Recap: Canes 5, Caps 0

You might enjoy this.

Thank you.

I think a lot of caps fans feel that Boudreau didn’t have to go. I’m not sure what made it untenable, other than fan pressure.

I think you can make a fair point that the ‘bleeping’ ship has sailed and that alone is reason for not discussing it. But I think it can be debated whether or not he “had to go”. It’s your blog though, not gonna step on any toes.

I don’t disagree that a change was warranted. And I certainly don’t like the way brettpedigo phrased things. But I disagree that it had to be made then. As I said in the third period thread…

And when the team thinks of itself as a stanley cup contender, than replacing the winningest coach in the NHL (in the past 4 years) with an OHL coach is irresponsible. If the only elusive coaching goal is reaching conference finals or better then hiring anybody without some evidence of that specific ability is wrong.

I can’t, nor would I enjoy trying to, defend Gabby’s playoff record. And I’m not confident enough in my knowledge of Hockey to say that a coaching change wasn’t needed to go farther or win a cup. But I am saying that unless you have reasonable expectation that the new coach will do better than the guy he’s replacing, then making the change is wrong.

I kept my piece since thanksgiving because the people who supported hiring Dale Hunter are people whose opinions and expertise I trust. The man’s reputation has a lot of caché, but I haven’t seen a solid 5 game stretch of evidence that this coaching change was an improvement.

Also, I apologize for voicing an opinion like the one above after a terrible loss, in an important game.

Absolutely agree…if there’s one scapegoat out there, it should be George McPhee. He’s the master architect, and he’s failed…..miserably. It’s a complete and utter meltdown that he’s ultimately responsible for.

*still, not till.

What do we know? We are not in the game.

That’s my hope.

I get that.

But why, if he’s pursuing Hunter, would he go get guys like Brouwer and Ward who would end up in Hunter’s doghouse from the get-go? Why stick with Schultz, who Hunters obviously doens’t want to play? Why keep Erskine around, for the same reason?

it seems to me that by bringing in Hunter and his new system, GMGM guaranteed that the team would be rebuilding, at least on the fly, for another season and a half.

And for those players who have been with the Caps a while, and who could play in Hunter’s system, how good can it be for them that they’ve had three or four system changes in as many seasons? I’m not sure that’s normal for a successful hockey program.

I agree, which leads me to ask why BB was still here when the season started.

two periods was more than enough.

and to be honest, he hasn’t really played since Oct. 22 (when he blocked a shot with his jaw and…..sprained his ankle? WTF indeed!). He played part of one game on Nov. 11, a full game with limited minutes on Jan. 3, and then was injured on Jan. 7.

. I don’t know if whether it’s lack of communication, awareness, hockey sense or what but damn is it frustrating to watch because it’s pretty fundamental if a team is going to commit to battling along the boards aggressively for puck possession.

This is what leaves me wondering. Most of the games the Capitals have lost over the past few months have been marked with a lack of presence in the interior of the offensive zone. I wonder if/when/how the coaches will address this issue.

He was fine last season, when you take into account that it was his rookie season and he was primarily 3C. The issue this season is that he’s shown no progress, and even seems to have regressed some.

He’s been far worse over the last month to 2 months than he’s been since early last season. There were plenty of games slightly past the midpoint last year when 90 was the best Cap on the ice, although it wasn’t saying much then.

We are no better under Hunter than BB. Ovechkin and Semin are trending down. Beyond Backstrom, who else is a superstar caliber player? Face it – this is just not a very good club. The free agents we brought in this year are dismal: Ward and Hamrlik – Please, they are awful.

Yeah, you could get away with"probably" but not with “clearly not the coaching staf”f.

In my opinion, it’s about a lack of secondary scoring. This is something the Caps have really lacked all along. Even during their peak offensive years, the secondary scoring dried up in the playoffs. I think what the Caps need to do is model their team after teams like Boston, and Philly. These teams are getting significant secondary scoring from players on RFA contracts, which allows them the cap room to add even more offense. The Caps really aren’t getting any consistent production from anyone on a cheap contract. The young guns are all making big bucks right now, and there’s no one behind them to step up.

Going into armchair GM mode

What I’d do is trade Vokoun and Wideman to Chicago for Jeremy Morin and a 1st, and tank for the rest of the year. Ideally, we’d be able to draft Alex Galchenyuk with our pick, one of the myriad promising defensemen in the 7-12 range with the Avs pick, maybe Griffin Reinhart, and nab Martin Frk with the Hawks pick. When you add these guys to Johansson and Orlov, and with Kuznetsov coming over next year, you’ve got some great, affordable depth down the line. Of course, we’d also need to get rid of some bad contracts down teh road like Ward, Hamrlik, and Schultz, but I don’t think it’d be too difficult. Sort of the basic framework here a couple years down the road:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Morin
Semin-Johansson-Kuznetsov
Brouwer-Laich-Frk
insert whatever 4th liners here

Green-Reinhart
Carlson-Alzner
Orlov-insert veteran depth here

Neuvirth-Holtby

…speculating about the future like this is the only way I can stay sane while the Caps are playing this poorly.

When we talk about Ovechkin seasons as seasons when his above-all-others playing ability gives us an edge over every other team in the NHL to win the Cup… do we really include this one?

they didn’t mind wasting ovechkin’s seasons when he was a dominant player so why would they now?

Hard not find some fault with everyone associated with this team at this point.

BB or Hunter – Hunter or BB.
It’s the roster and the players — it isn’t the coaching staff.

Is Laich really a top 6 forward at this point? He has the exact same goals and assists as Shawn Horcoff, which is a disturbing fact I noticed earlier today.

I will happily join that club.

where one Backstrom is playing

Yeah…I read…more just a plea.

A hotel bar in snowy Minneapolis with a large tumbler of Grey Goose about to be replaced by a second one.

Unfortunately, if you told me that we’d be playing in MSG where 2 points gets us in the playoffs, I’d take it. Yes, I’m risk averse, but it would be great to know we’d have a chance in game 82.

I think I might prefer that as to winning, getting in, and then being completely dominated by those same rangers or bruins.

35 is probably a good number, but I’m holding out hope that he can hit 40 again with some regularity, or more. The guy has talent that somone needs to unlock. The guy isn’t that old.

I knew someone would say that. My point kind of is that this bunch has driven me to that.
The franchise has devastated me repeatedly for my 32 years as a fan, and THIS team is the one that is hurting me the most.