Friday Caps Clips

Buy.

If Sjogren’s a player (big if, of course), it’s a perfect example. Jay Beagle’s another.

You’re not going to find elite talent there (despite guys like Brunnstrom and Gustavsson being hyped as such), but if you can find organizational depth in places other than the draft, you can draft more aggressively (more high-risk/high-reward guys who are less likely to reach that higher potential, for example).

Hold.

There are any number of ways to build a team. Boston couldn’t do it the “Pittsburgh” or “Chicago” way, because their top picks in drafts in the past decade didn’t end well, for the most part. Their first round picks…

2001: Shaone Morrisonn (19th overall)…part of trade to WSH for Sergei Gonchar (who played in 15 games for BOS)
2002: Hannu Toivonen (29th)…later traded to STL for Carl Soderberg (never played in Noth America)
2003: Mark Stuart (21st)…became part of trade that secured Rich Peverley
2004: none
2005: Matt Lashoff (22nd)…part of trade that secured Mark Recchi
2006: Phil Kessel (5th)…traded for Toronto’s 1st in 2010 (Tyler Seguin), another 1st coming in 2011
2007: Zach Hamill (8th)…43 points at Providence this season, his fourth year there
2008: Joe Colbourne (16th)…traded to Toronto for Tomas Kaberle
2009: Jordan Caron (25th)…split time between BOS (23 games) and Providence (47 games)
2010: Tyler Seguin (2nd)…74 games as a rookie in BOS

So, out of nine first round picks, they ended up with Rich Peverley, Mark Recchi, Tomas Kaberle, and Tyler Seguin, with Jordan Caron in the minors. Necessity was the mother of invention, and they invented another way to build a roster. But for any team, build via “the draft” or by “the big deal” or by “the checkbook” won’t work. Draft, trades, waivers, free agents all have to be a part of the mix, although intuitively, the draft should be the focus if you are to get value from good young players on their entry levels. But if your drafts blow up, you have to invent other means.

Damnit! I’ve been scooped!

I was working on something a lot like that article. For what it’s worth, I’m going to compare some teams Brian Burke had some hand in (the 2007 Ducks, the 2011 Canucks, and the current and future Leafs) against the Caps, and I call dibs on that.

Sucks for Drury. Sucks for the rest of the hockey world in that it’s good for the Rangers.

I’d have thought they could seek a medical exception rather than filing a grievance on the player. Oh well, TMYK.

“degenerative condition” aka, his meniscus is falling apart and he has arthritis.

No. (Do your homework before questioning Peerless!)

Two easy answers: increase mental toughness and play well enough to the point where a bad bounce (or call or whatever) doesn’t have as significant an impact. Obviously both are much easier said than done.

They should already know that adversity is inevitable.

Looking back over the final, the only “luck” that seemed to be involved in a seven-game series was that Vancouver extended it that far. They won one game with 18 seconds left, another in overtime, aother with less than five minutes left. Otherwise, they were steamrolled. Boston played so much better that any preponderance of “luck” that fell Vancouver’s way didn’t matter in the end. They were better…a lot better.

Because they don’t have a good enough coach to get them to see that.

Not only “Semin” and “Green,” but you have to be mindful that you will need a 2L and a first pair defenseman after you’ve moved them. How you fill those holes, either by what you bring back in a trade, who you sign as a free agent, or who you promote from within is the other side of that equation.

I’d say moving either guy counts as more than tinkering on its own. By salary, skill, or role on the team, those are serious moves that change the core make up of the team.

Brophy:

You hear the phrase, “They should just blow it up,” like it is the obvious and simple solution to transforming an underachieving team into a winner.

It is not a solution. It is said out of mere frustration.

Doug Wilson should just “blow up” his San Jose Sharks. Get rid of Joe Thornton, Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley…and replace them with, uh, whom? George McPhee should just “blow up” his Washington Capitals. Get rid of Mike Green, Alexander Semin and any of the team’s three goalies…and bring in whom?

It doesn’t work that way. When their teams don’t meet expectations, general managers obviously need to make changes. But when you are as good as the Sharks and the Capitals, you tweak; you don’t make wholesale changes.

Sorry, Gouldie, I’ve got nothing (other than the fact that I’m a schlub and not aging particularly well… but that’s anecdotal).

The GVT database for all years is available. The only challenge is it doesn’t have ages, but if you were industrious you could match the two and run your own.

I’m with you. Scoring isn’t the only way to measure a player. I have no doubt that these numbers are accurate, but I, too, think there’s a lot unsaid. D tend to mature later, and are also not as high scoring. I don’t know if D tend to play to older ages, but since their position is less reliant on explosive athleticism I think that could well be the case.

And I definitely would love to see how the scorers v. grinders breaks down. We’ve talked a lot about the decline in scoring that 50 goal scorers see after their early 20s, are the elite guys driving that drop off? And, as you’ve said many times, they may not be getting the 50 goals but may still be becoming better players.

We did a couple of scribbles on age and 50-goal scorers,but that’s about it.

One more question — there’s a standard cut-off date in the year that people use to set that player’s “age” that year, right? Isn’t it in February? (For obvious reasons, January 1 would be the most convenient)

I came across same this morning (Stahead, right?). I bookmarked the articles for reading later.

