GDT: Rangers at Capitals Game 2

[txpd]

For me the concern with 4 is when he gets caught in no-mans land in the neural zone or manning the point. He doesnt have the speed to recover.......he has gotten a lot better knowing when to step up and break up the play, for example, but when he misses its usually a rush the other way

in the zone he is strong on the boards, even if his stick isnt skills controlling the puck arent very good. When he gets control he makes good decisions

erskine is no longer a 7d because with coaching and experience he has learned to minimize his short comings with better positioning and better decisions. the number and quality of his shots on goal speaks to that. i also think that carlson has adjusted to erskine and covers for him pretty well. in effect erskine is the playmaker on that pair and carlson to safety. as it appears that green has returned to being green and carlson is not going to be required to carry his offensive load anymore this is probably the best use of carlson.

carlson, team shot blocking leader. anyone else notice how many league fans think carlson is a smallish puck mover? he's 6-3 and 220 plus. he has grown into a load.

 

[caps4cup]

I wish that Oates had at least once in the regular season, tried Erat on 1.

If a scoring line can't score in the playoffs, is that the time to try for the first time, all the logical combos?

I know I know MJ had .75 points per game coming back from injury. But still, the team comes first and I get the sense Oates is afraid to move him off of 1 because.... he looked great 2 weeks ago. And no one else has even been tried there in a month.

I would stick Fehr at 1LW for the odd shift. Or even move him down to 4 for a few shifts, and bump up Ward who I think has more chemistry with MP and Chimera than Beagle and Hendy

No way I'd move mojo. He's our 2nd best forward right now. He's been getting better and better, making plays, and his strength along the boards is noticeably better. No reason to mess with that line. They've missed some open nets and they've had some chances where it's a goal if its anyone besides Lundqvist. They're going to come up big sooner rather than later.

 

[BiPolar Caps]

That move by Ovechkin in the neutral zone where he angled his skate blade on an approaching puck and basically redirected it to a rushing Backstrom, I just don't know what to say.

 

[BobRouse]

erskine is no longer a 7d because with coaching and experience he has learned to minimize his short comings with better positioning and better decisions. the number and quality of his shots on goal speaks to that. i also think that carlson has adjusted to erskine and covers for him pretty well. in effect erskine is the playmaker on that pair and carlson to safety. as it appears that green has returned to being green and carlson is not going to be required to carry his offensive load anymore this is probably the best use of carlson.

carlson, team shot blocking leader. anyone else notice how many league fans think carlson is a smallish puck mover? he's 6-3 and 220 plus. he has grown into a load.

Not shocking Carlson going into playoff beast mode. Great young dman. There seemed to be 2 or 3 of him yesterday everytime he was on the ice after that one bad TO

 

[BiPolar Caps]

Laich for Chimera or Hendricks makes a lot more sense for me than Laich for Beagle.

Beagle's our best faceoff guy, and the only right-handed one. He's also a darn good PKer. Chimera doesn't PK, and gets no PP time. It's really him for me.

On the Mojo thing, I can almost guarantee that Oates will see his play as getting into the right positions and creating scoring chances.

The Rangers rely heavily on aggressive forechecking, I have to think that having speedy forwards the likes of MAJO, Chimera and even Erat poses problems to the Rangers game plan because if they are unsuccessful with their forecheck, the race is on.

At this time, I really don't see the need for looking at a place to put Laich in the line up. Joel Ward might be a different story, I'd consider giving him a night off and put AV in his spot on the 4th line.

 

[Carlzner]

I would think the worst player sits for Laich. And that player was, by far, 19 for BOTH game 1 and game 2.

 

[brs03]

The 1st and 3rd lines have been good. Seriously outshot and outchanced the Rags overall. If they "out-touched" them as well, I imagine Oates keeps them as they are for now.

(Granted, a good amount of that is matchups. The 2nd line got hemmed in a lot so the numbers aren't very good, but they seemed to be matched up against Stepan more than the others)

 

[BobRouse]

The 1st and 3rd lines have been good. Seriously outshot and outchanced the Rags overall. If they "out-touched" them as well, I imagine Oates keeps them as they are for now.

