, I question if you've watched this team the past two+ years.
Just remember. McPhee hired Oates over Jon Cooper. Look what Cooper's extremely young Tampa Bay team is doing. Second in a very good division.
I wanted Cooper during that whole process and we got stuck with Oates.
If you still want Ovechkin carrying the puck into the zone at even strength, I question if you've watched this team the past two+ years.
I'm just saying its getting predictable and its easier for the opposition to stop 2 forwards rather than 3 on the zone entry. does ovechkin have to stop carrying the puck for the rest of his career because he didnt learn to pass under BB?
Hey guys, it's Ovie. From hockey. Do you ever feel like life is not party and is never party again?
Hey guys, it's Ovie. From hockey. Do you ever feel like life is not party and is never party again?
I'm just saying its getting predictable and its easier for the opposition to stop 2 forwards rather than 3 on the zone entry. does ovechkin have to stop carrying the puck for the rest of his career because he didnt learn to pass under BB?
First, Ovie is the least of this team's problems.
Second, for all his talent and excellence, he may well be this organization's greatest failure. Imagine if he had been drafted by Detroit or another team that isn't awestruck by great young talent and really knows how to develop players. If anyone in the Caps front office had thought for one second "how great could he be?" instead of just "wow, he's so great!" early in his career, and they had taught him, asked him to be better instead of letting him do whatever he felt like... He was the best in the world without **** for guidance.
As great as he is, Christ, what a player he could have become! Un-****ing-stoppable.
Imagine if he had been drafted by Detroit or another team that isn't awestruck by great young talent and really knows how to develop players. If anyone in the Caps front office had thought for one second "how great could he be?" instead of just "wow, he's so great!" early in his career, and they had taught him, asked him to be better instead of letting him do whatever he felt like... He was the best in the world without **** for guidance.
As great as he is, Christ, what a player he could have become! Un-****ing-stoppable.
So true.
I'm still convinced that it's not that he doesn't WANT to play defense, it's that he CANT play defense. I don't think he was every taught the defensive side of the rink. Hunter taught how to block shots. That's not defense.
He's essentially the same exact player he came in the league as. He's bigger, stronger, slower, but his skills haven't changed a bit. Haven't gotten worse, haven't gotten better. Of course, he came into the league so incredible already that he's won several MVPs just being himself. But imagine if we actually developed the guy.
Ovechkin didn't learn to pass BEFORE he made the NHL???!?! Hilarious stuff...
Its a fine line to walk. I don't mind them making plays and taking risks. They just have to do a better job at identifying times when they shouldn't.
That comes with experience. Our D lineup last night had very little comparatively.
I think last night was yet another example of a team that does not understand that sometimes you just need to get the puck out of the zone.
he used to be a bit of a puck hog... dont act like you dont remember.
First, Ovie is the least of this team's problems.
Second, for all his talent and excellence, he may well be this organization's greatest failure. Imagine if he had been drafted by Detroit or another team that isn't awestruck by great young talent and really knows how to develop players. If anyone in the Caps front office had thought for one second "how great could he be?" instead of just "wow, he's so great!" early in his career, and they had taught him, asked him to be better instead of letting him do whatever he felt like... He was the best in the world without **** for guidance.
As great as he is, Christ, what a player he could have become! Un-****ing-stoppable.
He's not already next to unstoppable as a goal scorer? He "may be their greatest failure"??!?!?! My god people....ponderous...so over the top Caps fans are sometimes. I get the point about his defensive game and all, but do you think Gretzky's coaches were harping on him about backchecking and defensive zone coverage, Lemieux, etc? He's there to be an explosive offensive force and simply not be a liability in the defensive end and that's where his defensive responsibilities end IMO.
Right now, he's a player who has to wait for opportunities and pick his spots. He doesn't control the game. He used to through sheer physical dominance, but his game was never rounded out in a way that would allow him to adapt more effectively at even strength. He's an unstoppable goal-scorer when he gets certain chances, but those aren't as frequent as they need to be at even strength. Not that that's his fault, but he isn't as able to cope with it as he could be.
He's not already next to unstoppable as a goal scorer? He "may be their greatest failure"??!?!?! My god people....ponderous...so over the top Caps fans are sometimes. I get the point about his defensive game and all, but do you think Gretzky's coaches were harping on him about backchecking and defensive zone coverage, Lemieux, etc? He's there to be an explosive offensive force and simply not be a liability in the defensive end and that's where his defensive responsibilities end IMO.
Even strength scoring and offense generation is a team issue, not an Ovechkin issue IMO. I'm not suggesting he couldn't have developed differently, but the constant blaming of Boudreau for all things bad with the Caps is mind numbing.
FWIW, I didn't say anything about BB in particular. I think the whole organization, esp. GMGM, (and including Ted and BB) is to blame.
I think it was clear to anyone reading it wasn't you I quoted when referring to BB.
Gretzky was a savant is isn't worth discussing in the context of anyone else.
Lemieux grew his game. Yzerman grew his game. Ron Francis grew his game. Crosby (barf) grew his game.
The difference isn't that Ovie is less than them. It's that they had outstanding mentors, GMs, and coaches and played for organizations that looked at their greatness and saw, not perfection, but potential.
I say he's the greatest failure because the Caps are all about 40 years of missed opportunities, none more stark than failing to develop Ovie when he was a young, wide-eyed, eager kid. I'm not criticizing him. But his game stagnated--at a very high level, I grant--in the stark absence of the organizational vision and leadership needed to help him raise it.
I stand behind that assessment 100%.
(And FWIW, I mostly agree with what Liberation said about waiting for opportunities and being unstoppable largely only when those opportunities are present. But I also agree that he can still get fired up and take over a game from time to time; just not the way he used to, which was unsustainable without an evolution in his game.)
I didn't see BB mentioned in anything you quoted, so wasn't clear to me.