Thursday Caps Clips: Kicking Off the Calder Cup Finals

But if the difference in cost between Hamhuis and Kubina really isn’t all that much, wouldn’t you rather have the guy that brings more to the table? Even if he does cost a million or so more?

Luckily neither of those players play the style of game that lends itself to getting a huge contract. Lydman and Tallinder are 31 and 30 (respectively) and made south of a $3 Mil cap hit. I don’t see them getting huge raises as their games are pretty well known and neither outperformed their previous standards.

If the Flyers win the Cup, I submit they will claim the investment in Danny Briere will have been worth it (despite vastly underproducing fro the Flyers in the regular season for the last 3 years), since he would almost certainly be named the Conn Smythe winner.

THAT is a big if.

And I’ve just seen enough of Shamo. Even if Sopel turns out to be about the same performance wise, it’s a worth a shot at an upgrade.

But they shoot themselves in the foot by trading away one of their best Dmen to improve on offense, and hurt their only strength.

And they’d have Brian Leetch work with him every single freakin’ day to show him how to play good defense as well as be an excellent offensive player.

1C on the NYR and 2C on the Caps are equivalent, and I expect more out of Mackan, frankly. I just don’t see him being happy in a situation like that.

Maybe. It’s hard to know what PHX is going to do. I don’t see them spending to the cap, but I don’t see them letting everyone go either. They can’t keep everyone and I just don’t think Lombardi is that high on their priority list.

Definitely. Especially if you have a wife that isn’t accustomed to the Canadian plains.

I might too. I’d definitely have to think about it.

Unless we go back to the SOB line—then they can both share Nicky.

This may be pointless, but I’m gonna say it anyway: if he had not averaged more than 6 SOG/G, then I would say he did nothing. No, he was not successful (neither were too many others when it was needed), but he was working it. Since the end of the Caps’ run, there have been several post mortems by more objective folks than us here and my reading of those in toto is that the team’s shot quality and chances were actually pretty good. They did run into a hot goalie, as did the Pens. It is a large part of the equation for failure.

Are there things Semin could have done better? Yes, as could every single player on the team. You may not like his game, but as he said, he played the only way he knows how. He was in a scoring slump, but he kept trying. What would you have said if he had averaged only 2.4 shots per game, as Crosby did against the Habs?

The amazing thing to me is the numebr of people who expected Semin to suddenly become some net-crashing forward, when Crosby, who is one, could not even play that way successfully against the Habs himself. Semin did have some excellent shots, the rebounds of which just sat there in front of the goalie with no one either around or turned the wrong way to get them. One specific time he had to rush up to get his own rebound because Belanger was facing the wrong direction right in front of the net, as if he did not even know the puck had been shot.

The criticism of how he played also was all over the map. Some people said he should pass more, others he should shoot more, then he should get rebounds, then he should make better shot selection, then he should just get it to the net so someone can get the rebounds. He kept trying to score; he failed to score. Do you think anyone was more frustrated with the lack of success than he was?

And for those who think he does not care (I still never understand where that notion comes from), did you see him on the bench when the game was over? Did you see the look on his face? He was devastated. BB said he and the other 3 YG were inconsolable. Later he told Ivan Carter all 4 of them were crying.

As for the other comment above, watching last night, I wondered how the whole team would fare.

Yeah. Killing him. Another chance to be a stud in the WC and a Memorial Cup. Woe is Ryan Ellis. What would he have done otherwise? Spend the year in Milwaukee. Poor guy. I feel marginally worse for Petrangelo, but even him I don’t feel for.

Agreed. I hate Gomez so fucking much, but have to give credit where it’s due, and he’s still a quality hockey player.