2008-09 Rink Wrap: Tom Poti

Voted his number. Dunno what a 10 is for Poti in the post-lockout world, but with the likelihood of 7 guys in back next year, getting a little more involved in the play in the attacking zone would be nice.

The bad for Poti was a little worse than I thought. The good was exactly where I expected it to be.

I may be the only one, but after Green’s breakout last year, I didn’t expect Poti to be our offensive D-man at all. So in other words, I got what I expected, a guy who put defense first. For the most part, this seemed to work, when healthy, he always looked like our strongest defenseman. When healthy, you always had a sigh of relief when he was out there on the PK. For those reasons, he got a 7 from me. He concentrated on defense, and did very well with it. He was very effective without taking penalties, had a lot of regular and special teams time, and was a + rating. Pretty much what you want out of a top two pairing guy.

To get a 10 next year, Poti would have to continue his trend on focusing on the D. Keep the penalties low, and decrease the even strength goals. Hit a bit more. And, while I’m not looking for Green numbers, I think 25 points would be a nice place for Poti to be if he is still our shutdown defender.

Eh, he was nothing spectacular, but he got the job done. I say 7.
Side note: my roommate’s name is Dom Pody. Every time we were watching a game and someone who wasn’t familiar with the Caps was in the room, they were confused as hell every time Craig & Joe would mention “Tom Poti.”

With Green having emerged, no one expected Poti to put up big offensive numbers, but his numbers were just ghastly, considering both his history and his salary.

That said, he play an entirely different role than he had when he was a scorer, and I’m not sure who would have played all those big minutes as well.

I haven’t voted yet, but am leaning 5 – the lower end of expectations, because there has to be some offense and there simply wasn’t.

I can’t believe that anyone gave this bum anything higher than a 5. Tom Poti was signed here to be a puck moving defensemen, a guy who could create some scoring chances from the blueline. He has done almost squat for 2 years, TWO YEARS at $3.5M per. He isn’t physical, in fact shies away from contact. Perfect example, instead of knocking Crosby out of the crease area in game 2 of the PIT/WAS series he decides to have a sword fight with him and somehow trips and allows Crosby’s 3rd goal, a perfect example of what we get from Poti. At this point he only good on the PK, he does nothing to merit $3.5M per season even man up or on the PP. If I were GM, I’d ship him out of here and use that $3.5+ and sign Mike Komisarek.

Wishful thinking J I know. I’m almost certain that I will have suffer 2 more season with this goat fumbling around and cashing large checks.

I’m not a fan of Poti with his big butt-end and his 12 foot long hockey stick. He plays a lot of minutes and does OK. On this team, playing that many minutes, with such gifted offensive players, you would think his assists would at least be racked up a bit more regularly.
I remember him being signed to the Caps as a PP quarterback. I know he isn’t in that roll now but I honestly don’t think he could perform that roll even if he was given the chance..

He got a 4 from me. I expected\wanted a solid dman after last season and for him to get about 35 points. This season we sort of got solid D with the added bonus of being soft in the crease (Now with more score on yourself flavor!)

123 Games 5G 37A +12

136 Games 6G 24A +25

These are 2 stat lines from two of our defensemen over a 2 year period. One player is a 11yr veteran and has made $7.0M over those two years and somehow gets a free pass on under performing, the other player has played just over 2 years of NHL hockey and repeatedly gets clubbed by fans while posting similar if/not better numbers, taking less penalties, having more hits and making less than 1/4 of that $7.0M.

Key with Poti is his “competition” numbers. The guy logs a ton of minutes against the best the other team has to offer and he doesn’t turn the puck over.

I feel he improved as a pure defensive player over last season, and with hardly any PP time (and when he does get it, it’s with the 2nd unit) I did not expect him to produce much in the offensive category.

His 3.5 is quite worth the calming influence he has on the blue line during 4v5 situations, and contrary to JSchon’s feelings, preventing the other team’s top flight scorers from putting the puck in the back of the net creates opportunities for the whole team.

I could live with Poti’s complete decline as an offensive threat if he could become a true, go to, match up, defensive stopper. Thats looks like a big IF at this point.

What calming influence do you speak of? Is that a measurable?

Schultz has posted better numbers the past 2 years, yet if I had a nickel for every negative post I’ve read about Schultz I’d be in a higher tax bracket by two. Why does Poti get a free pass.

Mind boggling.

Poti makes as many gaffs as anyone on the blueline. He is not a shutdown defensemen, not even close.

I always think of what the coach thinks and says about his players in evaluating them. Boudreau always gives Poti major props for his minute-eating veteran leadership.

You can downplay his playoff performance , e.g., the Game 6 heroics – but that wasn’t Jose Theodore he was playing against. It was King Henrik (I hate that nickname). Sometimes it aint how many you score it’s when you score them. Just ask Ovechkin and 3 minutes into OT of that game – he just plain whiffed on getting a shot off with the whole net yawning at him.

