How about a little Conference Final action, southern style? Here’s how the East and West shake out:
Eastern Conference Final
- Thu., May 18: Panthers at Hurricanes, 8 p.m. (TNT)
- Sat., May 20: Panthers at Hurricanes, 8 p.m. (TNT)
- Mon., May 22: Hurricanes at Panthers, 8 p.m. (TNT)
- Wed., May 24: Hurricanes at Panthers, 8 p.m. (TNT)
- *Fri., May 26: Panthers at Hurricanes, 8 p.m. (TNT)
- *Sun., May 28: Hurricanes at Panthers, 8 p.m. (TNT)
- *Tue., May 30: Panthers at Hurricanes, 8 p.m. (TNT)
Western Conference Final
- Fri., May 19: Stars at Golden Knights, 8:30 p.m. (ESPN)
- Sun., May 21: Stars at Golden Knights, 3 p.m. (ABC)
- Tue., May 23: Golden Knights at Stars, 8 p.m. (ESPN)
- Thu., May 25: Golden Knights at Stars, 8 p.m. (ESPN)
- *Sat., May 27: Stars at Golden Knights, 8 p.m. (ABC)
- *Mon., May 29: Golden Knights at Stars, 8 p.m. (ESPN)
- *Wed., May 31: Stars at Golden Knights, 9 p.m. (ESPN)
*If necessary
Woohoo Hershey!!!!
Cool!
From Tarik’s just-posted “off-season plans for the Capitals” article:
He also notes that “Player-for-player swaps are easy to talk about but difficult to execute in a salary-cap world.”
To me, it sounds like he’s taking a similar approach with Kuzy and Mantha that he did with the UFAs at the trade deadline–when they couldn’t re-sign Orlov, they moved him and Hathaway for a package of picks.
If the Capitals do want to make changes to the roster–which BMac certainly seemed like he was at breakdown day–those are the two players who will have to move, probably for draft capital and cap space to acquire the new veterans he wants. I can’t see much of a return for Mantha, unless the Capitals decide to use him in a picks package from later drafts to move up into the third round this year. Kuzy would have to bring back at least 1 first rounder (hey, Blues) or a player (hey, Avalanche defensemen), which would allow them to make a major move for a top 6 player (hey, Canucks and Coyotes).
Our GM often surprises the fan base in a good way.
It would be great to have the Blues’ 10th for Kuzy.
For Avs D we’re you thinking Devon Toews?
The Blues aren’t shopping the 10th. But they have two other first round picks–25th and 29th. And Doug Armstrong has a history of packaging 1st round picks to get players he wants (O’Reilly and Schenn, not to mention some others).
The Avs don’t have many trade assets, but they desperately need a top 6 center, especially with fill-in J.T. Compher testing free agency. Toews and Sam Girard are both being shopped, apparently.
Sammi Silber posted an interview with Backstrom yesterday about his migraines. We hadn’t really heard about them for a long time, and I’m sure we had no idea he played Game 5 vs Vegas with one. Wow.
That’s very difficult to deal with. I know from personal experience.
And I thought he missed the open net due to his hand injury. Can’t imagine what he was going through.
Yeah, that was my thought, too.
Just a head’s up…the Capitals have until 5 p.m. today to sign draftees Martin Hugo Has (who played for the Stingrays this past season) and Dru Krebs (who played in the WHL as an overager this season).
Back in April, the Bears signed Krebs and Mitchell Gibson to tryout contracts.
And as per Tarik, the Caps aren’t signing them.
Hip resurfacing – everyone’s doing it. Friedman says Patrick Kane just had it done.
So we just hired an exciting young coach and crickets about that but a long discussion of the Pens hiring Dubas. I love this site (or rather what it used to be) but, c’mon, not even an open thread about the new coach?
It’s a bad time to be an incomplete website. Don’t take it out on admin, they need to get things up and running. The fact that they got us something to post on as quickly as they did should be lauded, not bitched about.
Seriously, though, why did every other team (it seems) decide that TODAY was a good day to do their introductions? Didn’t we announce it first?
As Larry said:
There’s a Carbery discussion down thread.
https://twitter.com/Capitals/status/1664270927973187588
Um…who gets to tell Ian and Peter?
https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/washington-capitals/news/washington-capitals-alex-ovechkin-report-patent-russian-machine-never-breaks
Well, Ovi knows the site exists. Maybe they will just market as RMNB
LOL’d at Ian’s response:
https://twitter.com/rmnb/status/1664321607576305688?s=20
Seriously, I have no idea how copyright laws work, but considering they’ve been running the site for over ten years I could see at least a tidy $$ offer is in the future for Peter and Ian.
I worked for an independent luggage store decades (eep) ago called Bag and Baggage. There was a chain with the same name, but the owner of my store was able to keep its name, I think because he was able to prove he established his store before they did and they weren’t in the same region.
Not sure how that would work for RMNB
Dubas is officially hired
Technically he did say he would not been seen popping up somewhere else next week. Of course, next week was last week. So integrity-wise, in 2023, he’s good.
Hopefully media grills him on that. Going to Pens who are in decline seems like a bad move on Dubas’s part.
Chris Johnston did point out a week ago that it was the Maple Leafs who walked away from him, not the other way around. We can debate how much of that press conference was posturing that backfired on Dubas and how much was just honesty about his family situation, but Dubas’ situation did greatly change since he made that statement.He started pursuing other jobs after the Maple Leafs weren’t going to bring him back.
It’ll be good for him to be able to leave the pressure-cooker that is the Toronto Maple Leafs…and go to where ownership, Mario Lemieux, and of course Sidney Crosby are going to on his case all day every day. He’s going to have to move that franchise forward with Crosby, Malkin, and Letang being untouchable and eating up cap space…
Not that we have a totally different situation here…
Yes. Ex Whaler – what was the title of the article you referenced last week about the PENS and how they treat their players? Maybe it’s somewhere in this gigantic thread.
Found it.
“For the schadenfreude, The Athletic gives you “Chaos, Loathing, and The Big Three”…aka, the dung show that the Pens have become.”
https://theathletic.com/4542179/2023/05/24/pittsburgh-penguins-franchise-nhl-playoff-streak/
It’s down there somewhere…it’s at The Athletic. But my impression from that piece is that Ron Hextall was brought in by the old ownership to clean house with the core, but then the new owners reversed course wanting to keep Malkin and Letang. Hextall completely mishandled things, and was simply a terrible GM on top of it.
