Salary Cap: Salary Cap + Roster Building | Preseason Edition (Cap Details + Links in First Post)

[Peat]

I'd be interested to actually check in to that. Sadly, I'm too lazy to actually do it I would guess it's somewhat true over that time since those three teams did incredibly well last year, but I bet it's not really a very big difference. Tampa looked pretty rough in the playoffs last year vs the Caps just like we did. The Jets were great against the Preds, and then fell completely flat against Vegas.

Caps had 10 games with 5 or more goals against last season
Jets had 14
Vegas had 10
Tampa had 15
Sharks had 17
Preds had 8
Bruins had 8
We had 12

So we were slightly below average when it came to avoiding defensive meltdowns among last year's quarter finalists. Inelegant choice of stat maybe, but I'm gonna guess that most ways of looking at the stats will reveal roughly the same.

Dunno how their fans feel about the effort levels.

 

[Riptide]

Can’t really afford to trade Maatta with Schultz going down..

Not for a forward anyway. But I'd be pretty interested in someone like Tanev or Gogo or Green.

 

[Ryder71]

4 games.

True, and I'm not suggesting we panic. I will say that some of these issues plagued us through the latter part of last season though.

 

[Ryder71]

I know it's not really what you're trying to say, but this just feels like a common thing that happens here. It seems like the Caps are credited with being very good to beat everyone else, but we had to be bad for the Caps to beat us. Like they didn't have that agency to win the games against us, we had to lose them.

That's not what I'm saying really. The caps were the better team and they were more opportunistic. But I don't think we played close to our abilities. Be it injury, or lapses within the system. I'm not saying we would have beaten them even if we didn't have some set backs, the Caps were that good. But I don't think we played at or near our best.

 

[Ogrezilla]

That's not what I'm saying really. The caps were the better team and they were more opportunistic. But I don't think we played close to our abilities. Be it injury, or lapses within the system. I'm not saying we would have beaten them even if we didn't have some set backs, the Caps were that good. But I don't think we played at or near our best.

I'd agree. Obviously Letang didn't. And Malkin and Brassard were hurt. And Kessel was all sorts of a mess. My thing is, despite all of that, we won 2 games and were in the series until the end. This team has weaknesses, but it has damn good strengths too.

 

[Ryder71]

I'd agree. Obviously Letang didn't. And Malkin and Brassard were hurt. And Kessel was all sorts of a mess. My thing is, despite all of that, we won 2 games and were in the series until the end. This team has weaknesses, but it has damn good strengths too.

I sincerely hope that we play with the same vigor, structure and sense of urgency as we did the latter part of 16' and 17'. Because on paper we really shouldn't take a back seat to anyone. But that's why they play the games.

We need to be quicker to the puck and dictate more of the play. We're certainly capable of it, but it'd be nice to see it for more than and odd shift or three.

 

[Ogrezilla]

I sincerely hope that we play with the same vigor, structure and sense of urgency as we did the latter part of 16' and 17'. Because on paper we really shouldn't take a back seat to anyone. But that's why they play the games.

I think Letang being back in form will be a big part of that happening. Otherwise I think vigor is the main thing we'll be waiting for. Though honestly, I don't think it is going to look like 16 again at this point. It worked so well that year because it caught people off guard. We were the only game in town in terms of playing that style. We were ahead of the curve, and other teams have caught back up.

 

[Ryder71]

Caps had 10 games with 5 or more goals against last season
Jets had 14
Vegas had 10
Tampa had 15
Sharks had 17
Preds had 8
Bruins had 8
We had 12

So we were slightly below average when it came to avoiding defensive meltdowns among last year's quarter finalists. Inelegant choice of stat maybe, but I'm gonna guess that most ways of looking at the stats will reveal roughly the same.

Dunno how their fans feel about the effort levels.

There are many variables to consider there though. You're kind of over simplifying it I believe. Although our numbers there aren't that great. And we got throttled by Chicago what 10-1? 7-1 to Winnpeg and TB?

But it's not just giving up a lot of goals. You got to factor in PP, turnovers, bad goaltending, system break downs ect. For example your goalie might let in a few bad ones but otherwise your team might have good structure. Yet you lose 5-4. My concern is playing with very little urgency and poor puck management. These are the things that have caused us the most problems. I'm not seeing that as a prevalent issue with other elite teams. Again this goes beyond this season.

 

[Peat]

There are many variables to consider there though. You're kind of over simplifying it I believe. Although our numbers there aren't that great. And we got throttled by Chicago what 10-1? 7-1 to Winnpeg?

