Thursday Caps Clips

He writes he does take the cap into account:

I want to focus on ones that address needs and also involve a likely trading partner, all while keeping an eye on salary cap dynamics.

As much as I dislike Hartnell he does get the job done. Plus we would be getting rid of Schultz, so I like that trade.

I think I’d jump up and down for the Ryan deal, and for Morrow + Fistric (if that could be made to work, though I’ve always had a man-crush on Brenden Morrow).

Green AND Varly AND Schultz for Hartnell and Coburn? No way. And no thanks on Green for Fillpula, Regehr and/or Rene Bourque.

The upside on Fistric is that when he hits someone, you can say that guy got Fisted.

I’d take Morrow, easily.

I wouldn’t take Regehr anymore, he’s already on the decline. We aren’t trying to win the 2004 Stanley Cup. We’re trying to win the 2012 Cup.

Fistric? Is he on crack? Ridiculous suggestion. Mike Green for another D, straight up? There’s a real short list of guys that would make sense, Fistric isn’t even on the extended list.

I’d like Hartnell and Coburn, but like Peerless I have no interest in bailing out PHI. If they want Varly, maybe they can have him. Sorry Varly, that pretty much condemns the rest of his career. No way his groin can rebound in that organization.

I don’t think Ericsson has progressed as the Wings thought he would. And I’d be skeptical of a Swede the Wings were willing to part with.

Related. I saw these comments on Anaheim Calling the other day.

There’s no telling if Sutton will have a bounce back year and be the physical presence we need him to be or not. Moreover, the Ducks have good prospects who deserve to start getting serious looks. We have enough to start looking at internal options so that we can spend on those forward upgrades. As I said in my last post, I think Brooks Laich should be our top priority and he’s going to want 4 million per from us.

by Daniel AC on May 16, 2011 6:44 AM PDT via mobile up reply actions

I can agree with that, I don’t know much about Laich, what is it that makes you so keen on him over other players like Fleischmann?

by DavidBL on May 16, 2011 10:59 PM PDT up reply actions

He’s so tenacious. He does great work in the corners. He just plays the game the way I remember us playing 2007, plus he has offensive upside. I watch him play, and I think "that’s what Ducks hockey is supposed to be."

by Daniel AC on May 17, 2011 9:01 AM PDT up reply actions

 
There is being a lot of discussion about BL there recently. They seem to like him a lot.

Brooks Laich is going to get 4 million dollars. I doubt even Burke will go much higher than that. Yes, Laich can play center and wing, but I doubt Burke will overpay to the extent that we can’t match. The argument we need to make is that if he comes here, Laich will get a chance to play with the twins, and or Bobby Ryan. Toronto doesn’t have any talent like that on their roster. Maybe Kessel, but I think Laich would realize how well he’d fit in here. I’ve watched the guy play; he’s secretly a Duck from 2007 who’s been stuck in Washington for too long.

by Daniel AC on Apr 29, 2011 7:30 AM PDT up reply actions

Jonathan Ericsson: DO NOT WANT.

Even without Hannan and working under the assumption that Poti’s career is finished and Green stays, Ericsson is borderline to make that top 6. I’d take Green, Wideman, Carlson, Alzner, and Schultz over Mr. Irrelevent, and I’ve got my fingers crossed on one more good season for Erskine.

Yeah, I’m not convinced either that he’s a consistent 25-goal scorer just because he’s done it once. And if the price tage is above $3.5 for Brooks, I’d be inclined to let him walk. Then again, you can’t look at this stuff in a vacuum. What are the salary comparables for a 28-year old forward who should consistently get you 20+ goals and 50+ points?

If he can score 18-20 and play defense like he did this year, I think that’s worth $4 Million to the Caps. There aren’t many players like that out there.

Especially if he claims the 3C job and Johansson proves himself to be a legit 2C. I think that opens up a lot of doors.

Cricket is the 2nd most popular sport in the world, I think (maybe not in geographic area of interest, but India is ~1/6 of the world by itself).

I’m not sure how wondering why a Russian-born athlete playing an international sport (and happens to also do it professionally in North America) is less visible from a marketing perspective than Sebastian Vittel is considered “too North America-centric,” but to each their own.

Peyton Manning isn’t an athlete. He’s a TV spot actor who also happens to play football.

Right. It was always the 1st or 4th line taking D draws, and it murdered Backstrom’s O-zone opportunities. So is the answer “status quo,” a relatively even split of D-zone draws among all centers, or shifting from “1st or 4th line taking D draws” to “2nd or 4th” or “3rd or 4th” (and if so, which one)?

Agreed wholeheartedly on the first point (as noted in my original comment).