And he’s gone now.
Now, the new ownership group hired Dubas. And Dubas has been given the job that Brendan Shanahan does for the Leafs.
Dubas wasn’t the boss in Toronto. He is in Pittsburgh, working for owners who wanted him.
Got it. It will be his time to shine.
Although it seems that Dubas is a good GM. It seems he’s going from the unluckiest franchise in the universe (Toronto) to the luckiest (Pitt). That being said, it will be interesting to see how long before the rebuild has to happen in Pitt.
A couple of days ago at The Athletic, Corey Pronman posted his rankings of 142 draft prospects. This wasn’t a mock draft; it’s a ranking based on pure talent and ceiling, broken down by tiers. It’s those tiers I found interesting.
Connor Bedard is obviously first, the only one in Tier 1–Bubble generational player.
But Tier 2, which is Adam Fantilli and Matvei Michkov, is called “Elite NHL Player”
Tier 3–“NHL All-Star”, with 2 players: Leo Carlsson and William Smith
Tier 4, with players ranked 6 to 10, is “Top of the Lineup Player”
Tier 5, with players ranked 11 to 20, is “Bubble Top and Middle of the Lineup Player”
That’s how freakin’ deep this first round is. There’s about twice as much talent available than normal, so any team picking in the top 20 has the potential of a top prospect.
For the Caps…that means if Michkov drops to them, they’ll be getting the equivalent of a first over pick. If Michkov doesn’t, they’ll still get somebody like a Backstrom or Alzner. (Pronman thinks that the Caps might draft Dalibar Dvorsky (Tier 4) if Michkov is gone by then)
They’re going to get somebody really good, no matter what happens.
It’s going to be a very interesting draft year.
One or two of the projected top ten or so will be a bust. In light of all the talent out there, you’d hate to pick one of the non starters. No pressure. It’s probably not how GM’s think, but the guy who picks Michkov, or one of the college-committed players, kind of buys time on the instant gratification syndrome.
He updated his rankings this morning.
Normally, yeah. But I don;t think I’ve seen a first round talent pool this deep before in the cap era. It’ll have to be a Pokulok-like brain fart to get a bust.
In most deep drafts (like 2006), even the top 10 “busts” turn out to have an NHL career. But I’m getting the sense even the eventual disappointments in this draft will at least be a strong support player.
EDIT: Also, he posted an updated Mock Draft this morning. His talent rankings that I’m referring to he posted on Tuesday.
I’ll always remember the issue cover headline for The Hockey News. “You’ve Got Nail.”
That was such a weird draft. (It also was seen as a pretty weak and shallow draft at the time and since). After Yakupov, teams took defensemen in 8 of the next 9 picks. That’s how Forsberg–projected to go 3rd overall by TSN–dropped all the way to the Capitals at 11th.
I recall that draft happened on the same day as the DeRecho weather phenomenon. Almost like DeRecho must have affected the brains of the GM’s either when drafting or how they handled the player. Caps drafted relatively well. What they did with the players afterwards was a different story.
Looked back at that year. Mathieu Perreault – 6th round – 177th pick. Over his career he wound up better than numerous 1st round picks. Boston got Kessel, Marchand, and Lucic that year. Wow.
TBL got a whopping 7 games aggregate total from their 2006 picks.
Arguable perhaps but Caps did about second best for outcomes for 2006.
It was a deep draft, but looking team by team, numerous organizations got practically nothing at the NHL level for their troubles.
In 2006, picks 2-6 went on to play 1,000 NHL games. Two other players in the first round also played more than 1,000 games.
That’s a deep high talent pool. But this year is deeper. The top 20 is the level of 2006’s top 10, with 3 players who could normally top most drafts and two others who would top a draft like 2011, which may have been short on elite talent but definitely had quantity of quality–the top 10 picks all played more than 700 games in the NHL.
2023 has a deep high talent pool along with a quantity of quality. That’s what we’re looking at. It’s not a normal year.
A really good prospect like a Brayden Yager could drop all the way to the back third of the first round.
A great year to have more than one 1st round pick and terrible for teams like Boston, Ottawa, and Tampa Bay sitting on the sidelines while 64 players go off the board. Toronto at least has a bit of solace with a 28th.
Looking and adhering strictly to the tiers listed in the article, Caps second pick (40th overall) is two picks into tier 7 (players projected to play in the NHL) – maybe a tier 6 player (middle of the lineup player) will fall to them.
Dammit Bears, you had one job.
They can win in Rochester fine.
No on talking about the Caps hiring a new coach?
Everyone is moderately in favor.
I saw one negative comment on Facebook but I assume once he starts coaching and doesn’t deliver a SC, people will say Caps need an old school experienced coach. I give David Rose one month until he doesn’t like Carberry. No one here seems to be talking about it at all on these threads/ I realize Japers is still not 100% up and running yet.
Facebook is filled with people that think cops shooting people in the back is ok, vaccines are dangerous, Trump won, and the Earth is flat.
Its not exactly a source of good information.
As bad as twitter is, the sports commentary from fans is still much more intelligent than Facebook. Many Caps fans on Facebook are still talking about Barry Trotz leaving and think losing Jay Beagle and Braden Holtby was the demise of this team.
I don’t do facegram or instabook – instead, kind of inspired by ex-whaler, I sprung for a $2 per month subscription for The Athletic and called it a day.
It’s fucking great btw.
I like the Athletic but even they have some inane commenters. Joel R being one.
I follow the whalers’ lead on that count. When I think for myself my head hurts.
Sean M is quite clever. And I’m a Gordle junkie.
David’s point of argument always has been playing the prospects and young players; if Carbery does that, he’ll be mostly happy.
There’s some discussion further down. Carbery was one of the possible coaching candidates that I think most of the Rink were good with.
So do people want young players playing or do they want the team to win? Sometimes playing young players mean growing pains and short term gain. I thought Caps are trying to maximize their Ovi window or do they just care about his goal record which Ken Campbell has been harping on for years and many Caps fans now believe. Are there coaches for win now teams that play young players?
People like Campbell are fixated on clicks not on reality. The goal record is NOT mutually exclusive from deep playoff runs. Arguably, the goal record is more attainable if the team IS making deep playoff runs and I’ve written extensively about that in past comments.