(Granted, a good amount of that is matchups. The 2nd line got hemmed in a lot so the numbers aren't very good, but they seemed to be matched up against Stepan more than the others)

No love for the 2nd line? Cycling beasts all game. Erat looks seriously good on that line but just doesn't have the stats to show for it.

Troy is playing intense too but 9+10 are uncontainable down low.

 

[brs03]

No love for the 2nd line? Cycling beasts all game. Erat looks seriously good on that line but just doesn't have the stats to show for it.

Troy is playing intense too but 9+10 are uncontainable down low.

They were good on the cycle, but like I said matched up against the Stepan line they got hemmed in in the d-zone a lot... more than any other line, I think.

 

[BobRouse]

They were good on the cycle, but like I said matched up against the Stepan line they got hemmed in in the d-zone a lot... more than any other line, I think.

I guess I'll have to defer to you on this. At first glance it didn't seem like any of our lines got hemmed in the d-zone after the first 10 minutes. The Rangers didn't seem to generate any sustained zone time to me or at least didn't get many chances to show for when they did.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Who reported that Laich is a possibility to return? I thought it was bleacherreport but couldn't find it there.

 

[BobRouse]

Who reported that Laich is a possibility to return? I thought it was bleacherreport but couldn't find it there.

Rotoworld wasn't it?

 

[Brad Tolliver]

I would think the worst player sits for Laich. And that player was, by far, 19 for BOTH game 1 and game 2.

You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Rotoworld wasn't it?

Yes, thanks. Rotoworld...via HEAVY speculation from CSN's Reporting on 5/3:

No lineup changes: Aside from injured left wing Brooks Laich, who skated on Thursday and was seen roaming around Kettler without a limp on Friday, the Caps had full attendance at Friday’s practice, with the forward lines and defense pairings identical to the ones used for Game 1.

http://www.csnwashington.com/hockey-washington-capitals/talk/key-beating-rangers-lies-hands-ovechkin

http://www.rotoworld.com/content/pl...news.asp?sport=NHL&id=1612&line=185508&spln=1

I'll start to believe it once he starts skating again.

 

[BobRouse]

I would think the worst player sits for Laich. And that player was, by far, 19 for BOTH game 1 and game 2.

Put down the crackpipe.

He had a couple turnovers and a tough 1st game but was excellent yesterday.

Out of all the reactionary posters you are by far the leader in that category.

 

[brs03]

I guess I'll have to defer to you on this. At first glance it didn't seem like any of our lines got hemmed in the d-zone after the first 10 minutes. The Rangers didn't seem to generate any sustained zone time to me or at least didn't get many chances to show for when they did.

I'm probably biased towards the second period, because that's when the Caps' D-zone play is right in front of me. And of course memory is a fickle thing. I just noticed them playing ~poorly in the D-zone more than the other lines.

On the whole nobody's been bad, though. But I saw enough to make me uncomfortable with the Ribeiro-Stepan matchup, at least.

 

[BobRouse]

I'm probably biased towards the second period, because that's when the Caps' D-zone play is right in front of me. And of course memory is a fickle thing. I just noticed them playing ~poorly in the D-zone more than the other lines.

On the whole nobody's been bad, though. But I saw enough to make me uncomfortable with the Ribeiro-Stepan matchup, at least.

I'll key on this matchup next game. During the reg season Ribeiro's line always seemed to be suspicious in their own end. Erat has helped that however.

 

[Carlzner]

Put down the crackpipe.

He had a couple turnovers and a tough 1st game but was excellent yesterday.

Out of all the reactionary posters you are by far the leader in that category.

Yeah... I'm sorry but I did not see Backstrom do one good thing in either games. Not only did he make so many little mistakes, his head didn't seem in the game at all. He was lazy, made a ton of bad decisions, and just wasn't hustling out there. Every shift he was barely noticeable, and when I decided I would watch him to see what was up, he was making bad little decisions left and right. I'm not one to call out a player like this, I've been a huge Mojo backer through thick and thin, but Backstrom's bad play has to come with a consequence...

