Broadcast Info: NBCSW; WJFK, Capitals Radio 24/7
A thrilling Saturday night battle against the visiting Cats awaits… but be honest, based on this, just where do your rooting interests lie tonight?
Capitals vs. Panthers Game Thread
Broadcast Info: NBCSW; WJFK, Capitals Radio 24/7
A thrilling Saturday night battle against the visiting Cats awaits… but be honest, based on this, just where do your rooting interests lie tonight?
capital is a very good team. I watching every game that team.
Oshie is done for the season, per Silber.
Snively is up with the team. Book him for a goal tonight.
Per everyone (team).
Was hoping to see Oshie on Thursday, but without question, why push to play a meaningless game.
But of course.
Ovi, TVR, and Mantha all still out. Now we have another injured guy — Nic Dowd. Our 3rd night in a row of just 17 skaters. And different guys missing each game. Every day, another guy out.
What an uplifting loss. I was really getting worried that we wouldn’t let Vancouver get ahead of us but man if we didn’t pull it off in the McNugget minute!
For the minute, in it to win it.
https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/mock_draft
So on the plus side… I’m sort of feeling like maybe Strome/Wilson can be two-thirds of a solid top line in a post-Ovechkin era. Both those guys have been bright spots in an otherwise dull season.
Someone needs to find them a “third”. But how good will they be when Ovi hangs it up as his contract expires in three years.
Focusing just on Wilson, for a moment. He is 29 right now with another season remaining on his current contract after this one. So, in 2023-24, as a 30 year old, physical forward, what’s the real expectation for Wilson? Is it moving cautiously forward with a series of short contracts to see how his skills age, or is it committing to one final, longer term one that takes him through till what would probably be retirement? Is it expecting 78-80 game, 50+ point seasons patrolling the top line, or something more like hoping for 70 game, 35+ points as he eventually slides into the middle six? There’s lots of historical examples of how physical forwards age, even in today’s modern NHL with a lesser degree of brutality than in the past, aggressive forwards tend to age out faster because their bodies can break down more than finesse player’s bodies might. And, while we’ve seen Wilson actively reduce his role as an enforcer, and taking fewer penalties overall, he’s still a big, physical presence who uses his body as a big part of how he plays the game and that’s something unlikely to change much with age. And, Wilson’s next contract will be one where he’s coming off a substantial injury that significantly shortened his season, while being on the other side of 30, with only a very short track record of high offensive output on a team that is supposedly supposed to be looking at trying to get younger among their forwards, particularly in their top-six.
Also, that’s not even getting into the reality that Ovechkin still has several seasons remaining on his current contract if Wilson were to re-sign instead of departing as a UFA after the 2023-24 season. Post-Ovechkin won’t happen, at the earliest, until 2026-27, or Wilson’s age 33 season. That’s looking pretty far out in the crystal ball, especially for a player who might not age all that well after three season of taking a beating.
Strome will be 30 in that first post-Ovechkin season. It seems unlikely that the Caps would want to have to rely on a top line of 30-somethings unless they had no other choice. While a lot can happen between now and then, it seems less likely that both will mature together into becoming the equal of Bergeron-Marchand in Boston and more likely that the Caps will be looking at a vastly different options to build a top line out of that they shouldn’t have to rely on it including Wilson, or Strome, just because they seem like the only guys who might still be signed among the forwards come 2026-27.
The thing is, the Caps have cleaned house this season with the deadline departures of older bottom six players such as Eller, Johansson and Hathaway, and the likelihood that Sheary, Haglin, Brown and Smith wouldn’t be re-signed either, along with whatever other off-season moves might happen among the remaining middle six players. Even if nothing else happens in this offseason to re-shape the forwards, 2023-24 is not only the final year for Wilson, it’s also Mantha, NAK, Protas, McMichael, as well as down below Malenstyn, Snively and Frank. And the next year, 2024-25, it’s Backy, Kuzy, Oshie, Dowd, as well as Lapierre, Suzdalev, Perrson, and a few others who should have had a crack at the NHL by that point if they’re worth anything.
What I’m getting at is, just as this year there were a lot of expiring contract free agents on the team forcing a reshaping on the defense and bottom six forwards, going into Ovechkin’s projected retirement, assuming that’s at the end of his current contract, there’s a lot of potential turn over as well in which to reshape the team. It looks very much by-design and it’s coming, either in the way of a complete expiring contracts house cleaning including the AHL cupboard, or a series of moves to parlay those projected expiring contracts into the next iteration of the core. So, if everything were to go well, one should be hoping that the new core would not need Strome-Wilson and a third to anchor the top line because there would be some mid-to-late 20-something point producers up front instead to take us into the post-Ovi era.
I dont think I’ll be too mad about losing any of those names. Maybe McM & Protas, I probably need to see them one more year, but neither has impressed me that much so far.
Mantha and NAK I’m ok with allowing their contracts to lapse if they are still with the team at the end of next season. Maybe there’s a re-evaluation of NAK and another short term, low cap hit contract to supplement the bottom six as he seems like a nice complimentary player so far. Mantha will be pushing 30 at that point and because he’s not been a standout so far in several seasons with the team I’m not sure there’s much he can do to warrant re-signing here. If they move from one, or both, at the deadline to fill in other needs, I could be on board for that too, but even just expiring their contracts and picking back up the almost 7M$ would probably be good enough.