The best teams in the post-lockout modern era of hockey possess a balance of ages across all the different talent/skill levels and positions. Simply being young is not a guarentee for success, as the ten youngest teams in any given year are less likely to make the playoffs than the three oldest, the ten oldest teams are more likely to make the finals than the 15 youngest, that’s because the average age of playoff teams is older than the league average, and that’s likely due to experience being an important element to success. Young teams often do struggle, but simply having a young team now doesn’t guarantee anything in the future, and there are plenty of examples in the modern era where franchises couldn’t keep their young cores together, couldn’t coax a championship out of their young core, etc. It took the caps a decade of the rock the red era to find the right mix of players in order to win a championship, and they were fortunate to have. It wasn’t until Tampa actually became a team of older statesmen that they finally broke through too, they were among the five oldest teams when they won, having the experience of all those years of going deep and losing to draw from. Maybe Toronto will get there too, or the Oilers, but maybe also they won’t. The Sharks had plenty of chances with their younger selves a few years back and never did.
For the Caps to win, now, and continue to be a sustainable franchise in the future, they do need to continue finding youth and blending them in. If they blow it up it’s going to have far reaching repercussions. All the work on building a fan base the last 18 years will be set back if the team suddenly becomes a bottom dweller, since the average fan’s attention span diminishes greatly for losers. It might make it more difficult to attract quality free agent talent, since those players will want to compete for a cup with a franchise that believes in winning. If they cannot trust the Caps because the Caps couldn’t funfil their promise to Ovi to stay competative what’s going to make anyone else think that the franchise will be trustworthy with their careers.
Finally, if Ovi reaches the goal record it will have a huge reverberation effect for years to come over the franchise in ways that pretty much no stanley cup will ever. The cups is awarded every year, and the winner routinely changes meaning they have a very distinct shelf life, while records like the goal scoring record transcend sports and having Ovi possess it as a lifetime Cap will bring all kinds of attention to the franchise, for the run up, for the celebration, for his retirement with the new “unbreakable” record, and for all the years to come. It’ll be the stuff of legends for him, for the franchise, for DC sports, for hockey, so much moreso than the Cup could be, short of the Caps going on a dynasty kind of run which seems highly unlikely anytime soon even with a miraculous rebuild, the record IS what should drive the team and achieving the record is most efficiently done with a competitive team, not a bunch of kids struggling for a few seasons to even make the playoffs.
All good points. And no one can criticize the Caps for not tanking while letting teams like the Flyers and CBJ off the hook for not rebuilding as those teams really need to but won’t. Instead hockey media goes on about how Torts is so perfect for Philly.
To put it simply….there are several who feel for the team to win, they need young players playing, especially with an older core.
2018 would be evidence–the Capitals got over the hump because they dipped into their pipeline for reinforcements due to cap restraints. Vrana, Djoos, Stephenson, and Bowey all had their rookie seasons, while Tom Wilson was promoted into regular top 6 minutes.
Wilson was essentially a vet by then, with over 300 NHL games played prior to the start of 2017-18. They also relied a lot on veterans especially on the back end with Niskanen, Orpik, Carlson, Orlov, and eventually trading for Kempny/Jerabek in addition to giving Djoos minutes.
While some of the young forwards started to get more minutes, they were paired with in the prime vets for the most part. Ovi, Nicky, Kuzy, Oshie, Wilson (already 5 full seasons by the time playoffs rolled around), Eller, Connolly, Beagle, DSP Also got contributions from guys like Taylor Chorney and Chiasson.
The biggest difference is the core wasn’t “old” they were basically in the later prime years, a mostly veteran group on D, with just the right amount of youth sprinkled in, usually 1 guy per forward line (Stephenson on 4th, Bura on 3rd, Vrana on 2nd or in place of Bura at times).
The biggest reason they got over the hump that playoff year is they got the 2ndary scoring performance to go along with Ovi leading the way as usual (Kuzy basically being 1B to Ovi’s 1A)…guys like Oshie, Backstrom, Eller, Wilson, Carlson all put up very good point production. They also got the clutch tertiary scoring when needed (Conno with 6 goals, DSP with 7). Also frankly Holtby actually came up big in some key games versus the Pens and especially Games 6 and 7 against Tampa. One or multiple of these were just missing from the mix in the other years when we were a serious contender and not running into Halak (the back to back President Trophy years, especially).
That’s why I said “promoted to top 6 minutes”. His average ice time for his first four seasons was 7:56, 10:56, 12:55, and 12:56. It jumped to 15:59 in 2017-18.
Also…I wasn’t arguing the point. I was only describing the point-of-view who feel that the Capitals should emphasize playing the younger guys. I agree with yout…it was a mix of several factors and approaches. I’ve always argued that Kempny’s addition to the blueline was a critical factor to the Capitals’ success and Cup run.
(Forgot to mention…he was also age 23 that season, too. That’s why he counts toward the “youth movement” of the 2017-18 season.)
Just don’t think a guy who had 5 full seasons in the NHL (and close to 400 GP by the time the ’18 playoffs started) totally fits the idea of “play young players”.
Mainly from the idea of comparing it to how they want current “young players” to be played, nobody of the current young group (not even Fehervary) would fit the same level of experience in the NHL that Wilson had when given a bigger role for that season.
Just was pushing back a little on the idea that 2017-18 was because they went on a “youth movement” from the salary cap casualties from the previous President Trophy seasons. Heck people had as much if not more problems with Trotz not playing young guys as they have Lavs.
The whole “goal record” v. “trying to be competitive” has been taken so out of context at this point, it’s almost not worth discussing. People act like it’s an either/or scenario, when it was specifically phrased simply as Ovi didn’t want the team essentially tanking while he was still here chasing the goal record…nor did he only want to be some 3rd line PP specialist being trotted out to his Office to try and break the record that way.
He simply wanted to go for it as long as he was still a useful/good player on a competitive team. Specifically NOT just a sideshow going for the record.
This, “Specifically NOT just a sideshow going for the record.”
100x over this.
Not just because I’ve been harping on it as one of the keepers of all of Ovi’s chases over the years, but because Ovi has said this himself, over, and over, and over again. Because management has said it too. Because Gretzky has talked about it too. Because Howe’s family has talked about it too. Because the only people that, at this point, are making it a franchise choice of one over the other are those that need to make a living on artificial controversy and it’s completely exhausting to keep pointing that out.
