Thursday Caps Clips

You haven’t gotten down to 299 yet.

that’s what “find” is for in Firefox…. all the “Was” guys.

Ctrl F is your friend ;)

I was thinking the same thing. It’s lovely.

(And by “some” JP is, of course, including himself. And maybe Pepper. Mancrushes ahoy!)

There were a few differences. Game 1 in Hershey was only the seventh hockey game the Bears had played in the previous 39 days, they were coming off an eleven day layover, and Andrew Gordon was just returning from his knee injury (during which time the Bears’ PP was poo-poo.) In Game Two, the Bears were able to score twice on Matt Climie, then AG10 scored late to take the game to OT at three apiece (and the Bears took a lot of games to OT throughout the playoffs.) I’ve managed to block out how Texas got the game winner, as I was sitting there largely stunned.

The major difference was Captain Helmer, who sought the advice of Ray Bourque, which resulted in the team’s players-only meeting in Austin and a noticeable change in focus when the hit the ice for Game Three.

So what do you think would’ve been the solution for the power play?

I don’t think it would be fair to blame Boudreau alone for this, the players didn’t seem to have the constitution to pay a price to “get greasy” in the same fashion Hershey did. Both teams got pushed outside on their own power plays in the first two games of their respective series, but the change in Hershey’s game was stunning in games 3-6. The Caps, meanwhile, still didn’t seem to compete at Montreal’s level in front of the Canadiens’ net. As if somehow, pucks would just start going in. All of them bear responsibility for that outcome.

But what seems odd just looking at the power play shots on goal in that series is, first, that the Caps were 1-for-61 (1.6%). Of those 61 shots, 42 were taken by forwards, which isn’t surprising. But the guys who would be expected to do the in-close work (Mike Knuble, Brooks Laich, and Eric Fehr, who had 9:22 of PP ice time among them per game) had a total of 14 shots in seven games. And one of those games comes leaping off the page — in Game 6 the Caps had 18 power play shots on goal, two from the in-close guys. Bombs away from the outside isn’t going to test a goalie much, even when he’s killing penalties.

Although I’d have to look at shot charts, the first thing that comes to mind here was they weren’t getting much in terms of shots from in close, rebounds or otherwise. Montreal collapsed their defense, and the Caps had no answer for it, either from the bench or on the ice.

Yeah, the team playing “AHL Lifers” at least has the culture in the room to actually finish an opponent even after they’ve had their nose bloodied, regardless of the coach.

But Texas wasn’t playing an NHL team; The last time I looked, Hershey is also an AHL team, composed of AHL lifers, NHL prospects, and a first-year head coach. Granted, they scored the most wins and points during the 09-10 season (kinda like the NHL team we all know well), but still an AHL team.

I’m still trying to figure out what many want him to say publicly. If Bruce comes out and says " You know, after looking at the video I realized I suck as a coach. The players are gutless, choking dogs. Ovi’s a terrible leader, Semin is a worthless putz and RJ Umberger was right, we’re never going to win a Cup with these guys" does that really serve any purpose. Of course, I’m exaggerating but Boudreau is trying to do what any coach does, say what’s done is done and it’s time to worry about the next game. He and McPhee aren’t idiots. In private, I’m sure they gone over every reason why the team failed just as we have. Ripping himself, his GM, his coaches and his players to the Washington Post just seems to serve no real purpose other than to appease the fans who want an admission of guilt.

If you can’t score, you can’t score. It happens and you can’t change a thing.

I actually agree with him. There are times as a coach where you do everything you can in terms of juggling lines, changing personnel, changing the setup, switching up the forecheck, etc. etc. and none of it works. Sometimes, the puck just won’t go in.

I’m not excusing BB’s performance, and I haven’t re-watched the series to catalog everything that BB did or failed to do, I’m just saying that what he’s talking about is very real, and very frustrating.

I’m behind in the collection of books I haven’t read, so this one isn’t likely going on that list.

And to be fair, I do think Ovechkin needs to grow the hell up a bit

I hate to defend Cox, but I agree with J.P. I believe when Cox began the project he thought the book would be more about Ovi’s successes rather failures given the expectations for Team Russia and the Caps.

And he’s the best in the world at both.

Right, but when you read articles on it, do you see it referred to as “the Winter Classic” or “the Winter Classic presented by Bridgestone” (or whatever it is)?

I guess I can understand that, I guess.

Nice. Those never get old.

I thought one of these earlier today.

“Did you hear that the Rangers are going to send some players to the minors to clear cap space?”

“When they’re waived…
those players’ faces will…
redden.”

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Perhaps he likes the lady. You gotta lock down the good ones early.

When is this event supposed to take place? I’m assuming in less than a year.

Don’t tell me that Alzner will get hitched at a younger age than I. (But then again, so did Stephen Strasburg and he’s only 2 month’s older than Alzner.)

Permanent callups have a way of convincing men to marry.

Heh. I’m hoping they have them at the Caps Convention. I’m not planning to wait for game day to get it.

Well, I really hope we get Mitchell or Mottau, then.

(grumble)

When Bykov sent Ovie out for a THIRD shootout attempt vs Slovakia, while Datsuk sat on the bench after only one try, I wanted to rip my seat out of the ground and throw it onto the ice. The man doesn’t know North American hockey whatsoever.

State of Russia, both government and hockey wise.

What ever Putin wants, Putin gets.

I’m with you on their dark horse potential. Definitely better than last year in terms of personnel, and if they have a season with a high shooting percentage, they will turn some heads. They’re going to need some breaks to do it, but every year there’s a team that’s hotter than they should be. And they’ll pick up some gift points from teams not taking them seriously.

Atlanta has some of the components that Phoenix had. Their coaching has improved (I’ve heard nothing but good things about Craig Ramsay), and they’ve made some low-budget acquisitions that could help them in areas that they struggled last year (e.g. Chris Mason as a goaltender; Brent Sopel and Johnny Oduya on defense), and they have some young guys who are ready to make the jump forward (e.g. Bergfors, Byfuglien, and Ladd).

But I think they’re missing two key ingredients: 1) they don’t have a world-beating goaltender like Ilya Bryzgalov, and 2) they don’t have the defense necessary to make it work.

I also think Phoenix waaaaaaaaay overperformed last year and benefited really heavily from the shootout – they had 14 shootout wins – four more than the next team – and six shootout losses – and a regression to the mean for them would mean losing four standing points. They were also 15-6 in one-goal games in regulation, which indicates a little bit that they’re overperforming (though to an extent it’s also part of their game plan).

Pittsburgh?