I don’t think I’ve seen enough of either McM or Protas yet. Both are only 22. Both are coming out of their ELC. Protas only has two partial seasons at 88 total games, while McM has barely three partial seasons at a total of 75 games. They’re still young as well. Buffalo, for example, the youngest team in the league with an average age of 25.5 on opening night features 8 players 22-and-under across varying skill and contribution levels and a full half the team under 25. Vancouver, Columbus, Arizona, Detroit and New Jersey were all pushing sub-26 year old averages to start the season (though with moves some have aged up) with a number of sub-22 year old players at varying skill levels. those teams are on a player development track as part of their rebuild which is why they skew so young, and why, other that New Jersey who’s probably over performed most expectations, none of them are playoff contenders. Inversely, Boston only has a single player 22-or under, and only 7 under 25, of which only one, Frederic, has played more than a half a season’s worth of games on their historic run while heavily depending on veterans with an above-average average team age, while Carolina, is carrying three 22-or under, and 7 under 25, the Leafs are carrying only one 22-or under, and 6 under 25, the Rangers have four 22-or under, and 8 under 25, and so on. Fewer players at those extreme young ages because to be that competitive you need experience. What’s true of many of those teams too is that they’ve developed their mid-20’s aged players which means not having given up on them at 22, 23, 24 years old even when those players weren’t superstars. There’s still a LOT of career runway remaining for McM or Protas and I think I’d like to see them graduate to more of a full -time, full -responsibility role with the Caps before writing them off as failed prospects.
I guess needless to say that this year’s first round draft pick will be an additional asset into the mix. All in all, I think the near-end Ovi era and post Ovi era will be pretty exciting with lots of new players. I have a faith in BMac that the build will be entertaining and at very ,east somewhat competitive.
Reading down the thread, the two no-goals were hysterical. Like the gods were doing all they could to help the Caps win.
Full stop at this point.
The Panthers fan sitting behind me thought the “no goal” calls were terrible. Note: today I saw more Panthers fans in Capital One than I have ever seen in my entire life.
I don’t know how to describe last night. Caps were winning, Caps were losing, Caps were tied, surely there would be OT, right?
Yeah, I know I should root for draft position at this point, but when you’re at the game, you just can’t.
At least this hurt the Penguins. I have been anti rooting against the caps for draft position, but can get on board for that.
Welcome friend
I am not rooting for them to lose. I still think they should try to win, I just hope the Penguins miss the playoffs. The condescending ‘welcome friend’ can go.
I wasn’t being condescending, but now that you mention it you fan like a 5 year old completely incapable of seeing the bigger picture
But do you, boo. ????
(See now this is being condescending)
Do the Caps get to have another emergency recall for Monday and Tuesday’s games? Since they’re even more short of personnel than before.
The season in a nutshell.
Had all the elements.
1) Shorthanded due to injured personnel, today, both literally and figuratively.
2) Played hard
3) Lost at the very end of regulation. (Just like the Pens game.) In past years, this is the type of game that would have gone to Overtime.
Well, Charlie. You’re going to be on Steve’s Dang-its for one of his “If you’re a goaltender, tend the goal!” rants.
He gets a bonus for that.
Holy crap, yes.
Why can’t goalies just stay in the cage? (Rhetorical, yes, but that was a bad idea.)
CL has the tank going. Look great & then…opps. Great job!
I have to admit that the Panthers have some great movement and rotation on their Powerplay.
Losing in OT would be … tolerable tonight.
We need a regulation loss, WE GOT IT!
That’ll be called back sadly
So, I never thought I’d say this but, make it close Caps but, lose this one.
https://twitter.com/sammisilber/status/1644831665758273542?s=20
Capitals lines vs. Panthers:
Sheary-Strome-Wilson
Milano-Backstrom-Smith
Milano-Kuznetsov-Protas
Malenstyn-Dowd-NAK
Fehervary-Carlson
Sandin-Jensen
Irwin-Alexeyev
Lindgren
I really hate to say this, but I hope the Caps lose. I don’t want the Pens in the playoffs.
No Ovi tonight helps that.
I wonder if the Pens push to sneak into the playoffs has anything to do with his scratch. I bet it has
I think, personally, it’s because of his childish slashes he did last game that got him the misconduct. Punishment from the lame duck coach.
Except Lavi did state that he was not scratching healthy players. If he’s telling the truth, Mantha and Ovi are NOT healthy. Unless Lavi is lying.
Ovi’s hasn’t looked 100% for the last few months. How much of that is an impact of the family stuff going on and how much of that is just the normal wear and tear of the season catching up like it has the prior few seasons or so, it’s difficult to say. Probably not being close enough to reach 50 or challenge for the rocket this year, but also having cleared 40 and set enough records this season already, it isn’t worth risking further his physical, or mental wellbeing, on what amount to play-out games with no real meaning having already missed the playoffs. Hopefully, the extra time off both provides a good physical and emotional respite for Ovi and some additional chances for other players to maybe step up and try their hand at being the team’s firepower. Yeah, I’m well aware the latter is unlikely with what’s remaining of the roster, but I think that’s probably what a lot of fans are still desperately hoping for.
As for Mantha, I could believe he is nursing some injury as well, and no, I don’t just mean his wounded pride having been benched so much. To my eyes, he’s played with a lot of trepidation lately, and it hasn’t just seemed like it’s a lack of mental focus in his game either. I’m not sure I can fully verbalize it, but the lack of success hasn’t really looked like a lack of effort the way it’s looked when he’s been accused of being lackadaisical. He’s had a bunch of upper body injuries this season, so maybe he’s aggravated something, he’s not old, but he’s got enough wear and tear that it’s possible, particularly given the team’s overall experience with injuries thus far this season. Though, i could also buy he needs a mental health day too, especially if it’s related to whatever physical stuff he might still be fighting through.
Ha, just posted this same thing, lol
In the House tonight. Also Thursday. Panthers will be desperate. We will get their best effort.
Hope you have fun. Need to get to Nashville or Raleigh next year to catch a game
I think I’d want to do the Southern California trip. Never been to either of those arenas. (Maybe we can beat the Ducks next year. The Kings… well that’s another story.)