There isn’t a whole lot to say yet. He’s a semi known commodity having been coach of the Bears, but it’s not like we have NHL history to go off of and discuss.
Leafs news…
https://twitter.com/DownGoesBrown/status/1663933412476854275
And Dubos to Pens, right?
Not as yet.
Now it has happened. Bad move on Dubas’s part.
So now we have the Florida Panthers in the Cup Final and the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. It’s the first time the same city has had both finalists in the same year for both the NHL and NBA.
Both were also 8 seeds who won a G7 on the road vs Boston Teams.
I read that Boston’s Celtics and Bruins (1957, 1958, 1974), New York’s Knicks and Rangers (1972, 1994), Philadelphia’s 76ers and Flyers (1980), Chicago’s Bulls and Blackhawks (1992), New Jersey’s Nets and Devils (2003) but none of the teams didn’t complete the city sweep for the two leagues.
However producing winners cross leagues is actually not that uncommon when taken across more than just the NBA-NHL. The most recent was Tampa Bay for the 2020 season with the Bucs and Lightening for an NHL team involved, while that same season was LA with the Dodgers and Lakers with an NBA team involved. The most common in-season pairing though is NFL-MLB, which looks like it 9 times of the 18 NHL-MLB managed 3 as did NBA-MLB which seem like the next likely combination I could find, and NYC leads with 5 pairings (6 if you include the Devils in there), next best is 3 for LA-area. No city, however, has won three of the big four in a given season, however, some cities managed three when including some non-big four leagues.
It’s days like today I wish I had the old Japers
Also this move seems to be universally loved by a lot of people that would normally annoy me. So now the contrarian in me wants to hate it. Says lot more about me than anything else. I hope this guys is good.
Don’t! Tarik was talking up Carbery’s reputation around the league back when he was still the Bears’ head coach.
Given what BMac was looking for in a head coach, he may be the perfect fit. Doesn’t happen often.
If only he didn’t look so much like Hockey Nosferatu.
I’m not going to date him…..
I kept thinking that if it wasn’t for his hairline, he’d look straight out of college.
I’m old, old, old….
I like it. Much as Halpern would have been a good story, he doesn’t necessarily have HC experience and (way more importantly) this way I don’t have to get sad if he had failed, because that would have super bummed me out. HCSC just seems like a good fit all around.
That’s the thing with Halpern – we’ve been down that road with returning players not working out as the coach. Why tarnish a reputation? (Halpern was never what you’d call a star, but as a hometown guy has a place in everyone’s heart.)
To me, the former players who became coaches for the Caps the former player status wasn’t the issue necessarily, it was more the how and why of their being hired and maybe the recency bias of why it’s been bad for the Caps:
Oates — Always felt like a calculated risk. He came with some of the same strengths that Hunter left with in terms of having some kind of coaching experience, recognizable name with franchise nostalgia, etc but that the lack of head coaching experience at any level was also potentially problematic despite having been in the NHL as a coach already. And, that’s about how it played out, those idiosyncrasies that make specialist coaches good sometimes makes it difficult to also see the bigger picture as a head coach and Oates was unable to make that transition and sustain his position. It feel apart as ungracefully as it seemed to start.
Hunter — Always felt like it was an interim assignment, not a long term solution. It didn’t end poorly. It didn’t end well. It just ended. To this day, it felt very matter of fact, almost clinical. Hunter checked off a bunch of boxes: head coaching experience, recognizable name with franchise nostalgia, etc but it always felt like Hunter was doing a favor to his former franchise, and it was as much about the front office saving face and the perception of putting the team in a new direction as it was about the on ice success. End result was another premature exit, but also not a lot of book on Hunter as a coach because it was, seemingly by design, short lived.
Murray – Probably the most successful example, but goes back quite a few years. He had a short Caps career and then a run of four years as head coach with good enough regular seasons in a competitive Patrick Divisions to have four straight post season appearances. Not getting over the hump along with complications during his final partial season he was replaced, but generally looking back felt pretty successful. He would then go onto Philly, another team that he’d also skated for as a player.
Speaking of, here’s some other former players who became coaches for a team they’d played prior for — Randy Carlye played for and then coached the Toronto Maple Leafs as did Ron Wilson, Lindy Ruff did the same for the Sabers, there might be others too.
The difference between say Halpern as a consideration candidate and going with someone like Carbery might be more in their prior experience than anything else. If Halpern had the depth of experience that Carbery comes in with he’d not just feel like a nostalgia candidate. While both have been NHL assistant coaches (Halp since 2018 with a couple of cups and Carbery since 2021), Carbery also was ECHL, OHL and AHL head coach to draw from as well as being an ECHL director of hockey ops.
Lol it’s ok if we agree from time to time. It certainly won’t be the first time.
Yeah, I would have loved to read an old fashioned Japers’ Rink roundtable with everyone chiming in with their opinions, so I know how to feel.
It’s official
Looks like Carberry is it, per just about everyone.
I’m pretty OK with this.
I’m good with it, good hire
I guess well see. I like the hire, but I also liked most of the decisions before anything else happens.
The one the Capitals let get away has come back.
Now hopefully, they don’t let another one get away and promote Todd Nelson as an assistant.
I am good with this move.
There’s always going to be massive limitations in being able to accurately assess candidates from afar, so here’s some of what I was looking for as credentials
That’s the stuff that’s easy for an outsider to assess, as compared to if they are actually a good strategist, or communicator, or teacher, etc. that are more difficult to assess as a fan that isn’t in the interviews or cannot see the day-to-day with how these candidates work in the closed doors of the league. It’s probably hard to qualify the how of some of these, like how well they actually worked with a specific type of player, or how much they contributed to post-season success as a coach, since there’s a lot of variance in what’s available from candidate to candidate in terms of data, and a lot of subjectivity in how that data could be interpreted especially around things like reputation and transparency.
If figured if someone had most of these credentials, they might seem more ideal than someone who only had a few of those credentials, but it’s always going to be a substandard analysis because it’s literally a credentials checklist, devoid of the insights that a real GM would have into any given candidate.
For Carbery,
Looks like Carbery’s the guy.
So are the Bears being carried on NBCSW tonight or not? I can’t find a link anywhere (including on NBCSW site)
They were. Hope you didn’t miss the surprise ending. 😉
I couldn’t find it anywhere and gave up in frustration.
I nearly turned it off after the second period. I was rewarded for sticking with it, as were the Bears.