But it's not just giving up a lot of goals. You got to factor in PP, turnovers, bad goaltending, system break downs ectr example your goalie might let in a few bad ones but otherwise your team might have good structure. Yet you lose 5-4. My concern is playing with very little urgency and poor puck management. These are the things that have caused us the most problems. I'm not seeing that as a prevalent issue with elite other teams. Again this goes beyond this season.

I am over simplifying it because I don't have the inclination to dig out the stats to do a comprehensive analysis on this and I haven't been watching enough games from other teams to know whether this is true or not. But the simple test revealed no outrageous weakness.

Lets do another one - games with a corsi % of less than 40%, so less about whether the goaltender let in a few bad ones and more about structure.

Jets - 3
Caps - 13
Vegas - 5
Tampa - 4
Sharks - 4
Preds - 3
Bruins - 3

Us - 4

Again, nothing out of the ordinary. But that stuff can be masked by lots of offence, so lets look at it in terms of shots:

Games with 40 or more shots

Jets - 9
Caps - 4
Vegas - 7
Tampa - 10
Sharks - 10
Preds - 9
Bruins - 3

Us - 5

Beating the average there.

Like, I'd need to feed a lot more stats into this to get something definitive. I bet a game by game breakdown of HDCA last season would be ugly for us.

But I do feel like there's plenty of reason to suspect that our total system breakdown nights were no more frequent than our peers. Maybe we had a lot of games where we didn't try as hard as them, but the results were not significantly work. And that if we feel different, maybe that's because we have spent so much more time watching our team and with so much more emotion attached, and maybe we're more aware of our faults and harsher on them.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Not for a forward anyway. But I'd be pretty interested in someone like Tanev or Gogo or Green.

Tanev - No, dude is far too injury prone for us.
Goligoski - Been down for him being back for a while now, best fit for what we need.
Green - Not at that cap hit.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

True, and I'm not suggesting we panic. I will say that some of these issues plagued us through the latter part of last season though.

We can't mention this though. Because, cups.

But it's seriously alarming that the same issues have carried over. You can't go on and on about how those problems existed last year and that it will be sorted out, then this season starts and the same issues have stuck around.

I wonder how much of it is just arrogance in "we are doing it the right way, it'll sort itself out...even though it lasted a full season and playoffs already."
Or if it's..."What issues? This is normal."

Both are alarming for obvious reasons.

The problem I have is that because they won 2 cups back 2 back, it's somehow acceptable that these problems exist because we won. I don't give a f*** about the past, because it is in the past now. These guys are playing to win another one, to win another one you need to adapt and overcome (yes I know the Bear meme) and they haven't been.

It just flat out seems like arrogance to me with the coaching staff and players. Everyone saying the right things followed up by doing the wrong things on the ice.

 

[pokey10]

It’s sounds crazy but just remember that no team has ever won the Cup with more than four 30+ aged regular players...when you look at how the speed and youth of the game has increased in the last few years, it’s not as crazy as it seems....would you have thought MTL this year and NJD last year could beat us so decisively? We all were dreading the possibility of facing NJD in the POs last year....

DET didnt do that?

 

[Ryder71]

I am over simplifying it because I don't have the inclination to dig out the stats to do a comprehensive analysis on this and I haven't been watching enough games from other teams to know whether this is true or not. But the simple test revealed no outrageous weakness.

Lets do another one - games with a corsi % of less than 40%, so less about whether the goaltender let in a few bad ones and more about structure.

Jets - 3
Caps - 13
Vegas - 5
Tampa - 4
Sharks - 4
Preds - 3
Bruins - 3

Us - 4

Again, nothing out of the ordinary. But that stuff can be masked by lots of offence, so lets look at it in terms of shots:

Games with 40 or more shots

Jets - 9
Caps - 4
Vegas - 7
Tampa - 10
Sharks - 10
Preds - 9
Bruins - 3

Us - 5

Beating the average there.

Like, I'd need to feed a lot more stats into this to get something definitive. I bet a game by game breakdown of HDCA last season would be ugly for us.

But I do feel like there's plenty of reason to suspect that our total system breakdown nights were no more frequent than our peers. Maybe we had a lot of games where we didn't try as hard as them, but the results were not significantly work. And that if we feel different, maybe that's because we have spent so much more time watching our team and with so much more emotion attached, and maybe we're more aware of our faults and harsher on them.