Edit: And I honestly think Oates noticed... he put MP over Nick on the Powerplay in OT

 

[BobRouse]

Yeah... I'm sorry but I did not see Backstrom do one good thing in either games. Not only did he make so many little mistakes, his head didn't seem in the game at all. He was lazy, made a ton of bad decisions, and just wasn't hustling out there. Every shift he was barely noticeable, and when I decided I would watch him to see what was up, he was making bad little decisions left and right. I'm not one to call out a player like this, I've been a huge Mojo backer through thick and thin, but Backstrom's bad play has to come with a consequence...

Edit: And I honestly think Oates noticed... he put MP over Nick on the Powerplay in OT

If Oates noticed then why would he have Backstrom out on the critical PK in OT? More likely he used the fresher player.

Backstrom was good. You just focused on a few bad plays in game 1 and are drawing your conclusions.

He did not make a single mistake last game that I recall and made several good plays including a great rush up the ice on a 2 on 1 and a sick saucer pass to MJ.

 

[Carlzner]

If Oates noticed then why would he have Backstrom out on the critical PK in OT? More likely he used the fresher player.

Backstrom was good. You just focused on a few bad plays in game 1 and are drawing your conclusions.

He did not make a single mistake last game that I recall and made several good plays including a great rush up the ice on a 2 on 1 and a sick saucer pass to MJ.

Game 2 was the game I decided to pay attention to him as much as possible because of all the bad plays I saw him make in Game 1... and like I said, he did so many of the little things wrong, including a few big blunders... it was just bad. Nick was our worst player on the ice in both games, and I hate to say that but... it's true.

And Backstrom was just fine for the PP in OT... our 2nd and 4th lines had 2-3 minutes of offensive zone time right before that PP, Nick was rested.

 

[Brad Tolliver]

Yeah... I'm sorry but I did not see Backstrom do one good thing in either games. Not only did he make so many little mistakes, his head didn't seem in the game at all. He was lazy, made a ton of bad decisions, and just wasn't hustling out there. Every shift he was barely noticeable, and when I decided I would watch him to see what was up, he was making bad little decisions left and right. I'm not one to call out a player like this, I've been a huge Mojo backer through thick and thin, but Backstrom's bad play has to come with a consequence...

Edit: And I honestly think Oates noticed... he put MP over Nick on the Powerplay in OT

Backstrom is leading forwards in TOI for the PK unit that hasn't given up a goal. Are you saying Oates noticed everything you saw and still put him out there first on that critical OT PK?

As Tinner mentioned Oates put MP-Ribs-Brouwer out because the 1st line drew the penalty after the McDonaugh got caught out on a 3 minute shift.

 

[BrooklynCapsFan]

Tell me with a straight face that our top line on Monday should be Johansson-Laich-Ovechkin.

 

[Brad Tolliver]

Game 2 was the game I decided to pay attention to him as much as possible because of all the bad plays I saw him make in Game 1... and like I said, he did so many of the little things wrong, including a few big blunders... it was just bad. Nick was our worst player on the ice in both games, and I hate to say that but... it's true.

And Backstrom was just fine for the PP in OT... our 2nd and 4th lines had 2-3 minutes of offensive zone time right before that PP, Nick was rested.

The 1st line had a full minute shift directly drawing the penalty. No TV timeouts in OT either.

Johansson wasn't out there for the OT PK or PP either. Is that proof that Oates didn't like what he saw out of him?

 

[BobRouse]

The 1st line had a full minute shift directly drawing the penalty. No TV timeouts in OT either.

Johansson wasn't out there for the OT PK or PP either. Is that proof that Oates didn't like what he saw out of him?

Exactly. Their line cycled and drew the penalty. Ovechkin always stays out for the full shift since its not as tiring playing the PP point compared to down low.

Backstrom was back to his usually strong self and consistently won one on one battles. He lost 1 that I remember in the neutral zone on an insignificant play but won a ton of them.

 

[mdurbin1234]

Tell me with a straight face that our top line on Monday should be Johansson-Laich-Ovechkin.

Wait, Laich is back??

And yeah... Backstrom had a rough first game, but he was fine this game. He doesn't deserve to be called out at all.

He goes cold sometimes too.

I know, he's human - sometimes it is unbelievable (no sarcasm intended)