Got a question. It’s been almost two months since we bid goodbye to SB Nation. Is there any news when we’re going to get the real Rink back in full operation? I appreciate that we’ve at least got these open threads to talk, but it’s a pretty bare-boned operation. Are we looking at the draft? Free Agency? Any update would be appreciated.
I think they said around the draft. Don’t trust me though
Happy Memorial Day!
Damn!
https://twitter.com/JPFinlayNBCS/status/1657904643114934274
Not sure if this is the right spot buuut—just read that Laviolette is going to the Rangers. He’s not signed yet but seems to be the leading candidate.
Good for them (sarcasm) HAHAHAHA. I hope they suffer
Perhaps their Spencer Carbery talks didn’t pan out. I think Laviolette would be a good fit for NYR. He may wind up doing a full tour of the Metro. (NYI, CAR, PHI, and WAS so far).
Saturday night was a good hockey night. Go Bears!!!
And yay Stars, keep going.
I want that series to go to 7. Anything can happen in a 7 game series!
Interesting ???? From The Athletic on the Stars win:
“Pavelski’s goal was the 73rd of his career in the playoffs, breaking a tie with Alex Ovechkin for most postseason goals among active players. Ovechkin has 72, and Sidney Crosby is third with 71. Ovechkin and Crosby were No. 1 overall picks in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Pavelski was selected No. 205 overall in 2003.”
Did the article mention to say that Sid and Pavs scored those goals playing 33 more playoff games than Ovi (180 vs 147). No?
As glad as I am for Pavelski to keep playing (OGNWTC status), bummed that it means Benn won’t lose any money since both suspension games will be during the playoffs.
Of course not. Ovi remains the goat! But I do like to see old players represent!
What was it? 30 (?) well paid allegedly qualified NHL General Managers, hockey men apparently, each cut loose a player, who they each would qualify as “good luck with this guy,” and those cast-offs put on uniforms and now routinely show up in the Cup Finals.
At least when B Mac tried his hand at it he got the guy back in fairly short order.
There are only 6 original golden knights left, their core is basically the caps core at this point, except those 6 probably aren’t as central to their team as our core.
Oakie doakie.
They’ve enjoyed a good continuum from day one.
They have and I was pretty shocked to see they have had as much turnover as they did.
I know there is a lot more to this than my little assertion, such as wages and salary cap limitations that the two expansion teams don’t suffer from as much as the other 30 teams. They’re startups, with no baggage.
Yeah, idk how I feel about it. Is it just my past experiences that make me feel an expansion team should have to go through years of pain? I understand wanting them to be instantly competitive from the business side of course, but idk, it feels like teams should develop more organically.
TBL fans are probably ok with things, they had several bites. But some long suffering fans of some long suffering teams must look at the LVK as interlopers. I do.
Please take care of Dave, make sure he gets enough food and water.
I like how Jaime Benn passes off his attempt to decapitate Stone as an unfortunate event. He could have a career in politics with this response.
Between Benn’s ridiculous “landing point” statement and the NHL being awarded “Sports Breakthrough of the Year” for their Digitally Enhanced Dasherboards, yesterday wasn’t a good day for reality takes.
As with all NHL players, decent use of ‘obviously.’
Others might have facts to correct me, but the very first person for obviously was none other than NB19.
At least they were standing facing each other. There was an argument that his stick slid up but Backstrom wasn’t making that argument. (I believe I made a variation of this argument on the threads. I was heated about it. He got suspended a game).
Oh! I was just and only referring to use of the word ‘obviously’ during interviews.
Wow. Just wow.
We want Florida. What a funny line that turned out to be.
Bruins, Leaf’s, Canes. For sure wow. Like a wrecking crew.
They swept CAR with 10 goals, 4 of which they potted in game four.
I am so glad they made it into the playoffs this year.
Sublime stick work.
Always be careful what you wish for.
Indeed.
I’m not an Orioles fan, but I’ve grown to appreciate Baltimore sports fans. It was very nice to see the Orioles, going into to the 8th down 5-1, score 8 in the 8th to humiliate the Yankees.
Great night all around and great morning.
not the Ravens though. They are a special breed of Baltimore Fans.
I’ve been to a few games. They are great fans imo. Marylanders are cool afaic. Orioles fans also great. They handle Red Sox trolls at Camden really well.
Now why am I not surprised this is from a Yinzer?
Just a bunch of jerks. I’m in a big AFC North group chat and we have very little Ravens fans just because of our defensive they get and the attitude they have,
Goodbye Carolina.
Canes fans very unhappy. At least one fan reports they always had an irrational hatred of the Panthers that’s no longer irrational. That fan won’t root for the Panthers in the Cup Finals, despite Eric Staal and despite the fact that Paul Maurice used to coach for the Canes.
Don’t blame Canes fans for being unhappy. Seems like they’ve had bad luck with getting key players, like Svechnikov, injured just in time for the playoffs. This series was a sweep that felt like it could have gone the other way, with a few more breaks for the Canes. It was like the 2019 NLCS where all games were generally close and could have gone the other way.
Congratulations to the Panthers. I hope they can get the Cup since they’ve never won. And admit I was rooting for the Panthers for that reason. (I still dislike the politics and am boycotting that state for travel.)
yeah, injuries at bad times can really suck. As we know against those same Canes.
I’m delighted the Canes are knocked out. They were at the top of my list for hated teams, right behind the Pens, Rags, and Isles.
Yes!
Canes have lost 12 ECF games in a row I read? Pretty crazy.
Go Cats!
For the schadenfreude, The Athletic gives you “Chaos, Loathing, and The Big Three”…aka, the dung show that the Pens have become.
https://theathletic.com/4542179/2023/05/24/pittsburgh-penguins-franchise-nhl-playoff-streak/
I saw that. Didn’t treat so many of their guys right at all.
Here’s something cool. NBCSW is broadcasting Hershey Bears ???? playoff games beginning tomorrow, 5/25/23.
My source for this was the NHL app.
Did I read Bruce is on the short list of coaching options? I simultaneously love this move and think it might be so dumb all at the same time.
I would be shocked if he got an interview – or even a polite phone call. I think this is all BS spun by 2nd (or third) hand press as a way to generate clicks.
Bruce’s age notwithstanding, his ability to goose goals out of team in need of a temporary shake up is only matched by his tendency to crash and burn out that same team. He’s got a 2-3 season shelf life, at best.