We can agree to disagree I guess. It can be somewhat of a subjective debate as I'm not a big buyer of Corsi. I think there are stats that can further my argument but I'm much too lazy to spew them out. When you talk shots you then have to look at where they originated from, or even the quality of the shooter, so again it's more subjective than anything. I just don't see other elite teams having the same degree of lapses that we are. I'm sure the Caps the Bolts and on have terrible games also. But again I do think we struggle with consistency more than most such teams. I've followed the game for many, many years. I feel pretty confident in what I'm seeing.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

DET didnt do that?

Yeah but they were fueled by Little Caesars Pizza, which probably was laced with drugs of some kind.

 

[Ryder71]

We can't mention this though. Because, cups.

But it's seriously alarming that the same issues have carried over. You can't go on and on about how those problems existed last year and that it will be sorted out, then this season starts and the same issues have stuck around.

I wonder how much of it is just arrogance in "we are doing it the right way, it'll sort itself out...even though it lasted a full season and playoffs already."
Or if it's..."What issues? This is normal."

Both are alarming for obvious reasons.

The problem I have is that because they won 2 cups back 2 back, it's somehow acceptable that these problems exist because we won. I don't give a **** about the past, because it is in the past now. These guys are playing to win another one, to win another one you need to adapt and overcome (yes I know the Bear meme) and they haven't been.

It just flat out seems like arrogance to me with the coaching staff and players. Everyone saying the right things followed up by doing the wrong things on the ice.

This is a great post. I couldn't convey my sentiments any better! Well done.

 

[pokey10]

Yeah but they were fueled by Little Caesars Pizza, which probably was laced with drugs of some kind.

And the bounciest boards behind the away net we have ever seen.

 

[Ogrezilla]

DET didnt do that?

he said no team. You can't lie on the internet, so it must be true.

 

[JackFr]

Saad would be amazing with us, and he will be an ultimate buy-low candidate for somebody. Wish we had the cap space but I wonder if Edmonton or Arizona might take a shot.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I wonder what it would take to get Athanasiou from the Wings. Are they still coveting defensemen left and right? Looking at that blueline and bringing Green back tells me yeah.

I wonder if they would do a Maatta deal for AA.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Saad would be amazing with us, and he will be an ultimate buy-low candidate for somebody. Wish we had the cap space but I wonder if Edmonton or Arizona might take a shot.

Edmonton should, but I mean...look at that roster, where don't the Oilers need help? They're also in a cap trouble spot as well. They should maybe look at moving Poopjuicefarty or whatever moronic nickname they have for that kid in a deal centered around getting Saad.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

he said no team. You can't lie on the internet, so it must be true.

What he didn't mention was the countless 40yr olds on that Wings roster. Most any team has had for a cup team, I think 14?

 

[Ogrezilla]

Edmonton should, but I mean...look at that roster, where don't the Oilers need help? They're also in a cap trouble spot as well. They should maybe look at moving Poopjuicefarty or whatever moronic nickname they have for that kid in a deal centered around getting Saad.

Can I just point out how happy I am that the Oilers are already in cap trouble before ever getting that core off the ground.

 

[Riptide]

Tanev - No, dude is far too injury prone for us.
Goligoski - Been down for him being back for a while now, best fit for what we need.
Green - Not at that cap hit.

5.375m for 2 years is pretty affordable. As for Tanev, it's an issue... but he's a RD, and has a pretty manageable cap hit. I wouldn't immediately be opposed to it - depending on what the exact deal was.

I wonder what it would take to get Athanasiou from the Wings. Are they still coveting defensemen left and right? Looking at that blueline and bringing Green back tells me yeah.

I wonder if they would do a Maatta deal for AA.

With the Schultz injury, I wonder why we would.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Can I just point out how happy I am that the Oilers are already in cap trouble before ever getting that core off the ground.

Have you like seriously looked at that team and their prospects? It's tragic. To have tanked that many times and have only one or two very good players to show for it....

 

[Honour Over Glory]

5.375m for 2 years is pretty affordable. As for Tanev, it's an issue... but he's a RD, and has a pretty manageable cap hit. I wouldn't immediately be opposed to it - depending on what the exact deal was.



With the Schultz injury, I wonder why we would.

With the Nuckies doing better, I wonder if they are even in the market to move Tanev. Seems like at this point, he is more useful to them on the team than being moved for anything. They also had ample opportunity to rake the Leafs over the coals with a trade involving Tanev and didn't pull the trigger. We have less enticing pieces than them.