Agreed on the second point, too – by using Steckel and Gordon on the same line, BB typically negated the value of having both in the lineup.

I think this strategy only works for the Caps’ if it is an extreme scenario, a la Sedins and Kesler. Give your top two lines 60-70% of OZone draws.

The Caps’ analog to Sedins/Kesler right now is Johansson in the Sedin role and Backstrom in the Kesler role. That is, Johansson is taking almost exclusively offensive zone draws and Backstrom is the one we’re talking about freeing up. This makes no sense – Backstrom (and, by necessary extension, Ovechkin) should be in that Sedins role, getting all the O-zone starts they can handle. That, of course, presents the problem of who’s going to pick up those “Kesler” D draws. Maybe it’s Brooks Laich (though $4m for a 3C is pricey). It’s not going to be MoJo, which means you might as well put MoJo and Semin together as your 2nd line and fill the third-line spot with that D-draw pivot.

I think JP clears this up in his comment above the quote.

Bruce was usually skating 39 and 15 together, so while he had a great 4th line for D-zone faceoffs, it was still just one line, and he couldn’t start the 2nd/3rd lines (MJ90/MP85 or MP85/MJ90, with JA44 later on), so the rest of those draws fell to Backstrom. Laich could take those draws, but, until very late, he was largely a wing at ES. It’s part of the reason that some favored a Marty Reasoner instead of a Jason Arnott at the deadline – a Reasoner would’ve theoretically (depending on how Bruce used him) freed up Backstrom and bumped MoJo to 2C rather than improving the 2nd line directly but leaving the team in the same spot, essentially, on who was going to take the D-zone draws. (Plus, reasoner would’ve been cheaper.)

And the team couldn’t really go with Steckel on the 3rd line b/c a) MoJo seemingly wasn’t ready to be a 2C and b) Steckel sucks. So it was what it was. But it needs to change going forward.

Vigneault just doesn’t start them in the d-zone if he doesn’t have to.

Which, just to hammer home the point in case anyone got stuck in the weeds, is actually what a coach should do to maximize the talents of his elite offensive players (especially when some of them aren’t big fans of this whole “playing defense” thing).

Agreed. If he isn’t trusted to take faceoffs in the defensive zone, then he’s part of the problem, not part of the solution.

He’s Mike Modano

Goc is coming off shoulder surgery and missed the last third of the season or so, no? Guess that could keep him cheap…

I’ve seen KHtaD throw his name out there along with Reasoner and a few others who I can’t remember. Seems like the type of player we need.

I’m highly confident that Goc gets re-signed to a 2 or 3 year deal here. He’s too good at too many things for Poile to let go at the minimal price he’ll command.

pre-screening means maybe, maybe, we won’t have to hear those REALLY dumb questions that the incredibly delusional but self-important OFB “I’ve been a fan since 1974 and thus know more about hockey than anyone else in the universe” types always ask.

and that’s about the only positive I can take from it.

Who’s Shatz?

Really? His answers to pre-selected questions from fans should be interesting?

Before or after we remove every email that starts with “Fire” or “Trade,” since they’re declaratory statements and not questions?

Perfect. He should have to answer all of his questions using FanWave.

Yes, but where are you relative to your expectations for it?

Now they are talking about Leonsis’ role on the NHL finance committee. I would like to meet the fan(s) that submitted the question: What’s it like being on the NHL Finance cmte?

Oh God, he also thinks we want a better “in-game experience” at the Verizon Center. Not the actual game; the crap they do during time-outs. Please, Ted. Back away from the gimmicks….

Let me say I’m digging this liveblog.

I’d like to think I can slam a noun and a verb together to make some sort of sense, but there are not words in the English language that captures how I feel about that Q and A. I had a chill as I was listening to it. It was like watching the dawn of CapsMedia, Inc., where the news is always sunny about the Caps and any media outside the Caps umbrella will never tread.

And for the love of God, can we retire that whole, “we’re in the bottom third of ticket prices” nonsense? There is no more irrelevant comparison from a fan’s perspective. Hockey tickets (or any other sport, for that matter) are not amenable to price shopping in that way. It’s not like I can say, “ooh, Caps tix are priced too high, I’ll buy Hurricane tickets.” It is a silly dodge of an argument. The only relevant comparison is what a fan pays for Caps tickets next year versus what they paid this year and the year before, and price inflation for Caps tickets has been rather substantial.

Any relation to the one that rose from the dead?

This is Comcast putting one of their own guys in. Just SOP.

Or what RB said…in a much more eloquent manner

ice dancing. USA-Canada got bumped for ice dancing. if that’s love and attention, I’d hate to see what disdain and contempt looks like.

It amazes me that the Hawks were so willing to let Niemi walk but so eager to sign Crawford.