The past is the past.
I can understand Tarik thinking it might work (he’s really the only one I think I’ve seen pushing the idea). He’s also said Bruce has not had an interview to his knowledge.
It’s probably best to leave the past in the past, and I love Bruce (as I think most of us do).
Yeah, Tarik likes the idea himself, but he honestly doesn’t know the full list of coaches the Capitals have interviewed. Carbery was in DC on Monday, apparently to interview, and the weird Brad Shaw news was broken by somebody else.
And I dunno if the Bears’ playoff run means that Nelson can’t formally interview for the job yet.
I think it could be oddly perfect. Bruce is great at connecting with players and developing them. So he would be great for the youth movement. He also had rapport with Ovi and a couple other vets, and doesn’t ever hold back telling someone they are fucking up.
He’d be perfect, aside from the fact that his style isn’t meant for the playoffs. But maybe he can evolve, or maybe we should worry about getting back to the playoffs and not how we would do once there. Ovi and the vets know they can’t run and gun and the playoffs, and I think Bruce has learned that too. Plus I don’t think this team is even capable of run and gun.
With you on that Proxy D.
But, from Bruce’s book, thinking about my read of just implied things (like the watch gift), I don’t think Ted would be interested in having him back. Of course, I could be totally wrong.
Yes or no?
https://twitter.com/Hockey_Robinson/status/1660338628000890881
He has been, in places, predicted to go 6th.
https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/mock_draft
Sandin update — Day to day. He may be back sometime in the championships. (Hopefully, not a Tom Wilson Playoff 2022 Day to day)
No matter what Team Sweden is saying to the press, I would hope the Caps have told him to sit out the rest of the tourney. No need to aggravate any possible injury.
I hear he trained today but had a setback so likely not playing the next game.
Today’s Stars/Vegas game is insane — in the penalty department. Jamie Benn got a major penalty and a game misconduct very early in the game. And at the end of second period, Max Domi got ejected. As Dadanov already got injured, Stars down to 9 forwards.
Dallas fans started throwing stuff on the ice after Domi got ejected.
Benn has a hearing for his “losing his shit” behavior.
https://twitter.com/nhlplayersafety/status/1661374827960082438?s=46&t=aDQxGCAmi6qC3G3hkvwKLg
What the going rate for trying to decapitate another player? In the real world it’s probably six months in jail. In the NHL, probably a game.
It would appear that Dallas’ season only has one game remaining.
Benn gets a 2 game suspension.
I didn’t think Benn was like that, but listening to The Athletic’s hockey podcast from today, one of the writers called him “sneaky dirty.” Cross-checking in front of the net and other d-baggery, but he always gets away with it. Reminds me of some people here commenting on Malkin.
https://twitter.com/SEllisHockey/status/1661001057902706689?
Screw these stupid injuries
And that’s why we can’t have nice things. (The specter of Wilson’s injury last playoffs looms very large in my mind.)
Looks like we have a new WaPo beat reporter; Bailey Johnson, poached from the Columbus Dispatch. She’s covered the Columbus Crew, OSU Women’s basketball, and the Columbus Bluejackets.
https://twitter.com/BaileyAJohnson_
First beat reporter in a long while who’s covered the sport before joining the beat.
More importantly, someone who actually knows what hockey is, I guess.
That’s not to say that Izzy and Sam weren’t terrific at the job, because they were.
Not only knows, but loves the game. That’s why I thought Sammi Silber would have been the perfect choice for the Post. I’m tired of the revolving door at the Post where their reporters view the Caps beat as a stepping stone to something better. We need someone like Tarik who has a real passion for the sport.
However The Athletic had no Caps beat journalist, including during their championship run, until they finally hired Tarik. I’d hate for him to leave.
He’s not coming back to the Post. If The Athletic were to fail, which doesn’t seem likely now, he’d land on his feet. (I don’t consider the TNT gig a major revenue driver for him, but who know?)
The Post just hired a new hockey reporter, Bailey Johnson. She covered the Blue Jackets for the Columbus Dispatch. I’ll be curious to see how long she sticks around as the Caps beat seems to be just an interim stop on the way to bigger assignments for Post reporters.
There is still a chance for an all sweep conference final for both the NHL and NBA.
I believe Miami lost last night, so that’s over.
A month and a half ago I did not think there would me much to enjoy in this years playoff.
For Bob.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CW4YFkhyqI0
Not me. When the Caps are in the playoffs I’m too stressed out to fully enjoy it (June 7th, 2018 the obvious exception). Knowing I have no skin in the game – including no team I truly hate – makes the games very, very enjoyable to watch.
And to think, if the Penguins had not choked away that game against Chicago, Boston would probably be on their way to the Finals and none of Bob’s heroics would have happened.
It’s ironic that last year the Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy and Boston was a wild card team. This year, Boston cleaned up as Presidents’ Trophy winner and the Panthers squeaked in this year. And now the Panthers have beaten the Presidents’ Trophy winner, Toronto (who had a great record), and are about to beat the Canes.
Almost like the margin between the Presidents’ Trophy team and the wild cards isn’t all that great.
But I remember people saying why try and make the playoffs only to get stomped by the Bruins?
We would have been.
Proxy Dave!
I agree – we would have been.
I mean, yes. We would have been. But my point is there is a crowd of people that just assume the outcome ahead of time and sports prove time and time again that it is never predictable.
Confess that was my assumption.
No, no, no, no. That puck went into the net, do not award the dirty Canes like that. That’s an EN goal. Let the Rats cover the ice.
Good job not calling the penalty but the puck still went into the net.
Offered in the absence of Clips.
Imagine showing up here with your kid … “excuse me but, oh, never mind.”
https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/washington-capitals/takes/washington-capitals-evgeny-kuznetsov-dmitry-orlov-fun-times-offseason
https://twitter.com/sammisilber/status/1660390975301120002?cxt=HHwWhMCz8e-y8oouAAAA
I love Kuzy. I don’t care how inconsistent or unreliable he is. I just like him.
????
Obviously not the way the Canes drew it up. To me, an example of the little bit of luck it takes to prevail in the playoffs.
Gretzky also described it in detail after the game – at game speed it happens so quickly.
https://twitter.com/JhanHky/status/1660121604888621057?cxt=HHwWgsCz9bnz94kuAAAA
Luck being proximal to the convergence of opportunity and skill.
Cup teams – demonstrably want it all the time 24/7.
