Portland: Ruining Caps Prospects?

[leafaholix*]

Washington's 4 notable young prospects in Portland (AHL)...

Owen Fussey: 56 Games, 12 Points, -7
Boyd Gordon: 26 Games, 9 Points, -4
Steve Eminger: 24 Games, 0 Points, -6
Brooks Laich: 10 Games, 0 Points, -5
Total: 116 Games, 21 Points, -22

Looks like it's not a very friendly system to play under if you're an offensive player.

Click to read more...

 

[V for Voodoo]

Hard to describe any of those prospects (save perhaps eminger, and he's a dman) as highly offensive players,and it should be noted they are very young pros at 20yrs or under. Portland just lacks offense period, their leading scorer - Colin Forbes! - has only 36pts in 53 games.

 

[Hossa]

To illustrate just how terrible the Portland Pirates are offensively, Maxime Ouellet has 11 wins in about 46 games this season. He also has 8 shutouts. Now, at least one of those was a 0-0 tie, but it basically means to win, Ouellet has to shutout the opposition more often than not. There must be something wrong, becuase that just sounds rediculous.

 

[EroCaps]

To illustrate just how terrible the Portland Pirates are offensively, Maxime Ouellet has 11 wins in about 46 games this season. He also has 8 shutouts. Now, at least one of those was a 0-0 tie, but it basically means to win, Ouellet has to shutout the opposition more often than not. There must be something wrong, becuase that just sounds rediculous.

Washington fans are baffled, when Hanlon was in Portland the kids came along nicely. Some fear that Tim Army has misguided priorities and isn't developing them well.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

To illustrate just how terrible the Portland Pirates are offensively, Maxime Ouellet has 11 wins in about 46 games this season. He also has 8 shutouts. Now, at least one of those was a 0-0 tie, but it basically means to win, Ouellet has to shutout the opposition more often than not. There must be something wrong, becuase that just sounds rediculous.

 

[stardog]

That is strange. Though, like another poster alluded to, the Caps arent exactly stacked with high end scorers. They have excellent depth/third line prospects who play a gritty solid, yet unspectacular game.
They simply do not have a pure scorer in thier system. But in alot of Washingtons past drafts, it would be safe to say that they have been going for the character players over the skilled players.
That (the Portland situation) is what happens when your drafting strategy is based on a grinding type of guy over a high end skill guy.

Wrner and Semin are the exceptions to that rule, yet Werner is in juniors and Semin is on the parent club.
Your teams depth is solid, yet it is also lacking a gamebreaker in a big way.
That should change with this years draft however...

 

[txpd]

frankly, i can't see blaming head coach tim army's choice of system for this problem.
he does work for the washington capitals. he phone calls and reports to george mcphee on a daily basis. if mcphee wanted a more open style of hockey at portland, they would be doing that.

it could be that army doesn't teach well or doesn't relate well to young players or his personality isnt a good match for the players he has. any of those things could hold back prospects. i doubt that it would be such a universal failure though. but you can't blame the system or style of hockey on army. that decision comes from mcphee and patrick and the caps front office. not tim army.

mcphee said it on espn2 during the caps vs flyers game, "it's back to the future for us". they are returning to that caustic, grinding, painful and hateful to play against style that the capitals were famous for before jagr came to town. relentless desire.
enough skill to score just enough to win.

I think that was is lost in this conversation is that there is more to defensive hockey than just defense. there is taking advantage of the opportunities that style of hockey presents. odd man rushes from turnovers and power play chances from frustrated penalties taken by the opposition. playing the capitals used to be a nightmare and dale hunter was the last straw. the capitals always brought a good power play to the rink and made you pay for lashing out in frustration. i see no points for eminger, a supposed two way defenseman, 1 goal for gordon, 0 pts for laich, and i wonder. fussey has never been an offensive player and you have to guess that the caps may think that graham mink's goals are largely goals that would not translate to the NHL. but at least he is finding a way to get the puck in the net.

I think its obvious that the capitals expect the offense from the next caps team to come from free agents that will be available in large numbers after the new cba is worked out. The caps are building the teams personality and chemistry at portland.
the ability to win tight, low scoring games. i think they will worry about a power play when they can shop the free agent market. anything that semin and fleischmann bring to the party will be extra.

just my opinion.