GDT#44 Blue Jackets @ Capitals 7:00pm Sat Jan 12 2019 NBCSWA, ESPN+, FS-O

[ArJunaZ]

Night night peeps.

Good night Lil.  Say your prayers for Monday's game.

[Mickstix]

Yep, not much to discuss after that one.. Oh, faceoffs.. Another reason they suck is our centers get thrown from the dot about 75% of the time it seems.. Anyway, shits getting old.. They're getting outworked much too often lately. Catch you folks Monday! Enjoy the snow!!

[alta]

per the post game, as much as I could stomach anyway, Holtby is day to day with an "upper body" injury. Will release an update tomorrow

[richkrt99]

Holy cow fair weather fans. You should go back and read your posts from the first period. It would be comical if it wasn’t negative ALL THE TIME
You’d think the Caps were last in the league and had lost 12 of their last 15 games.
Certainly not our best game but better than one would think reading all the hatred on these boards.
Make sure all you guys that are fed up with this team don’t watch any more games...especially when we get into the playoffs. Afterall, the Caps suck and have no chance so you might as well not waste your time watching this train wreck of a season. (27-12-5)


For the first time in I can remember, the Caps outshot opposition and won more face offs. I thought they were sluggish but also very patient and did not panick. OT is always a crapshoot and the penalty was lame, but overall the refs swallowed the whistle the third period. (Should have been a call in Oshie trip but meh...there were several times Caps could have been called near the end and weren’t.


Lighten up peeps. I’ll take the point.


Go Caps.

[4 Caps]

Well said richkrt99, both teams played a very defensive style of game.  DC should have loved it.  Both teams did a good job of keeping play on the perimeter except of course for Columbus’ goal, but other than that there was not a lot of quality chances for either team.  There is a good chance that we will play Columbus in the playoffs so we need to get use to playing this type of game.


Look on the positive side, we picked up a point and Pittsburgh lost.  We need to beat St Louis on Monday and get back to our winning ways.


For those who live in the D.C area hope everyone survives the snowstorm and are safe. 

[waynerivers]

The Caps seem to put up these rather uninspired efforts at home where they either play flat footed or get leads and then think the game is over (Anaheim and Nashville games come to mind).  They seem much more focused on the road.  This is something Rierden needs to address.  When you start seeing 70' stretch passes instead of controlled breakouts, that's lazy hockey and lazy hockey leads to losses.  They also need to fix the PP in short order or they aren't going to beat the better teams.

[Mickstix]

When you start seeing 70' stretch passes instead of controlled breakouts, that's lazy hockey and lazy hockey leads to losses. 

That's exactly what it is.. Lazy! They're playing like they expect it's gonna be easy..

[alta]

Holy cow fair weather fans. You should go back and read your posts from the first period. It would be comical if it wasn’t negative ALL THE TIME
You’d think the Caps were last in the league and had lost 12 of their last 15 games.
Certainly not our best game but better than one would think reading all the hatred on these boards.
Make sure all you guys that are fed up with this team don’t watch any more games...especially when we get into the playoffs. Afterall, the Caps suck and have no chance so you might as well not waste your time watching this train wreck of a season. (27-12-5)


For the first time in I can remember, the Caps outshot opposition and won more face offs. I thought they were sluggish but also very patient and did not panick. OT is always a crapshoot and the penalty was lame, but overall the refs swallowed the whistle the third period. (Should have been a call in Oshie trip but meh...there were several times Caps could have been called near the end and weren’t.


Lighten up peeps. I’ll take the point.


Go Caps.

yea, so when they interview a coach during intermission and he himself says the team forgot to show up, the fans should just ingnore that because they are 27-12-5, won more face offs than other team for what seams like the first time this season and the PP is now 2-37  . The Caps are damn lucky they got a point against a team they needed 2 from.

[alta]

Holts practiced this mornin 


https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2019/01/13/braden-holtby-practices-says-vision-has-improved-a-lot-since-suffering-eye-injury-against-blue-jackets/#more-313947

[Mickstix]

won more face offs than other team for what seams like the first time this season and the PP is now 2-37

Im just gonna take his word for it that we won more faceoffs than Columbus, but I'd of lost a good sum of money had someone wanted to bet.. I recall maybe 2 we won. lol

Holts practiced this mornin 

 

[ArJunaZ]

Im just gonna take his word for it that we won more faceoffs than Columbus, but I'd of lost a good sum of money had someone wanted to bet.. I recall maybe 2 we won. lol

I just checked the stats. The Caps won 53% of faceoffs against Columbus. In fact, only one guy on our team, Dowd, was under 50% for faceoff wins.  I noted during the game that we seemed to do OK on faceoffs. The numbers bear that out.

