Recap: Flyers 5, Caps 1

If they put one of them in its a completely different hockey game.
Yeah yeah, if my auntie blah blah

After their four PP goals last time the Caps were poised to break loose and get their offense going. It seemed to me when they didn’t convert early they lost confidence and then their focus and patience. They seemed to forget what they did last game to be successful on the PP.

No net presence during 99% of the game. Inexcusable.

How could I have missed that!

When Semin leads the team in hitting it means the polarity of Earth’s poles has shifted.

(A bit OT) Hey, at least we have a super lightweight boxing champ

I know a lot of frustration for me is this back and forth, up and down play from the Caps. We’re just past 1/3 the way through the season, and they show us bad signs for a few games, then show us huge improvement for a couple, then they regress again. I still have a glass half full and am willing to give Hunter more time to make an imprint on this team. But nights like tonight’s game are difficult to take. They tax my patience, that’s all there is to it. And no one taxes my patience more than Ovechkin. Only three shots on goal all in the third period, minus 2, horrendous giveaway…I want to see the Ovechkin from the previous two games, and I don’t think that’s too much to ask for.

On to Winnipeg and Colorado it is.

The lack of even-strength goals mentioned in the recap is the alarming thing here. And the fact that the Caps have yet to have a definitive victory over a contending team under Hunter. Will feel a lot better once that happens.

OK. How long a grace period should Hunter get? I think it’s got to be several weeks, at least — the usually cutoff for coaching changes is no later than the All-Star break, right? Which allows for about two months before the playoffs start. If it’s reasonable for us to not start worrying until late January, then I will try to remind myself not to start worrying until late January.

I was sure his insanely long slump was over after those two games, the fuuuuck???

The Winter Classic went pretty well

Joel Ward scores 30 points a year. He’s on that pace, so let’s not pretend he’s regressing or something. Quite frankly, he’s worked harder than just about anyone else and I personally think he’s a large reason for Chimera’s and Laich’s success. Ward is definitely not the problem with this team.

Brouwer has been a good pickup so far. And so was Halpy.

GMGM also resigned Chimera, don’t forget. Let’s not just shit all over him for Vokoun and Hamrlick underperforming.

If you have to ask, you’ll never know.

JP’s got it right. The Caps are not as bad as they looked tonight. In particular they ought to have had at least a couple more goals tonight.

They’re also definitely not as good as they looked in the Leafs game.

They need to tighten up in goal and in their own zone. They almost certainly have the personnel to do it.

I wasn’t a huge fan of Hamr from the begining. TVo is underperforming but hasn’t ever had numbers this bad even in big situations. And ward was an overpayment for playoff performance – not regular season performance.

GMGM is the guy that brought us: Green, Johansson, Eakin, Varly, Neuvy, Holtby, Alzner, Schultz, Carlson, Backstrom, Orlov, etc etc. The only real flub he had was ole F-16 at draft day. GMGM has been one of the most successful GMs during his tenure.

You are “spot-on”.
One thing the Great 8 doesn’t have going for him: defensive responsibility on a consistent basis. If the Great 8 “aint scoring goals”…..he’s (sadly) a liability.

When Ovi got mugged, all the Caps on the ice seemed to quit pressing — maybe it was physical or mental fatigue, or the expectation someone else would chase the puck, or something — I don’t know what it was, but I expected a goal against pretty quickly.

Return on investment for Ovi, Sasha, Hamrlik & Schultz not so great.
Bang for the buck ain’t there.

On the other hand, Vokoun looks like a “less than $2M goaltender”.
Neuvy just looks like his confidence is fractured – he truly hasn’t been that great since Tampa whipped us 4 straight.

Schultz? Really, Schultz?

halpern has been pretty good too. I would add him to your list.

eakin needs to go back to hershey for at least the whole year. the kid is not ready for the nhl yet.

Chimmer and Laich aren’t big dollar guys?

yeah that was a bit generous

And it will turn again. That’s why one has to take it game-by-game.

You want Bryzgalov at 7 more years at that cap hit? Seriously?

The couple of minutes preceding the Simmonds goal were so utterly dominant by Philly that it was inevitable that they would score. When’s the last time we had as dominant an even-strength shift, much less one culminating in a goal? Long, long time

He should know about that, having been involved in many of them in the early 1990s with the Caps…

When the puck squirts off the defensive wall we always seem to be chasing it, not controlling it, even if we outnumber their forwards. Even Nicky was getting abused tonight.