That play was such a clusterf*ck for the Canes (Slavin’s stick gets stuck in Burns’ skate blade, effectively taking them both out of the play), I’d say it was more playoff luck than anything else.
Yeah, the cluster-f was the opportunity part, and the Panthers made no mistake going right for and into the net – the skill part.
Bennett goes to the net, circles the net, drifts backward across the crease and Tkachuk sees him while … going to the net from high on the half wall for a lay-up.
Not Bennett around the net, Reinhart. Barkov and Bennett digging out the puck – the killer B’s.
It seems that if we had hung on to Chandler Stephenson and figured out a way to acquire and sign Jonathan Marchessault we’d be talking Caps dynasty right about now. It’s that simple.
Back when he was on the Caps, fans who wanted Stevenson gone used to say he played “too quiet.” With 2 penalties and the GWOTG yesterday, I’d say he’s found his voice in Vegas.
I read somewhere that Cassidy spoke with him after the 2nd – in short mentioning that he ought not let his personal feelings get in the way of team success.
He then may have thought “and so, I took that personally.”
Working diligently with a new Sheltie pup, “too quiet” is a very good trait/characteristic.
I was so angry when they let him go. I never suspected he would be a 1C though.
Hindsight is always 20/20. When they let him go, he was a fourth line center and he had Backstrom, Kuzy and Eller in front of him. Which of those three were they supposed to trade to keep him? In his most productive season with the Caps, he had 6 goals and 18 points, albeit with fourth line minutes. Good on him that he’s grown into a solid player but I don’t recall anyone thinking he was going to develop into a top center.
“don’t recall anyone thinking he was going to develop into a top center”
That’s on the Caps. His talent was not accurately assessed – by the greater minds. Maybe they decided to go with with older, more experienced players. LVK has lots of such success stories that must elicit similar former team discussions.
If one of your biggest misses is Stephenson, sorry but you have done a pretty good job.
I was not even close to seeing what his potential was back then. As Ex Whaler points out in these responses, age and experience was served, along with contractual considerations, and maybe justifiably so. It was up to the Caps brain trust to figure that out since they were the ones with the hockey team.
I’m not in the tanks for Labs, but 1 and 2 C’s don’t always come with labeling.
I knew he was better than 4th line for life. I figured he would play a season on the 4th and get moved up. Brining in Haglin when we had PLENTY of fucking speed during the cup run seemed dumb as fuck to me.
The Caps penalty kill when they brought in Hagelin was in the toilet, and he immediately elevated it to top 10. That is why Hagelin came in. Not because of speed.
JP had in depth article on that at one point that showed Hags was the PROBLEM with the PK. (might have been after his 1st or 2nd year here though)
And Siegenthaler.
And Smiley.
And Djoos.
And Bura.
(for me… Vrana)
There is a pattern in the Caps org of trading away young talent for old… something. I won’t even bring up that trade that we all know is the worst ever.
I went back looked… the Caps had the pick that Turned into Shisterkin in their hands 2 times… and traded it away. Then again… drafting is sorta magic in the 4th round. (We traded up and took Walker instead)
At the presser after they brought in Hagelin, Reirden was so excited, recalling how he loved his game watching him with the Rangers. It was pretty clear Todd was going to play Karl over Chandler so he didn’t have a shot.
They had just won the Cup 18 months earlier. If they had got rid of Eller to make room for Stephenson the fanbase would have revolted and they would have been right in doing so. When the traded him his career numbers were pedestrian at best. Still, the real reason they traded him was the Caps were up tight against the salary cap and Stephenson was an RFA with arb rights. They didn’t have the room for him, so they were basically forced to move him or risk having him get an award they couldn’t afford. So they took their lumps and traded him to Vegas who then signed him to a three-year deal with an AAV of $2.75 million per year. That’s a contract the Caps could not have done.
They didn’t have to trade Eller to “make room” for Stephenson. Chandler agreed to take a $1.05 million one-year contract after the 2018-19 season to avoid arbitration.
There was no room for that cap hit because Brian MacLellan gave $7 million to Hagelin, Hathaway, and Panik for marginal upgrades to the bottom 6 in the 2019 off-season (For point of comparison, Brett Connolly had a $1.5 million cap hit on his two-year contract for 2017-18 and 2018-19). .
Incidentally, the cap hits for Hagelin and Panik? $2.75 million each. They could have afforded that cap hit (and Stephenson got that cap hit because of his performance in the top line role in Vegas; it wouldn’t have been as big if he stayed on the Caps)
The Caps were forced to move him, because they put themselves in the position of being forced to move him when his play rebounded in his third season
fwiw, for the full year when he was traded (2019-20), both Hagelin and Panik ended up with a higher points/game than Stephenson did (this includes his time here and in Vegas that year). Stephenson averaged more ice time than Panik did here that year, too.
The fact is he just didn’t show any of this while he was here. Neither Panik nor Hagelin was blocking him from center ice duties either, it was still Kuzy/Nicky/Eller.
Hagelin’s return from injury forced the Capitals to trade Stephenson, so yeah, he kinda was.
Stephenson was seen as a bottom 6 utility forward (similar to Protas now) at that point in his career, and that’s the role he was playing for his first 24 games of the season. Saying he was “blocked” by Kuzy and Backstrom is a massive stretch, and makes zero sense in the face that Panik and Hagelin were brought in to provide the level of play the Capitals weren’t seeing from Stephenson in 2018-19.
It wasn’t a McMichael situation. Stephenson was supposed to compete for Jay Beagle’s place along with Travis Boyd, but the entire fourth line struggled with only Nic Dowd coming out looking good (and actually better than Beagle). He played badly, and whatever offense he showed the previous season in limited play evaporated, which sorta happens when you don’t shoot the puck. BMac went and got Hagelin at the trade deadline and made his later moves.
Because the Capitals at that point had already moved on from him.
All 3 of those were stupid signings. Hathaway was the best of the lot and really.. he won me over. The other 2 sucked.
My OP was meant as wry observation and maybe ironic lament. I would not really trade our team for theirs though.
I’m also temping in the David role on a part time basis.
And maybe oddly, it’s the Panthers who are too busy at the moment to lament coughing up Marchessault.
Just shows guys can shine when given more time, or are later developers. Half the time people around here are ready to can a guy after a season and a half or by the time a player is like 22. Stephenson was 25 when we traded him, in the midst of a 3 goals and 1 assist in 24 game season here.