[ArJunaZ]

Holy cow fair weather fans. You should go back and read your posts from the first period. It would be comical if it wasn’t negative ALL THE TIME
You’d think the Caps were last in the league and had lost 12 of their last 15 games.
Certainly not our best game but better than one would think reading all the hatred on these boards.
Make sure all you guys that are fed up with this team don’t watch any more games...especially when we get into the playoffs. Afterall, the Caps suck and have no chance so you might as well not waste your time watching this train wreck of a season. (27-12-5)


For the first time in I can remember, the Caps outshot opposition and won more face offs. I thought they were sluggish but also very patient and did not panick. OT is always a crapshoot and the penalty was lame, but overall the refs swallowed the whistle the third period. (Should have been a call in Oshie trip but meh...there were several times Caps could have been called near the end and weren’t.


Lighten up peeps. I’ll take the point.


Go Caps.

I would not accuse the majority of people on this forum of being fair weather fans. I've noticed that like myself people tend to get down on this team when they feel the effort is simply not being made by the players.  I've never had any difficulty watching us lose when we play our hearts out. I do get tremendously frustrated when the team seems to not care to make the effort needed to compete. We've seen a few games lately where the Caps as a whole lacked the motivation to play with the same effort as their opponents. The Boston game was an example of a great effort. Had we lost that game I would not have come away feeling we played poorly. It has been my observation that most people here feel much as I do.  I will also note that the sentiments expressed here are very often repeated in the post game shows by the talking heads like Alan May, Joe B, Locker and others. They often  mirror the same words we use to describe the Caps effort or lack thereof.

With regards to the Columbus game we did not really deserve a point. For the first 40 minutes our guys looked pathetic. Our lack of battle for the puck and careless giveaways were the most notable.  We did hold up defensively pretty well, but much of that credit goes to our stupendous goalies.

I think the hockey IQ here is pretty high and folks usually focus right in on what ails us as well as what we do right. I don't knock anyone for calling out the Caps when they drop turds. I mean who wants to support a team that appears to care less than their opponents?


I hope the game is on for later today. I don't know what it's like in other parts of town, but up here in Gaithersburg we got at least a foot of snow at my house. My wife has been living and teaching downtown and she said said they have a snow day tomorrow and called off classes at the National Defense University, which is not far from Capital One Arena.

[ArJunaZ]

Damn!  I just saw that the Islanders smoked the Lightning 5-1.  Barry has gotten that team on track. They are coming up fast in the standings.  Among many other tough teams on our schedule for the rest of this month we get the Islanders at home this Friday.  The rest of this month is going to be huge for us one way or another. It's time to come to each game ready to play a full 60min.

[PUCKNRUSH]

Gotta say I’m siding more with Rich and 4Caps view of the game.


I was at the game, as well, and due to the potential snowfall, predicted by the end of the game, I kept the drinking to a minimum, and saw, (and can recall), LOL,  what I observed from section 105.


Game was played quite conservatively, by both teams! First interesting point to mention is that both teams scored in an almost IDENTICAL, yet reciprocal, manner!  That is to say that;
Columbus scored in the FIRST minute of play, and the Caps held them scoreless for the next 59 minutes of regulation!
The Caps were held scoreless for the FIRST 59 minutes of regulation, and scored in the LAST minute of play!!


Neither team wanted to take too many risks against the other! It seemed more to me like a first round playoff game, where both teams are more concerned, early on, with trying to figure each other out, and there is no “must win” urgency yet!!


Jackets goalie had an above average  game. This happens sometimes. Holtz/Copley played well also!
Both teams missed a few good chances, and neither seemed super hungry, although Columbus did out hustle the Caps in the first period!


Mostly even statistically. Caps with more SOG, and slight face off edge. Jackets with almost half the number of giveaways as Caps. All else was nearly even in regulation, including hits, penalties, and both teams going 0/2 on the power play.
A rather ho-hum game, if you were looking for a lot of glitzy hockey!  Either team played both good, and bad enough, to win or lose. Yeah...one of those, IMO!


