The Million Dollar Question: Who's Not Hustling?

I think it’s just a PR statement by Brooksie. It’s what the team wants us to hear, really.

With the bit of flux in the organization right now, I think Laich would see the ‘poor taste’ in picking sides and pointing figures. This is a statement that the team knows they aren’t playing well and needs to sack up. Furthermore, I seriously doubt this sort of criticism isn’t already used by Hunter and Co. in the locker room. Case closed.

Pretty much the entire team is guilty of it, Laich included. He just talks a lot.

I think everyone wants to make the full effort and sometimes it just doesn’t happen. You can try your hardest and still not win. I don’t read anything into Brooks’ comment and I don’t think it’s productive to start laying blame on individuals. They’ve ALL sucked, some more than others. No one is absolved.

I personally am tired of hearing things like “It’s not acceptable to play hockey for 20 minutes and not the other 40” “We need to play a 60 minute game.” This refrain just really burns me.

I’m sorry, how many minutes did you think you were supposed to play?? And you’re not even on ice for 60 minutes.

Well, of course not acceptable, it’s a HOCKEY game. It has 3 periods, 20 minutes each that – wait for it ….. equal SIXTY minutes. Sixty minutes during which you are expected to, I don’t know , play hockey?? Just a thought

I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t get payed to perform for only 2 hours of my 8 hour work day.

Sorry to rant, and I may be out of line, but those kind of statements irk me to no end.

To me last night was a case of bad special teams, careless penalties and spotty goaltending. I’m glad they almost came back to take it to OT, but overall, those 3 things ruined the game.

The way I see it, everyone (no matter who they are) will give 100% when the puck is on their stick or they can see a scoring chance developing. But if someone ’Isn’t trying’ then they will most likely be half-assing it in the neutral and defensive zone… Not finishing checks, not trying to cut off passing lanes, that sort of stuff.

There’s a Tom Poti joke here… but it’s too easy a shot.

With regards to Brooks, I don’t think he was calling out anyone individually, but instead he was calling out the team as a whole. He’s been with the Caps for 500 games, through the entire rebuild process so he knows how good this team can be. Hell, we’ve seen how good they can be (that 7-1 win over Detroit happened this season… doesn’t seem like it, but it did!)

I can see what he is talking about though, the Caps have been coming out of the locker room without much enthusiasm, without much jump, and they get bit in the [Avery]. They then realize “Whoa, we better start playing”, get motivated and show the world they really have the talent to make some noise. The last 23 minutes of the Florida game, it was all Caps. Now part of that was the Panthers playing protect the lead, but part of that was the Caps overpowering them, to the tune of 3 goals in a little over 20 minutes. If they had played that hard from the opening face-off, I doubt they lose 5-4… they probably don’t fall behind 5-1 at all…

Brooks is saying the right things, but now it’s up to him and the rest of the team to step up.

I’m always surprised how quickly people seem to jump to the idea that Nick doesn’t slack, yet he’s one I’ve noticed for a few years is selectively lazy, and often at really bad times.

My prime example is how on a back check (typically a 3 on 3 where he’s covering the third forward in the high slot), I can’t count the number of times that I’ve seen Nick skate back to get “within reach” of the third forward and stop skating, as though that’s close enough. Not surprisingly if that puck is centered to the player he’s supposed to be covering he’s left with only a stick-play option. Also not surprising, when a player get a pass in the most prime scoring locations of all, he bears down and often will overcome even the most serious stick check/hook/hold,etc.

Those have been ending up in our net with far too great of regularity.

Nick is not the only one. I think that much of BB’s system had been to be in zone position, which meant that the players were often “within reach” of opposing players in their responsible area, but not actually physically engaged with them. I feel like this often left them unsure of who to play, and where to be.

Thus the new emphasis on man-to-man coverage is something I’m hoping will help greatly with their defense. I’ve always felt unless you can put a shoulder into the chest of the man your covering, you have nobody covered (especially in the modern NHL where guys are too strong and too fast to contain any other way, IMHO obviously).

He’s hoping that helps defensively and always put the players back in a situation where this team can use it’s size, speed, and especially skill differential, to beat opponents in one-on-one situations to get to those oh-so-important outnumbered situations.

So far that looks like what’s happening, and it’s looking like this team with start scoring in bunches again. Here’s hoping at least!

(FYI: How to Hustle)