It happens.
Yes. Maybe McMike makes it.
Wanna bet he blossoms somewhere else?
There is something rotten in the Caps development system.
That is why I wouldn’t die if we brought back Bruce. Bruce can get kinds to blossom.
Half the time, fans everywhere are ready to trade anyone, anytime.
Stephenson played wing in 2018 next to Beagle, and was very good on the fourth. A lot of his struggles in his sophomore season most likely came from transitioning to Beagle’s role at the NHL level.
Better move for then, for the 2019-20 season, would have been to move him back to bottom 6 wing, but the Capitals had made their decision already to replace him by trading for Hagelin at the deadline and then extending him, and bringing in both Richard Panik and Garrett Hathaway in the off-season. Stephenson took an RFA raise that was still a contract that could be fully buried, but then played his way onto the roster in training camp. His overall play was more than good enough as a bottom 6 utility forward that the Caps were forced to trade him when Hagelin returned from injury; otherwise, they would have lost him on waivers.
His offense still hadn’t shown up yet (only 0.8 points per game in 24 games), and teams had the Caps over a barrel due to their cap crunch. So, the return, in retrospect, stank.
He’s now 29 and fully blossomed into a true top 6 center . He got opportunities with Vegas thanks to their own cap crunch, being thrown into a top line role he probably wasn’t ready for. But he took to the sink or swim approach and looked the part when he hit his prime age. Stephenson probably would have gotten there for the Caps, just a different route–settling in next to Eller, continuing to transition his offensive game (which always came slower at each competitive level), be that fill-in center instead of Oshie, then maybe jumping into the second line role when Backstrom is lost for the season due to his hip.
But then, the Capitals probably don’t wind up with Milano or Strome. Maybe they trade Eller sooner to solve their flat cap crunch in 2020-21. Who knows.
Point is…Stephenson is a very good player who is in his prime. He’s turned into the middle six center that was his ceiling–60 point production, strong two-way play, lots of speed. But that’s not a core player. That’s a strong support player who the Caps probably should have recognized they already had who could still contribute while growing into something more, rather than spend the limited cap space to make a marginal upgrade for a season or two.
Playoff teams lose guys like that all the time. The key isn’t losing too many of them. Stephenson is the only one* I think Cap fans honestly regret, but like you said, hindsight is 20/20. The damage was felt in previous seasons, and the current roster has a replacement (Strome).
It happens.
(*Seigenthaler obviously is regrettable, but I see him more than just a strong support player.)
“was very good on the fourth.”
No he wasn’t. He was fine, he was fast, but his stats weren’t good, and his fancy stats were worse.
There was absolutely no indication he’d turn into a good player. Sometimes given what is known, cutting a guy is the right thing to do and sometimes he dramatically improves afterwards.
it happens.
His rate and fancy stats that year were better than his center and fourth line fixture Jay Beagle.
Stephenson: 1.4 pts/60, -9.0 Corsi/-7.5 Fenwick
Beagle: 1.3 pts/60 -20.1 Corsi/-18.9 Fenwick
That line wasn’t a lockdown line–it was an energy line. Beagle’s fancy stats were always “not good” to terrible, always in the minus, but I don’t think you’ll find anybody saying that Beagle wasn’t a good fourth line player. And Stephenson’s stats were in line with Good Jay Beagle (which he wasn’t in 2017-18), The role doesn’t exactly demand excellent possession stats and exposes players to low ATOI sample sizes and heavy defensive zone starts. .
Yeah, I agree, it does happen, which was the point I landed on after my wall of text. We just have different views on how it happened.
Chandler is a passenger at 1C.
But depending on how you build your team, that is OK. It works for Vegas. It could probably work for the Caps since our 1Cs job is to enter the zone with speed, threaten to go straight to the net and force the D to come to you, and then find Ovi.
The teams remaining tells me that with some key additions the Caps can still contend. Get faster and a little younger and let’s go!
I googled “best hockey coach for speed and young players” and I found some new coaches.
https://www.topspeedhockey.com/about
Let’s get them here and get started.
Between now and 6:00 p.m. I have 240 such thirty second problem solving openings – please let me know if I can help with any other emerging issues.
MORE OT. Between this and Golf, sports is having a great day.
Every Round 3 game this season has gone to Overtime. Will this be a quick OT or a long OT? Well, we haven’t had anything ending in either Double OT or Triple OT yet. Every thing either very quick or uber long.
I could see this being a Long OT. Both of these goalies look really good.
Screw that idea, I guess.
Wait… your sentence seems to imply golf is a sport.
When a course pro (think Chevy Chase’s character in Caddyshack) makes a hole-in-one on a Sunday at the PGA tournament, guaranteeing he made the cut for next year’s championship, I’d say yesterday’s golf was a great sporting event.
Let’s goooooooooo Stars!
Seconds ago, my husband said Dallas had better hurry up and score an insurance goal, and poop, Vegas scores with 2 minutes to go.
I’ll admit to rooting for Vegas in this one since I just can’t bring myself to root for a team in Dallas with a star as a logo, due to my undying hatred of the Dallas Cowboys. (Okay, I’ve paid less attention to football these days but I still detest the Cowboys.)
My plans in any case are to root for the Eastern Conference winner against the West in this Stanley Cup Final.
Alas the LV Castaways prevailed. Again.
FLA looking good. All those Canes fans sitting there after the OT goal, just sad. I really feel for their coach.
So happy Bob is winning this series for Florida. Like them much much much more than the Canes.
Bob is amazing.
Of all the ironies, Bob was the main goalie (a rookie then) when the Flyers panicked in 2011. After he had hit the rookie wall & wasn’t doing so well in the playoffs, they not only didn’t have him start the next game but brought up some guy from the minors.)
Flyers had the ultimate panic after getting swept in Round 2. They signed Bryzgalov to a huge contract and then traded away Jeff Carter and Mike Richards (their version Ovi and Semin.) They made the playoffs the next season but after that, slim pickings, for the most part.
He’s a remarkable guy. Except for that second year in Phillie, he has never had a seasonal SV% below .900
The arc of his career is fairly relentless, longevity notwithstanding. If they ride him to a Cup he should go to the Hall, imo.
This is funny.
https://twitter.com/88WNYLANDER/status/1659767429717794817
Time for more OT.
Only a few minutes of OT? Boooooo.