GDT: The Champs @ We’re going to be f-ing suck this year - 7pm

[Langway]

62 games to go.

 

[VaCaps Fan]

I think this caps team has reached a dead end…

 

[troyerlaw]

Reirden, from all reports, was the heir apparent not just from GMBM but from Ted himself so not much he can do there. There would have been riots in the streets if he let Oshie and Backstrom walk, and at least Backstrom is a guy that Ted would never allow to walk away. Mantha was a trade essentially forced upon him because Lavi refused to play Vrana.

The + on the Vrana trade was becuase of his poor Panik signing, but that signing was also universally praised when it happened. The biggest complaint that you can probably have with GMBM is him sending off ascending prospects for old veterans, but if your coach refuses to use them and you're trying to be competitive you do what you gotta do. About the only one I really think I can outright blame him for is Siegenthaler, and even then no one was turning down Chara at minimum. It's not his fault the team didn't want to give the 900 year old any rest days.

I think far to many people are caught up in GMBM being the "GM" because conventional teams have a very strict Coach answers to GM who asnwers to Ownership setup. Here, Ted was heavily involved in picking Lavi. GMBM is probably closer to a glorified Player Ops guy. This team is run exactly how and by who Ted and Co. want it to be run by.

Disagree on all counts. Leonsis not known as meddlesome or micromanaging owner. GMBM has made a hundred decisions — from big ones to minor moves — which have helped lead to the current situation. He ought to be fired too

 

[BallardEra]

I honestly do think this could be the game that gives Lavi fired. Boudreau was fired on the 28th of 11. I guess, if he's not, you gotta think Ted and company don't have high hopes for this year unlike in 2011.

Next game is Wednesday too. The timing is perfect.

 

[Capsman]

So we are about to go 2-9 in last 11 games. That should be more than enough to shit can these coaches.

I really don’t think Lavi can be blamed for the lack of talent that falls on Maclellan. Does anyone really think not playing and not developing the young guys is solely on Lavi? That it’s not done in consultation with BM? They’re actually not playing that badly, they simply lack speed and lack finishing. This is the team BM built, from poor drafting to draft capital utilization (losing a 1st for Mantha).

 

[troyerlaw]

I really don’t think Lavi can be blamed for the lack of talent that falls on Maclellan. Does anyone really think not playing and not developing the young guys is solely on Lavi? That it’s not done in consultation with BM? They’re actually not playing that badly, they simply lack speed and lack finishing. This is the team BM built, from poor drafting to draft capital utilization (losing a 1st for Mantha).

I agree. Also, the effort from Mantha and Kuz is unacceptable. Absolute passengers. Show some frickin pride, get engaged

 

[Brian23]

Disagree on all counts. Leonsis not known as meddlesome or micromanaging owner. GMBM has made a hundred decisions — from big ones to minor moves — which have helped lead to the current situation. He ought to be fired too

You don't have to be meddlesome or micromanaging to be the one who's the decision maker. Do I think Ted is telling him to trade Stephenson or Siegenthaler or Vrana or sign Panik or Hagelin or do any of these kind of moves? Doubtful. But do you really think GMBM has any choice in resigning someone like Backstrom? Or even Oshie, with how he's become a fan favorite? Do you really think he has unilateraly decision making to move a player like Carlson? Hell, I'd bet he'd even struggle to move Kuznetsov considering his closeness with Ovechkin.

No one bats a thousand and all in all I've liked a lot of the direction that GMBM has tried to go. His vision for what a useful modern day hockey team is there, but all I can say is you can bring a horse to water all you want but that doesn't mean they'll drink from it.

 

[IafrateOvie34]

I agree. Also, the effort from Mantha and Kuz is unacceptable. Absolute passengers. Show some frickin pride, get engaged

Ship them out. Beyond tired of their lazy play.

 

[Misery74]

We need to blow this up , but one step at a time.

Laviolette should be fired tonight.

 

[BallardEra]

We need to blow this up , but one step at a time.

Laviolette should be fired tonight.

Who would be the replacement choices?

 

[SecretaryofDefense5]

Lavi won’t be fired yet but I imagine the ice may be getting thinner.

 

[AlexBrovechkin8]

I don’t put it all on Lavi but he’s not helping. In his defense though the Caps iced a team tonight whose collective salary is below the salary cap floor. Tough situation.

 

[Capsman]

What did GMBM do that you disagreed with? We've got young talent that the coaching staff is refusing to give a shot, it's not like he can make them play those guys. And before anyone comments on "practice", has anything this coaching staff done given you confidence in their ability to evaluate performance? They're still trotting out Gus - Carlson as a top line.

I wanted CMM to get as much run as the next guy but it’s becoming more and more obvious to me that his ceiling is not that high. Protas is getting lots of ice time, he’s been JAG. Maybe both of them become 0.5ppg types one day, but they are way off. You saying the team should burn it all?

I’ll say it again, Maclellan’s drafts and use of draft picks as capital has been extremely poor. He seems to have an aversion to drafting athletes, with the exception of maybe Fever. To date he has not hit on one 1st rounder. In 8 years. Sure the jury is still out on Lapierre and CMM. People are already talking about exposing Alexiev to waivers.

2nd round on has been largely unsuccessful with the exception of Fever and maybe ProtasZ.

 

[IafrateOvie34]

I get they're an older team playing lots of games thanks to the schedule and other teams improved, but this is just unacceptable to have some players coasting. Twitter is looking for employees, maybe they should go there and not play for the Caps.