Rush

[BlackIce]

Damn!  I just saw that the Islanders smoked the Lightning 5-1.  Barry has gotten that team on track. They are coming up fast in the standings.  Among many other tough teams on our schedule for the rest of this month we get the Islanders at home this Friday.  The rest of this month is going to be huge for us one way or another. It's time to come to each game ready to play a full 60min.

And I'll bet that if one had watched that game one might have come away with the impression that the Lightning just weren't motivated to play.  EVERYONE has off games once in a while, even the Lightning, who are head and shoulders above the rest of the league right now. 


If the Caps are just not motivated all that much and way too inconsistently, and yet at this point are still at the top of the Division standings, does that mean that everyone else is motivated even less than we are?  And don't give me the argument that the Caps are so insanely more talented than everyone else that they'd win virtually all the time if they put forth an honest effort.   That just isn't true.  The Caps have their talent -- and so do LOTS of other teams. 


Now the Islanders DO have the look of a team that is playing above their talent level, and I'm sure that Trotz is using the motivation "We were a mid-level team recently that just lost its top player, but y'know, I have more faith in this team than that." 


I get the feeling that Trotz is one of those guys who, even as long as he has been in the coaching business, has gone to another level as a coach in recent years.  He is still learning and growing from his extensive experience.

[richkrt99]

Sorry I am always SO late with responses...


In reference to my previous rant.....
SO I watched the game HOURS after it was played and didn't post my fan-hater rant until the next day when I started reading the thread..which was entirely more negative than my perception of the game.


Couple things:


1)  Don't intend to be implying that EVERYONE (Or anyone, for that matter) is a Caps hater.  (or A FAIR WEATHER FAN, as previously stated)
2)  I think original intent of my post was that.....reading the game day posts the day after.....I noticed the posts seem entirely more critical than the game I watched.  I know we all get down on our team when they do NOT put forth the effort, and maybe WE as Caps fans are more sensitive to that since it SEEMED to be their tendency to do just that....NOT PUT FORTH THE EFFORT  for years and years of disappointment - especially playoff wise.
3) I realize that all the original posts are "real-time" and in the heat of the moment, but reading the culmination of them the following day probably makes them seem more harsh that at the time of the play(s).




No offense to any of my board buddies, but I did not think the game or the Caps effort was as bad as one would perceive from the posts on THE Caps Fan board.


Not the most exciting game, but sometimes they just aren't.  I really can't see how we can complain with the current OVERALL performance this year.

[ArJunaZ]

I like to think of it like when you see a child not living up to their potential, not even really trying.  It can be frustrating.  The Caps have had a few good stinkers lately and clearly were not putting in the effort at times. After some of these games even Alan May and company spoke much as we did about their effort or lack thereof. Heck, even some players and the coach said as much. I'll have to go back and reread the thread sometime, but I always though the posts were commensurate with what we were watching.

[richkrt99]

I'm a little surprised nobody mentioned the BJ's "celebration" after the GWG in OT.  I mean it was obviously a taunt directed ad Kuzy.
I thought it a bit much for the whole team to be doing it (on OUR ice)


I mean a lot of Cap fans said Eller deserved his beating for "celebrating" his FIRST GOAL OF THE SEASON in the FIRST game of the season.  I saw nothing wrong with it and did not think he was taunting Boston bench at all.


I mean the BJ's won the game and I have no problem with them showing enthusiasm for the OT win, but they were no doubt mimicking Kuzy.  It's not like they have a PENS type record against us in years of playoffs or something.


Thoughts?

[alta]

I'm a little surprised nobody mentioned the BJ's "celebration" after the GWG in OT.  I mean it was obviously a taunt directed ad Kuzy.
I thought it a bit much for the whole team to be doing it (on OUR ice)


I mean a lot of Cap fans said Eller deserved his beating for "celebrating" his FIRST GOAL OF THE SEASON in the FIRST game of the season.  I saw nothing wrong with it and did not think he was taunting Boston bench at all.


I mean the BJ's won the game and I have no problem with them showing enthusiasm for the OT win, but they were no doubt mimicking Kuzy.  It's not like they have a PENS type record against us in years of playoffs or something.


Thoughts?

they were made fun of, Kuzy said its nice to know someone is watching me and Willy said "I guess it's a rivalry now and I will leave it at that". It was a classless move by a team that has not gotten past the 1st round of the playoffs against the team that sent them packing last season. I expect retaliation of a similar vein in their barn. I'd bet money that CBus doesn't have the balls to do something similar in front of Boston