Thursday Caps Clips

I agree with you about the core as a “nebulous” concept. When creating my list I was thinking of the definition of core as those guys who may be “untouchable” in a trade. I admit though that that too is a dubious concept as everyone has a price – but for the guys I listed I imagined some team would have to offer GMGM something outrageous for him to deal.

If I were to tier the guys I listed I am also with you, it’s definitely AO, Nick, and the 3 D before any of the others. Until Varly got traded I wouldn’t have had any of the G’s in the second tier, but now that he’s gone I imagine one of those two guys is the long term future of the team, and once they work out who that is I bet he joins AO and Nick on the top tier. I’m hoping that if MJ90 continues to improve he can get there as well. I think for him he’s more likely to reach the top tier than he is to fall out of it (at least that is what I hope, the alternative is neither one proves to be a franchise G). The fact that the guys I’d list are predominately C’s and D I think also bodes well for this team’s future.

I would agree also, however, with Bman above that if Green keeps getting dinged he may fall out of that untouchable tier. I’m not on the trade Green bandwagon by any means. But if he doesn’t learn to take care of himself on the ice that would be quite a chunk of change wrapped up in a guy who plays 65 games in a good year. Especially given the raises due Alzner this year and Carlson.

So we have a Venn Diagram with “The Young Guns” and “The Core Four” that has 8, 19 and 52 in the overlap and 28 and 21 on the wings. Sounds about right.

Yeah, when 80% of the teams made the playoffs every year, you had a lot of teams that weren’t very good getting in. They made the playoffs many times with a losing record and under 85 points.

And even so, luck plays a role. Pointing out that one team took advantage of a rare chance while another squandered many doesn’t really alter the equation.

I agree, the NHL isn’t the NBA, every team that makes the playoffs has a chance to win the cup.

What’s the average career span in the NHL? My gut tells me that you are right, that at a certain age your career (barring injury) extends four or five years or drops off to nothing.

That’s important. Players will get shots in the NHL in their early 20s, but you rarely (there are obvious exceptions, of course) see a guy start in the NHL after age 26 and stick in the league for some time.

There’s a lot wrong with that study — it’s points, and there’s a lot more to hockey than points. Also read the TangoTiger article I cited to for some better techniques for this kind of thing. But the biggest problem I have there is just the Y axis. You need to show the zero on a thing like that. It’s a very misleading graph.

If all you want to know is “what year is actually the peak”, then sure, zoom in. But people keep suggesting that there’s a meaningful decline after 25 based on that article. If you saw the whole graph, you’d see that it’s much more of a plateau than a decline.

And by the way, the X axis isn’t great either. Where the hell is 18-20 or any age over 29? I can tell you about ages after 29 — the curve slopes back up again. Because to stay in the NHL after 34, you have to be very good. But that didn’t fit the narrative, did it?

When it comes to demos and cash, pointy ball talks, vulcanized rubber does the marathon.

/Nino Brown’d

That would be an interesting development. He makes less than Eakin now, correct?

That’s an excellent point, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that played into it. That or the Caps told them the same thing.

True, and I think he’s worth developing and keeping an eye on. Can’t hurt. I’d love to see him pan out.

I could see it, but that’ll depend on his role. That’s more of a scouting function, so unless he’s going to provide coaching services as well I’m not sure that’s in his job description.

I’m not aware of any CHL club that allows NHL coaches to come and spend time with their players in-season, but I haven’t really looked.

Better not be.

No. That only applies to lateral/blindside hits, not hits from the front. And I don’t think it was even a headshot.

My feelings exactly!

At the scrimmage yesterday, he threw a few nice hits. He wasn’t extremely physical, but he didn’t shy away from hit.

Over-cooking. Clap, clap, clap-clap-clap.

That’s more clap than a Parisian cathouse.

Joyeux Jour de la Bastille!!!

I think he def sticks with the D approach.

The issue isn’t that the Caps were insufficiently defensively-minded w TBL; it’s that their D did their jobs rather poorly

I’m hoping they stick with the D approach from last season, but resurrect the PP from the season before.

I’m quite interested to see if Bruce reverts to the Run ‘n’ Gun to start the year or if he sticks with the more conservative approach the team adopted mid-stream last season

There is a middle ground where a team actually combines both offense and defense. It’s what Cup-winning teams do.

