Recap: Canadiens 2, Caps 1

I agree, if you are coming on for any player you need to be aware of what they are doing and not just make an assumption and skate off the bench without ensure they have reached the bench.

I think this is usually true, except when you’re a goal down with 1:03 to play and it’s the goalie coming off. I think you either have to go for it or not. Varly turning around when he’s 5 feet from the bench isn’t going to stop an ENG, so at that point it shouldn’t be a choice anymore. I think it’s Varly’s fault, and I’m pretty sure BB was mad at Varly.

Still, it’s not Varly’s fault we lost this game.

Chimera’s a LW, sir. >:3

witch Bmo with Belanger.

That 2nd line needs more ice possesion for Semin and Laich to get comfortable. Like i said above. Laich needs to be infront of the goal/dishing the puck, Belanger needs to be making the passing decisions, and Semin needs to be making decisions as to how he is going to undress Halak

Outside of Semin’s hustle on that pokecheck (Which was a thing of beauty, seeing as he was so patient and didn’t rush it when he could have and taken a penalty), he’s still been invisible. You might need him, but he hasn’t been there.

The refs weren’t the reason we lost this game. I thought they missed some calls too but it’s hard for me to worry about a missed call here or there when we were taking so many silly penalties ourselves and bumblefucking the PP.

Considering they were pretty close to whistling Varlamov for being out of the trapezoid and didn’t, I’d suggest that calls were missed on both sides.

We slashed Cammalleri and it wasn’t called and later Greenie got slashed and it wasn’t called. Both were obvious and in both instances they headed straight to the bench shaking their wrists. Missed calls happen.

If any one wants to take a look montreal had two many men on the ice from about 01:06 to 00:46 left in the second period. I was only one who noticed.

Yea, seriously guys. Follow through.

Something I commented on to my brother and friends but had someone else tell me that only applied to an actual shot (or attempted shot). I truthfully wasn’t sure if there was a distinction or not. Was one of the reasons I wasn’t really worried about that supposed missed call.

Then again, the Bradley high stick from last game (I think) could have loosely been called a follow through as well. Not to mention it amounted to the stick blade basically just touching Markov (I think) under the chin and him reacting like a bomb had gone off.

I think he’s thinking too much, needing to find his inner Miley Cyrus happy song when he’s out there

Obviously it would never ever happen, but given Greenie’s lack of efforts lately, would you bring up Alzner to play in his place? I don’t see a better solution.

…when he was healthy.

When he actually played. They play entirely different roles with Carolina/DC.

Corvo has a few lapses here and there. And sometimes, he just looks stupid in the defensive zone. But that isnt too often. He plays very well on the PP (something we really need with Green playing like shit) , moves the puck well, and is usually a solid defender.

Pothier’s level of play peaked for that brief period after getting sat early in the season…then he had injury problems (again). When he came back his play never even approached that brief little stretch. Corvo has not been bad. Sloan was dragging him down big time tonight.

We can also look at Corvo’s play contribution rating from last year and see he was in the top 15.

How can you look at these stats and not see the inherent flaws with:

A) GvT; and
B) Your entire argument?

I wonder whether he’s fully recovered from the skate cut suffered versus the Caps earlier this season that sidelined him for multiple weeks. His speed/skating for Carolina in previous seasons seemed better.

I think you can pencil him in the same way you can pencil in Backstrom for a long future. Maybe you’d write Backstrom’s in pen, but you wouldn’t need an eraser handy for Carlson either.

He needs to keep moving and not stop dead. It kills his entire game. No Laich does not help.

read my above post echo a lot of what you said here about standing still with the puck at the top of the zone. It kills his whole game.

I agree that Semin had some nice shots from high-chance areas, but if it’s only four of 17 attempted shots…that’s not a great ratio. And, sure, if a bad shot goes in, we’re all happy, but that doesn’t automatically make it a good decision. By the same token you can say ‘no one was there to get the rebound’, but some of that’s on the shooter.

To me, he just looked lost, and like he was throwing the puck at the net every time he got it. Really stood out to me because I think, generally, Semin’s as composed with the puck as anyone I’ve ever seen. I’m just hoping for a lucky goal or some help from his teammates (Laich on that line, please) to get him back to normal. By the midway point of tonight’s game I was in large part hoping they’d win just so Sasha would have a chance to hit the reset button.

I can’t really say it applies to him with 5 goals and 9 points in 5 games. Besides some Game 1 jitters he’s scored in every other game.

and saw them live, with their rebounds that no Cap got

I’ve mentioned this before in other threads, but it’s really tough to create traffic or get to rebounds if your linemate heaves the puck willy-nilly from 50+ft away before you get a chance to set up in the zone.