I really like Poti’s cool and calm. He’s not a number one and he aint a tough guy, but how many hits does Lidstrom average a game?

I do agree that his point production could be better, but with Mike Green on your PP, it easy to get pushed out of the picture.

bq.because its quite trendy right now to say "What Hershey’s got and Pittsburgh’s got that the Caps don’t right now is killer instinct and a work ethic…" I’ve seen it everywhere. I’m quite sick of it. Look, I like the Bears and all, but if they’re all so great (Alex G, I’m looking at you!) why are they in Hershey? Why weren’t they on the ice leading the Caps to the Holy and Revered Promised Land?

It’s not a matter of they’re being so great that they should be promoted to fill a role, the matter is one in how the Caps and Bears are constructed. Case in point — the Caps suffer on their top two lines from the lack of a productive forward to can create his own space, play with a snarl, and score some, too. Well, the Bears have that — Graham Mink, who plays on their top line. Mink could never recreate that role in the NHL; he simply doesn’t have the skill for it at this level. But in the AHL, he’s the equivalent of a Brendan Shanahan. The Caps need that kind of player — not necessarily that player — on their roster.

You guys must have low expectations. I gave him a 4, just below what I thought he would do.

I expected a solid, but unspectacular season from Poti, and that’s exactly what we got. He was effective in keeping pucks out of the net, staying out of the box, eating minutes.

The reason for a 6, well, once the playoffs started he stepped it up in a big way and became a defensive leader. Despite the broken foot, he was able to double his offensive production (from .25 PPG to .5 PPG). Considering there are no games with Atlanta, Tampa etc. during the playoffs, that’s a big step up.

To get to a 10… maybe stay healthy and play 70+ games, keep eating 22-25 minutes a game, and keep the points production at the playoff level (meaning about 40 points, not 13).

I gave him a 5, but was close to giving him a 6. The injury problems and the lack of offense dropped him down a point. I don’t really care much about the offensive output, as Green has taken over that role and the team needs solid D from its blueline more than it needs scoring, but more than 13 points would be nice.

Unlike the previous season, I expected solid defense with a minor offensive role, and that’s pretty much what he provided. Even though it didn’t translate into points, his puck moving was very important to the Caps. Poti and Green were the only defensemen who could consistently move the puck out of trouble in the defensive zone without just chipping it off the boards and actually start a breakout.

I wasn’t happy when Poti was signed, but I think he definitely improves the team and does not break the bank as a very solid second pairing defenseman. I MUCH prefer this version of Poti to the more offensively driven player that was seen with Edmonton and the Rangers, so I definitely don’t mind him finishing out his contract in DC. To get a 10 next year he’d have to continue to improve his solid play in his own zone, stay healthy, and get his offense back up closer to the 30 pt range.

(Side note – I’d really like to see both ‘07 and ’08 stats on these so I can better gauge my expectations coming into the season – maybe just me and it’s easy enough to click through)

I think you’re absolutely right in that Poti’s best (and ever average) offensive days are behind him. Fortunately he seems to be acquitting himself well as a defensive player, and it’s really nice that he’s been able to stay out of the box. I’d really like to see more assists, which would be indicative of moving the puck up the ice better, so I gave him a 6.

I’d like to see him back at ~10G, 30A and the rest the same as this year (well, a full season) to get a 10 next year, but I’m not sure that’s possible anymore.

To get a 5, he’d need to duplicate this year, maybe pumping up the assists to 20+ (so, ~5/20/25 over a full term). If he pulls a 4/14/18 over 80 next year, I’ll definitely be disappointed.

-d

Tom Poti was, years ago, a #4 defenseman. Now, he’s a 5 or 6. He isn’t physical, makes mistakes, and I never believed he was going to be anymore than what he once was. He’s playing first pair minutes and he is not that guy, never was. His numbers show that he is out of his depth. Against first line players, he can’t put up numbers. Against the 3rd and 4th lines, he runs even. Its not Poti’s fault; his age and experience warranted 3.5 in the market. The fault lies with fielding a blueline where Poti is skating the most minutes against the most difficult opponents.

Gave Tom a 7. Without him, this team had a huge vacuum at Defensive D-man. They don’t need more offense from the blue line — Green alone is better than most teams. What they needed was someone to eat a whole lot of minutes against top competition.

Ask anyone who watched Poti’s early career and see if they thought he could be a defensive stalwart. But there he was thrown into that role by Boudreau, and he did much better than I expected. I think this team as currently constructed is much better with Poti in the lineup than without him there.

There may be room for debate as to whether the team could use an even better defensive stopper in his place, but the bottom line is that this year Poti is what the team had and he outperformed my expectations in that role.

I look forward to the day that Poti’s minutes per game drop because someone (maybe Alzner, maybe Carlson, maybe a free agent or trade) has assumed that role. But part of leadership is doing what the team needs even if it takes you out of your comfort zone. Poti’s done that, and done it better than I think we could have reasonably expected of him.