 

[def1iance]

So we are all agree that this roster isn't good enough. Why do we want to fire coach? Cause he refuse to play McMichael? Some people posted that Colorado have like 5 injures..yes. What about 1C and two top6 wingers and on top of that top4 D?

 

[IafrateOvie34]

I wanted CMM to get as much run as the next guy but it’s becoming more and more obvious to me that his ceiling is not that high. Protas is getting lots of ice time, he’s been JAG. Maybe both of them become 0.5ppg types one day, but they are way off. You saying the team should burn it all?

I’ll say it again, Maclellan’s drafts and use of draft picks as capital has been extremely poor. He seems to have an aversion to drafting athletes, with the exception of maybe Fever. To date he has not hit on one 1st rounder. In 8 years. Sure the jury is still out on Lapierre and CMM. People are already talking about exposing Alexiev to waivers.

2nd round on has been largely unsuccessful with the exception of Fever and maybe ProtasZ.

These two players are a reason to watch this show other than Ovy of course. Protas is willing t o learn and be a team player while Fever is getting better and last I read he was one of the league's top hitting defensemen. If they lose Wednesday, I want them to ship out the lazy players and go full youth. I know our Hershey pals won't like it, however it's just time to see what we have ready for the NHL. It doesn't look all that bad with rebuild. We have talent just some of them aren't ready with a team of veterans.

So we are all agree that this roster isn't good enough. Why do we want to fire coach? Cause he refuse to play McMichael? Some people posted that Colorado have like 5 injures..yes. What about 1C and two top6 wingers and on top of that top4 D?

Some of us didn't want Lavi as coach. I personally wanted Gallant. I supported Lavi until after last year's playoffs against Florida. It's not just McMichael either, Lavi just appears to love his veterans too much.

 

[SecretaryofDefense5]

So we are all agree that this roster isn't good enough. Why do we want to fire coach? Cause he refuse to play McMichael? Some people posted that Colorado have like 5 injures..yes. What about 1C and two top6 wingers and on top of that top4 D?

We knew Backstrom was likely injured for the duration of the season coming into this year. So, I don’t really look at that currently IMO. We are missing Wilson, Oshie, and Brown.

Colorado is missing Landeskog and Nichushkin (two top 6 forwards), along with Bryam and Girard (two top four d-men). So…

 

[Raikkonen]

62 games to go.

plenty of time to make a good selling plan

 

[troyerlaw]

So we are all agree that this roster isn't good enough. Why do we want to fire coach? Cause he refuse to play McMichael? Some people posted that Colorado have like 5 injures..yes. What about 1C and two top6 wingers and on top of that top4 D?

I put more blame on GM than coach. But when you lose 9 of last 11 games, yeah you’re gonna be on a short leash.

Colorado is missing Nichushkin, Landeskog, Girard, and Byram, so that’s significant. But leaving aside injuries, what i saw from Caps tonight in the last 40 minutes of the game was a disturbing lack of hustle and battle and just plain old give-a-s***-ness. Particularly galling when it’s high-paid guys like Kuz and Mantha. Even if your roster has fill-ins and call-ups, you can still give it your all. Show some pride already

plenty of time to make a good selling plan

GMBM will never sell. He’ll be grasping at TDL straws till the day he’s let go.

We shoulda sold last year, shoulda sold hard

 

[Rayquaza64]

has mcmichael been good this year? no he has not. has snively been better? yes. my question is how the f*** neither of them are playing on the third line over NAK, who hasnt done shit and just magically gets his spot back after snively had a good game

 

[McVechkin]

So we are all agree that this roster isn't good enough. Why do we want to fire coach? Cause he refuse to play McMichael? Some people posted that Colorado have like 5 injures..yes. What about 1C and two top6 wingers and on top of that top4 D?

He was a bad hire to begin with.. hasn’t done anything in the playoffs, hasn’t improved in anything in his time here, very lil development of any player outside of maybe Jensen, no substantial scheming/strategy work to maximize what he does have here…. He just rides his favorites and that’s about it.

Now I don’t think firing him and bringing in some magical perfect coach would change much in the short term, but they need someone that is willing and able to develop the youth.

 

[twabby]

They have to find out what they have in guys like McMichael, Snively, Johansen, Alexeyev (if he’s ever healthy), etc.

The season is pretty much in the toilet at this point. They can’t be terrible and also not know what they have in these players going into next season. What good is playing Eller 15 minutes a night when he’s not going to be on the team next year? What good is playing Irwin so much when we know he’s a career 6/7 guy?

Laviolette is clearly not going to make any of this happen, so even if an interim coach won’t make them better (an assertion that needs justification IMO) they still need to fire him sooner rather than later so that they have a better idea of what they need to do this offseason.

 

[troyerlaw]

has mcmichael been good this year? no he has not. has snively been better? yes. my question is how the f*** neither of them are playing on the third line over NAK, who hasnt done shit and just magically gets his spot back after snively had a good game

They probably thought NAK would know Colorado system and rise to the challenge against his old team. He didn’t. And i agree about Snively. Smart, fast, hard-working player, plays well on 4th line or with skill guys. Should be in the lineup. CMM seems kinda lost. Not fast enough, strong enough, or confident enough. Seems like Hershey or another team might be the way to go

 

[Rayquaza64]

CMM definitely should get a Hershey stint before giving up on him imo. Giving up on him this quickly especially considering our position as a franchise seems like something that could very easily bite us in the ass.

 

[Rayquaza64]

especially considering the blues had a forward who is/was in a similar situation to mcmichael, and has seemed to have benefitted/is benefitting from being sent down