Damn. A KHL team that didn’t require a buyout? Craziness. Says a lot about the player, and the team. I’d be much more inclined to go to a team in the KHL that treats people right, especially when so many don’t.

Funny you should mention that – Monday, when Slava asked him about that apartment debacle, he really did not want to talk about it. It was pretty much a polite but firm “Next question.”

btw, all the praise he gets here and elsewhere – he deserves that and more. A very likeable kid. Never thought the words “19 year old hockey player” and “gravitas” would fit in a single sentence, but…

He’s probably a better fit for wideman, because it may be a few years before he can be defensively responsible enough to take Hamrlik’s role.

Possible, but given the development path of our other 4 young D it’s unlikely. He’ll spend a year there if prior treatment is any indication.

It’s possible for your 7D to be in Hershey playing full time and your 8D to be with the team. In other words, the Quintin Laing/DJ King role. If someone who plays your position gets hurt, the team calls up someone from Hershey to fill that roster spot. And you order more nachos.

2C has been an issue for years. GMGM has attempted small moves to address it, but I think he should have done more.

I think the “pipeline” is thin on depth but has those impact guys, and should continue to have those impact guys (assuming next draft is more 2006 than 2005). Depth to grinder guys isn’t all that important in my opinion, and not many teams boast two guys at Kuz and Orlov’s caliber (a fair number, maybe 10, but top-half for a team that drafts towards the bottom is pretty decent).

I don’t think Eakin is a future grinder at best. I’d say he’ll be at least a grinder, with 2W upside.

And between the very young talent on the team, a couple young promising prospects, and COL’s first round pick next year, I think our pipeline looks fine.

The pipeline is pretty bare on impact players, too.
They’ve got two firsts ( one a possible lottery pick) in next year’s draft and at least one second if they choose to use it. And it’s supposed to be a very deep draft. That’s one way to fill the cupboard.

So it’s really more for bit players that aren’t worth much more than the QO than stars like Alzner correct?

Although I suspect Caps fan base will redefine being a contender as “not flaming out in the early rounds of the playoffs”. (i.e. losing to an eight seed after winning the President’s trophy, or being swept in the second round by a division opponent).

If the economy and/or the Caps playoff prospects don’t look different in March (when full season renewals come up) than they do now, I wonder if demand might drop some. Especially in the upper deck, where long term fans might be feeling some sticker shock, whether or not they make six figures.

My gut feeling is that by March, I’ll know if the team has fixed the power play, gotten past the concentration errors, and given some indication that they don’t intend to be outworked, outhustled and outplayed, which will give me some hope for team’s playoff prospects. I think it may be difficult to tell if they’ll be outcoached in the playoffs before the playoffs. While the goals are the same, the ice is the same and on and on — it’s not one and done, where you go on to play a different team in the next game (or at most, the game after) like the regular season. It’s attrition, where teams feel each other out and look for weaknesses to exploit. And Guy Boucher and Jacques Martin found those weaknesses and put together game plans (which their teams executed )for their teams to do just that.

Agreed. If all Ted cared about was making the playoffs and generating the associated income, there wouldn’t have been a fire sale. The stated goal was to blow up a team that was good enough to consistently make the playoffs but have no shot of going anywhere and rebuild into a team that is a legitimate contender year in and year out.

His NMU page. He has another year of eligibility.

Thank you too!

he’ll still find a way to put his head between the puck and the net.

To be fair, we have no idea how good Sjogren is against NHL competition.

Sanest point made all day. I’d be willing to wager that, at this moment, Jason Chimera is a better NHLer than Mattias Sjogren.

All depends on the cap.

I won’t lie. Its not easy being a caps fan.
Between the history of 3-1 series collapses to the recent #1 seeds, they always find ways to get your hopes way way up right before ripping your heart out.

Nah, because as any PuckDaddy commentator would tell you, Caps have nothing but bandwagon fans and that obviously doesn’t square with the Caps being the 9th hardest team to root for. :)

And Avery, Downie, and Cooke all have some offensive talent. I don’t see Paquette ever coming close to 5 points in a season in the NHL, even if he plays in all 82 games.

Now that Greg Campbell has his name on the Cup…maybe. ;-)

Agreed. But in the case of Paquette, I’m going to set the over/under on career NHL games played at one… and take the under.