GDT #78 Caps at Canadiens @ 7pm

[Surreylily]

I have no more words.

Night fellas.

[alta]

it looks to me like the team doesn’t care anymore, like the coach has lost the team don’t care anymore

[Mickstix]

This bunch of dummies will probably show up and win on Saturday.. 

[Mickstix]

it looks to me like the team doesn’t care anymore, like the coach has lost the team don’t care anymore

God I hope your right. Cause if this is "caring" we fucked, bad.. 

[BlackIce]

it looks to me like the team doesn’t care anymore, like the coach has lost the team don’t care anymore

When you've been to the playoffs as much as the Caps have over the past decade +, yeah, I'll bet when the games don't mean anything any more that the vets on this team are probably deflated and basically going through the motions.


Good news - Detroit tied Buffalo at the end of regulation, so both they and Buffalo get standings points.  Detroit lost the shootout, and I'd rather that they would have gotten the second point, but they are now at 80, 3 points ahead of the Caps.  After getting spanked tonight and with the last 4 games against playoff or fighting-for-playoff teams, is there any reason to expect that the Caps would win more than one of them (IF they win any)?


Now we need St. Louis and Vancouver to pull ahead of the Caps so we can get the #8 draft position.  Even if we don't move up in the draft, the talent is thought to be deep enough that we can get a good prospect in the latter part of the top 10.

[richkrt99]

The best part of this game is my dumbass son recorded it for me so the recording stopped with about 5 minutes to go in the game 

[richkrt99]

that was pathetic. They should be embarrassed.
I didn’t expect their best effort, but SOME effort.
They didn’t get any help with the bounces….two exceptionally lucky bounces led to two goals
It would help if the net minder stopped them on occasion though.


Strome got his 20th goal on the season.

[BlackIce]

that was pathetic. They should be embarrassed.
I didn’t expect their best effort, but SOME effort.
They didn’t get any help with the bounces….two exceptionally lucky bounces led to two goals
It would help if the net minder stopped them on occasion though.


Strome got his 20th goal on the season.

Hey, Kuemper got a ring with Colorado last year.  I'm sure he's one of those guys who isn't very motivated by the Caps' current situation.  If the Caps' roster and Salary Cap situation allows it, they probably ought to bring up one of their Hershey goalies and let him finish out the season.


Vancouver also won last night, so now THEY are just about tied with the Caps in the standings (Caps have the tiebreaker).  But their last two games are against Anaheim and Arizona, two teams that are already where the Caps seem to be headed.  They've both lost 9 in a row.  Things look really good for them passing us by and we ending up in the #8 draft position pending the lottery.


I have no illusions about the Caps winning the lottery and getting Bedard.  In fact, when you get down to those positions in the lottery standing, they are sufficiently close to each other that IF the Caps end up #8, there is a higher probability that one of the teams directly ahead of them in the standings (#9-11) wins the lottery and gets Bedard than there is that the Caps win it.  The real benefit is that even if the caps DON'T have lottery luck, this draft is deep enough that they can snag a really promising prospect in the top 10.

[waynerivers]

This is officially rock bottom.  I've also decided that they blew it with the goalie situation.  I was fine with getting rid of either Samsonov or Vanacek but not both.  Right now, either guy is better than Kuemper.  This looks like a bad signing.  Yes, he won a cup in Colorado but we don't exactly have Makar, McKinnon, Rantanen, etc. playing in front of him here.

As for the rest of the team, outside of Ovie, Strome, Wilson, TVR, Sandin and Fehervary, there isn't anybody I wouldn't consider moving.  Oshie, Backstrom, Kuz and Carlson should probably all be gone but I'm not sure management has it in them.

[justwincaps]

What's kind of sad is I just read an article this morning talking about all the re-tooling the Caps have to do in the off season in the forward corp, but "fortunately" the defense looks settled with the goals and top 6 all coming back.  I'm supposed to get excited that Darcy, Charlie, Carlson, Jensen, Sandin, TVR, Fehevary and Alexyev are coming back?   Did we not just give up 6 to a team that just suffered back-to-back shutouts? 

[alta]

I blame coaching here for the goalie problems. Even Copely is having a good season in L.A.

[BlackIce]

What's kind of sad is I just read an article this morning talking about all the re-tooling the Caps have to do in the off season in the forward corp, but "fortunately" the defense looks settled with the goals and top 6 all coming back.  I'm supposed to get excited that Darcy, Charlie, Carlson, Jensen, Sandin, TVR, Fehevary and Alexyev are coming back?   Did we not just give up 6 to a team that just suffered back-to-back shutouts?

I think I am more tolerant of the defensive situation than you may be.  The defensive corps has been greatly disrupted this year, but at least now we have 3 defensemen in their early 20's in the mix rather than a bunch of mid-later career guys.  Yes, there will be growing pains, but there may eventually be growing, so let's see what happens there.  The goalies I can't speak to - I think with a more stable defensive corps next season you may see more middle-of-the-pack level goaltending out of the goalies, but I can't see much more than that out of them.


The forward corps is going to have to be revamped.  I have been seeing rumblings that Kuznetsov is gone, and if so, so be it, though there isn't an immediate replacement even for the disappointing level of offense he was able to produce.  We'll see what happens.

[richkrt99]

I hear McMichael is doing well in Hershey. Move Kuzy and bring him up. I’m afraid McMike might just be an AHL star. He is young but let’s see
Or give Protas a shot at 3C. Although I don’t see him as a real scoring threat…at least so far.
Problem is that leaves Backy at 2C. I think that’s a stretch for him at this point.


I am also more okay with the D core.
Carlson is what he is and TVR is no star but he’s been serviceable. I think Fever will be a stud and am excited about Alexeyev as well. Jensen is fine but overpaid as usual.


Honestly I’d love to move Kuzy, Carlson, and Backy and have $25m to spend but it will Never happen.
Nobody would want Backy. Caps will never trade Carlson. Kuzy I could see them moving and maybe we can get a decent Center somewhere?  Centers are HARD to find which is why we overpaid Kuzy. Too bad he’s become disgruntled or unmotivated or whatever.


Knowing this team… we’ll prob do NOTHING and just continue to decline with an older team tight against the cap.

[BlackIce]

The Caps are reportedly going to try to trade Kuznetsov in the coming weeks.  We will see.


IF this is true, it feels rather telling that the Caps are trading off Ovie's Russian sidekicks.  Supposedly one of tne of the top two or three RAW talents in the upcoming draft is a Russian winger who is signed with the KHL through the 2025/2026 season, but it is rumored he may slide down the board because of Russia/Ukraine issues and the uncertainty and delay surrounding his arrival.  IF he were to slide to the Caps in the upcoming draft, would they take him?  In the past, they might well have.  Now?  I'd bet not.