Semin was better last night, and his play to negate the breakaway was phenomenal. He needs to start making better decisions with his shots. Both he and Ovie need to start taking the puck wide and behind the net. The way MTL likes to collapse around the net, that will open up opportunities from the point.

I would put Carlson on the PP instead of Green. I’ve been lobbying for that for the last several days. Something needs to be done about the PP. And fast.

The bottom line is that Semin gets paid to score goals and until he does, he’s going to be criticized. However, tonight was a huge step in the right direction for him to get his game back. If he keeps playing like that, the goals should come. And I dare say that if all the other 17 skaters played with that intensity tonight, we might have seen a different result.

They’re missing because of a combination of Montreal doing a tremendous job applying pressure high in the zone and not giving them room to play those passes over to Ovie for one timers and the lack of us utilizing some of our possession on the side wall with Semin or Backstrom and run the down low plays (usually with Laich). The same old give and go Federov used to run for our PP that Backstrom started filling that spot. Unless you make them drop their guys from playing so high they’re going to keep taking it away.

Not enough movement by the perimeter guys anymore either sliding up high into the slot for a quick pass and shot or simply opening up lanes for guys sneaking around backdoor. When was the last time you saw Green sneak backdoor for that trademark collect and top shelf wrister? Or the Semin feed across to Backstrom? Or that cross ice feed from Backstrom to Ovie?

I don’t think it would hurt. I wouldn’t mind seeing Carlson get a PP shift too, just to mix shit up. Maybe go with two pairings (say, an Ovie – Green and a B-Mo – Carlson), with two forward sets (Semin – Backstrom – Knuble, Ovie – Laich – Fehr) and give a minute to each set…that’d never happen.

At least the new fans don’t know enough history to know why we would whoop him fans didn’t whoop.

The booing of Green is bush league, totally agreed. Not something he needs right now at all. I’m sure this is killing him too.

As for the crowd, they did seem a bit quiet but I blame that on the Caps. The fans were ready to rock and the team came out and laid an egg for the first 15 minutes, which is usually when the crowd is the biggest factor. I’m sick of this team having to be prodded or motivated to come out and play hard, and I suspect that’s how many in the building felt as well.

The fans were a little off all night. Credit some of that to the guys supposedly playing to “end the series” and giving up 2 goals very early on. Also so much of the flow and momentum we would try to build was getting killed with the amount of penalties we took. On the flip side, the fans were really getting behind the PK all night, even Green.

Groaning over the puck coming out of the zone isn’t an issue in my book. That wasn’t so much directed at Green as the simple fact it just WAS him that let it out multiple times on plays that killed some PP’s. The rest of it I 100% agree with you on but everyone is going to moan a little over a missed opportunity.

maybe i expect too much then. Varly stepping up I will include to exclude, good point on that. Ovi’s goal…still not overly convinced on. I can not understand how you go through game 7 of the first round from last year and not remember that and somehow replay that and try and match that only with your team against the Canadians. BB and the coaches better reign the boys in. I mentioned to my seat mate that there is too much creative freedom and not enough set plays, we also are under-utilizing Chimera’s speed. Something has to change as Hershey would have played better tonight than the Caps did, plain and simple

I thought Varly got stronger as the game went on. The first period was obviously a problem (with the two early goals I was wondering if he’d lost his competitive edge), but he settled down, and made some nice saves later on.

Yea, I think that’s a lot of his problem. He’s under massive, massive amounts of pressure to preform.

There’s definitely a difference between dogging a guy and heckling him. This guy was beyond ridiculous. First, he leaned so he was yelling his heckles directly into my ear. My whole row was fed up with him, so it wasn’t just me being defensive or anything. I even had a couple “c’mon greener” comments, but not like a “YOU SUCK GREEN!! GET OFF THE ICE!!” like this guy.

Was under discussion among some friends at the bar after the game. Everyone was kind of against it since we already have Sloan in the lineup. I mean are you really going to sit Green and bring in Erskine? Against Montreal?

Of course…I did bring up Alzner. Thoughtful looks followed.

I know.

This, is an intervention.

While Pronger waits in Philadelphia, patiently filing his elbows into razor-sharp points.

Truthfully I don’t see how tonight’s game “scares” anyone into thinking we’d lose Game 6 or heaven forbid 6 and 7 in this series. We weren’t outplayed we just shot ourselves in the foot too much with sloppy play and effort missing at the outset.