I agree. So how is this possible with a team that many agree is one of the biggest in the league? Shouldn’t we own the boards? Do we just not practice this enough? Shouldn’t all NHLers have spent 1,000 hours throughout their life working the boards already? Do they really need to practice this basic skill? How many more questions can I ask in one post?

actually the 3rd period was pretty even and the caps had some huge shifts. the first was good too, but Vokoun just destroyed us with that softy.

the 2nd period was just awful.

Maybe a bit of both?

Philly was barely trying in the third.

There were multiple times in the third I couldn’t believe they didn’t score. They had 16 after two and I wasn’t surprised they finished with 32

Considering they had 5 SoG through the first WITH 2 PPs….

But hey 30 SoG thats something. Even if half the shots come when the game was well out of reach at the end of the game when they were otherwise on track for like 22 SoG its something alright.

Scoring effects. They dominated zone time when they were trailing 5-0 with 10 minutes left.

Yay.

Summary of Hunter’s presser, please?

Agreed but I’m just as happy to have it discussed behind closed doors. Wounds are being licked even as the skin is gettting flayed—eh!

He’s been saying all the things in his pressers that would keep them from getting too high when things go well, and tonight we heard all the things that would keep them from getting too low when things went poorly. Since I’m also hearing analysis of specifics they need to change in their play (get pucks out of our own end, separate guys from the pucks more, and so forth), I think he’ll have a message for the team that they can work with. I don’t read the lack of drama as a lack of concern.

I couldn’t care less what people say in pressers.

The whole thing is just choreographed cookie cutter responses.

The press has to ask the same questions, and the coaches have to give the “right” answers.

It rarely deviates.

Or maybe its…Kolzig?
But I think the root of all the team’s problems are Brock Myles. Its okay, I’ll wait while you figure out who he is. Because he’s the problem and has to go!!!






There isn’t one single problem that’s holding the team back. But now I’m getting less and less angry because my favorite xmas movie is on AMC so everyone just chill.

Well he’s pretty transparent about the game tonight.

Troy offering up refunds? I’d like one. I even toughed it out for the entire debacle.

Well, I paid money. Troy, think you might want to refund my $$?

Shots have been pretty questionable since DH took over. First couple games were sub 20, and we chalked it up to learning a new system and what the coach wants you to do with the puck. But we haven’t gotten a lot of shots on the PP either outside of Toronto, and ES has been pretty disastrous

Someone: “Coach? … Coach! I know it’s only been a handful of games … but is it becoming a very troubling trend that this team is not putting near enough pressure on net ES?”

Hunter: “The guy’s played hard, there were some deflections, played well in the third. That’s the game of hockey.”

No, you’re right. As far as I know only the very, very best teams—Chicago 09-10, Detroit 07-09, for example—have been able to out-Corsi their opposition while leading. The Caps got out-Corsi’d in this game, even though they trailed big. Yeah, with such a large deficit you see unpredictable score effects (that is, sometimes, a team just gives up when it’s down big), but this team really shouldn’t be out Corsi’d when losing.

Neil tweeted the Caps are 55% scoring chances when down 1 this year, compared to 63% in 10-11.

Lament ES offense all you want (and we certainly should), but we need to realize that it starts in the D-zone. Spend too much time there, you’re never going to be able to do much offensively because you’re going for a line change every time you clear the zone.

/deadhorsebeating

Fuuuuuck.

ugh

From 8th to 12th in a night.

Flashback to the 70’s CF75?

Well, GM, my husband is with you on Vokoun. He was saying, “Take him out” since the 3rd goal and certainly on the 4th,

He needed to take it like a man

Always does. And Wideman is so honest the list a hat trick. But I still hate seeing them in the ice.

I missed part of the first five, but apparently it was something with his skate.

Locker said it was a skate issue… like something came off his skate or something went awry with his blades

Definitely equipment. After he returned to the bench, there was an icing and he took a couple of loops an turns (and I think did a Triple Salchow) before returning to the bench…

The Caps are ugh, depleted too.

Key Injures: Jay Beagle, Mike Green, whether Semin has the flu or not, Hendricks, Poti.

We have our excuses! Nope, nope they don’t. Their down 1 key player boasting a team with talent level easily twice that of the Florida Panthers yet are just floating above .500. Theres a 10 point different between the Caps and Philly. You know what the points difference between the Caps and Last Place Carolina is? 8.

that’s troubling for being now 3/8ths through the season. January is mid season, what will the point spread look like then I wonder.