Lots of NHL players have that reputation. Mario Lemieux is apparently a beast on the golf course as well as the ice.

There’s some interesting stuff there, but it sounds sort of like they have the same issues with advanced stats as football.

My favorite:

Game Seven

Third period: As the closing seconds tick down, devastated Canuck players console themselves with the knowledge that at least they can still drive home in their luxury sports cars that they parked on the streets outside the arena.

I’m sure it’s happened before, but that was the first time I think I’ve seen anyone who’s ever been on the roster that year for the team skate around with the Cup (hell, Jamie Arniel skated with it).

He and Shane Hnidy must be feeling like the luckiest S.O.Bs right now.

I talked to Hooks Oprik and he said that Jagr couldn’t get the money he wanted in the KHL so he’s talking to the NHL. I haven’t read anything about it so I’m trusting what Hooks said, but his word is that Jagr wanted 4 million in the KHL and nobody was offering it. I wonder if he’d take a discount to come back to the NHL? If he’s worried about money, it doesn’t seem like he’s going to get it here (the NHL, not just DC).

Knee injury will do that to you.

So what’s the up-shot? I looked and saw that VAN only has 2 drafted guys (neither of them First round picks), so do you see it as an anomaly, the new operating protocol? I personally just see it as “more than one way to skin a cat.” You need good D, you need experienced D, but I don’t think it particularly matters how you get them. In general i think you overpay on the FA front (and you see that Boston only has one FA on there), so I wouldn’t advise that route. Shrewd (and not so shrewd) trades seem to be represented on here more than UFA acquisitions (combining both teams). I don’t mind GMGM trading for D (and that’s what he did with Wideman and Hannan), but I wouldn’t look at these charts and consider moving Green/Schultz/Carlznerson because that’s what the two most recent SCF teams did.

A couple more thoughts on the Chara contract. He was signed for huge money to be a core player, and done so at a time when BOS was horrible and didn’t have much to build around. That’s obviously not where the Caps are right now, so that may be even further evidence against going out and throwing money at a guy to bring in as a core player. A lot of teams have had success doing that lately, though, so I wouldn’t rule out impact UFAs as a matter of principle (PHI, CHI, DET all supplemented their teams with big money, impact UFAs after their teams were built up to be competitive).

Not only did Boston not draft and develop a single one of their own defenders…

Technically true, but, to an extent they developed Boychuk (who had played four games for the Avs but subsequently spent a full season in Providence) and definitely developed McQuaid (who never even played in CBJ’s system and spent two-plus years in Providence).

What doesn’t match?

Bruins Top Four Defensemen
Zdeno Chara-Age 33
Dennis Seidenberg-Age 29
Johnny Boychuk-Age 27
Andrew Ference-Age 31

Capitals Top Four Defensemen
John Carlson-Age 21
Karl Alzner-Age 22
Mike Green-Age 25
Scott Hannan- Age 32

A 1st round pick and a first round prospect for a #5 Dman. What a brutal deadline move, regardless of the fact that Boston won the Cup.

A 4.48 GAA after he went back to Tri-City? After a “league leading” 3.48 GAA?? A different era…

Gawd, if I didn’t know and like Olie so much and only saw that pic of him I would swear his middle name was “Chester”.

oh my, those pads!

nabbed from Capitals Overtime. His mom looks so proud. Or very bothered by the stache.

What’s a “willing center”?

I’d prefer to go for a physical winger if possible. We’ve got a glut of centers in the system.

Excuse me, but three of those individuals have not yet played a game in anger in an NHL sweater. In what possible sense are they “golden?”

I won’t reveal who I picked in our SBN Mock Draft… but you’ll all see next week.

Dear lord, I don’t want Namestnikov.

I think every fanbase uses the same cliches once their team’s been eliminated from the playoffs:
1. We were outcoached
2. We were outworked
3. We need more shots on net
4. We need more traffic in front of the net
5. Our stars didn’t produce
6. Our third and fourth-liners disappeared
7. Our powerplay stinks
8. Our penalty kill stinks
9. We didn’t have one bounce/call go our way
10. We had a ton of injuries that weren’t revealed.

And thus the post-Stanley Cup honeymoon ends…

I found it too much truth and more sad than funny.

(Although it’s total Ranger fan delusion to say that Messier willed the team to victory singlehandedly. They won the Presidents’ Trophy, it wasn’t a team of bums. And you’d think the guy that singlehandedly willed them to victory would be deserving of an award, right? Well, maybe in NYC, but in the rest of the league it was Brian Leetch that was recognized as the Conn Smythe winner, whatever that means.

And, hell, Mike Richter was the All Star Game MVP that year! That means he was the best player in the game of best players, right? So he was the best player in the league!)

you might be able to answer this: does every hockey player in the US have to be registered with USA Hockey, or are there kids (and adults) out there playing hockey that aren’t registered? We have a lot of kids in gymnastics who don’t show up int he “official” numbers because registration with USA Gymnastics is only required for competitive athletes participating in USAG events (YMCA and AAU have separate gymnastics programs. Some overlap, but not 100%)