Wednesday Caps Clips: Ready for King Karl

I’m getting a bad feeling about this series.

Thought he wears 84 up here?

Salary cap-wise, your correct. Still, if the Caps make the determination that they can’t afford signing Semin to a new contract, I wouldn’t be shocked at all if they shop him before free agency starts. And given that the contract obligation would only be for one year, I think there are a number of teams that would be interested.

Totally agree. “Value” has to consider production, cap hit, likelihood of bolting for the KHL, etc.

Shhhhhhhhh.

Agree with you on all these points.

I with GMGM were a better drafter, then I’d have more faith in the value of getting a pick back for Flash.

Flash can’t “demand” anything at this point. The Caps can retain his rights by submitting a qualifying offer. Flash can either sign the QO, and that’s what his salary will be. Or he can refuse to sign and negotiate on a higher salary figure. If the two sides can’t agree on a contract, they go to arb, and whatever the arbitrator determines is the salary value. I think an arb contract is 1 year, but I could be wrong on that.

After the ShaMo arb, I feel sure the Caps want no part in an arb hearing for Flash.

I try and block out that season. he just looks so wrong in that uni. So so so wrong.

I don’t disagree with a thing you said. However, I believe based on what I’ve heard GM & BB says and some of the stuff the PR staff have tweeted that the Caps org, not the players I might add, seem to have this thing in their heads that they ran into a “hot” team. Habs beating the Pens fits into that storyline. I never said that storyline is what actually happened.

Does Philly shutting Montreal down speak to the shut down D issue at all?

PHI has not overwhelmed MON with offense. If Halak doesn’t suck eggs those games are entirely different. Against the Caps and Pens there is no way Briere’s goal or Leino’s goal go in. But against PHI those go in. It has nothing to do with what PHI has done. The one thing I’ll say PHI is doing better than WAS/PIT is controlling Cammalleri; he just hasn’t had the same opportunities. No shock considering how much better PHI’s D corps is.

Philly’s depth and willingness to go to the net is the reason they are crushing the Habs. Add in top 2 D-men pairings who can shut down almost anyone and Flyers should be winning this thing. Habs have nowhere near their forward depth.

Philly underachieved under Stevens. If they had been anywhere near decent to start the year they’d have been a higher seed. They were the EC team that scared me the most going into the season and it appears that fear was well founded. Minus their goaltending issue they are a team that is well built for the postseason. Depth, grit, and solid defensive play.

After looking at the article again it appears the writer isn’t a MSM scribe or a blogger, but an IIHF employee. No bias there.

Russia puts a lot of pressure on their guys to show it if they’re available. They take worlds very seriously, as we’ve seen. I wouldn’t be surprised to discover that guys get blacklisted if they skip out of worlds. And no one wants to be blacklisted with the next Olympics in Sochi.

But there’s also the fact that representing Russia is something the players themselves take very seriously. I don’t doubt for one second that Ovie takes immense pride in putting on a Russia sweater and he doesn’t see it as a burden. I see this in other sports, too; if Russia calls on you, you go, and their athletes take a lot of pride in being asked to do so, it’s almost a patriotic duty.

I do think the low attendance is partly behind the article (the stands have looked really empty for some games). However, for the Russians, particularly, I think there’s still a strong imperative to go support Mother Russia when called, if at all possible. This is not surprising given Russia’s recent political history and the prominence that’s always been placed on sports success ingrained in the collective Russian psyche.

Remember that Ovi, Sasha, and others were born under Communist rule, although they were very young children when it fell. However, the coaches and others in charge still reflect the language and often the mindset of the previous scheme (and certainly it can be argued there has been political regression).

While Ovi is a one-of-a-kind personality over here, and Sasha is eccentric, when they become part of the national team, their individualism does seem to disappear; they revert to the innate collective. They want to be there, as far as I can tell.

There’s a video of Sasha after the 2008 WC when he received an award from Krasnoyarsk. He looked absolutely exhausted, thin, almost gaunt, and was hoarse. That was after playing round 1 of the SC, but I don’t think he would have missed the WC for anything except still playing in the SC.

That’s also why i’m really not sold on the Taylor Hall Bandwagon. Guy pretty much plays on an All-Star team. They’ve got like what….6 first round picks on that team? (not counting Hall and Fowler, who will both be top 5).

so, Florida ownership doesn’t even know what they want. Great. That’s sure to really help turn things around down there.

I don’t see this as being at odds with what the ownership said, the serious moves didn’t need to be made at the deadline. The only major UFAs they had were Seidenberg, Leopold and Moore. Guys like Vokoun, Weiss, Horton, etc. all have at least one more year on their contracts so they can trade them this summer and still get good value back. Instead of rushing to trade those guys for picks and prospects at the deadline (when teams really didn’t seem to be willing to give up a ton) they can take their time and try to swing a deal that may include a player(s) that can step into the lineup this year.

Funny thing is compared to their probable opponent in the SCF, if they beat the Habs, their cap situation actually looks good.

I just can’t see any way Philly gets past either Western team. Like the Habs, at some point, their luck is going to run out.