GDT#48 Capitals at Blackhawks 12:30pm Sunday Jan. 20 2019

[apace41]

Ugly but we’ll take it!

[KitFisto]

That's a bad goal. Let's see if they can feed off it.

[KitFisto]

Hahaha ha wow.

[apace41]

We need to get rid of Orlov. He’s a fucking disaster.

[apace41]

How much did we pay that worthless fucking Russian loser?

[KitFisto]

We need to get rid of Orlov. He’s a fucking disaster.

Agreed.

[apace41]

We have 1 quality D man right now. Carlson. The rest suck.

[Surreylily]

Highlight goal by Orlov!  Shame it in our own net.   

[KitFisto]

We have 1 quality D man right now. Carlson. The rest suck.

That is correct.

[apace41]

Maybe when Niskanen is healthy again they have 2 decent D men, but Kempny does not look like last spring, Orpik is old, Orlov sucks balls, Bowey is too inconsistent, Siegenthaler is nothing and Djoos has been hurt since Nam.

[KitFisto]

Maybe when Niskanen is healthy again they have 2 decent D men, but Kempny does not look like last spring, Orpik is old, Orlov sucks balls, Bowey is too inconsistent, Siegenthaler is nothing and Djoos has been hurt since Nam.

And there isn't much of anything in the system is there?

That won't count.

[Surreylily]

Priceless!     

[zerofox]

Ted has nobody to blame but himself and his cheap fucking ass.  Only the Caps could ruin the Cup by letting Trotz walk once he really had the team chemistry finally set.  Washington sports have this thing about paying managers/coaches that I just don't get.  Once you have a good thing pay up you cheap motherfuckers.  Meanwhile Trotz has taken a low talent Isles team and look at them.  Ted is a dumbass cheap guy who will pay Otto Porter a fortune but won't pay a cup winning coach.  Dumb as shit.

There were definitely times when Trotz frustrated me (and probably times I wanted him fired) but he was a coach with a track record of winning, and that resume only got better with the Cup win. At his worst, I felt like Trotz had at times "lost the team," but I always respected his experience level and the 100+ point seasons / President's Trophies he brought us. You don't have that sort of success by being a bad coach. Trotz was a value-add to our team even before the Cup win.


Reirden on the other hand? He had no track record as an NHL head coach. He's taking a good on-paper team and making them worse. At the very least we could have gotten a coach with experience. My thinking after winning the Cup - if Trotz stays, cool; if Trotz leaves, hopefully we get a coach of similar caliber. Instead we got this joker...


Is Coach Q still available?

[apace41]

The problems with the team right now are very obvious.  The D is very suspect.  We are able to hide that when the O is controlling the puck and playing much of the game in the other team's zone.  In order to do that you need to have quality play from the center iceman. Right now, all 4 of our suck.

Backstrom -- is apparently scared of contact at this point.  If you watch any puck that is 50-50 he loses the puck because he no longer will go in hard to the boards.  My suspicion is that he is gun-shy from his own concussions and watching Oshie get a concussion every season.  Whatever the reason, he is a great passer but he needs time and space and they won't give it because they want to hit him and he don't like that no more.

Kuzy -- has gotten paid and no longer seems to have the intensity he did when he was proving himself.  MacLellan called him out on that. He looks confused most of the time and when he is he falls back to what he knows which is skating and stickhandling.  He is absolutely killing us because he takes a whole line out of the game

Eller -- may have outplayed his ability last spring but he goes 100 miles an hour with no real thought or direction as to what he is doing.  Look at his inability to score and you see a player that is just not getting it done at a level that is required.  He is not making anybody better which is the job of a center.  And, he gets thrown out of EVERY faceoff he takes.

Boyd -- Is fine but has one goal in the last 12 and is starting to over stickhandle in the Kuznetsov mode. 

In order for this team to control games the way they need the center play has to get better.  Plain and simple.  There are wingers who can score but they need to be set up from the middle.

[zerofox]

What's funny is after we scored that goal, I thought to myself "not even going to celebrate, I'm sure the Hawks will get one back soon." Lo and behold they did. Typical Craps.

[apace41]

What's funny is after we scored that goal, I thought to myself "not even going to celebrate, I'm sure the Hawks will get one back soon." Lo and behold they did. Typical Craps.

Agreed.  Problem is that every goal is the same -- comes off of defensive lapses.  If you look at the 3 goals you had Saad splitting the D with Bowey looking like a peewee player, Kane scoring because the D got totally jumbled up and let him walk in to below the dot, and then Orlov panicking and swatting it into his own net.  Would have been nice if Holts could have stepped up on either 1 or 2 but it's hard to fault him when shots are coming from the high slot.

[apace41]

OK.  Time for a bold and (shockingly) positive prediction.  Caps have a strong second period, go on to win this game, and get the ship righted for the post-All Star game push.  Ovie leads the team to a win with 2 today.

[zerofox]

The problems with the team right now are very obvious.  The D is very suspect.  We are able to hide that when the O is controlling the puck and playing much of the game in the other team's zone.  In order to do that you need to have quality play from the center iceman. Right now, all 4 of our suck.

Backstrom -- is apparently scared of contact at this point.  If you watch any puck that is 50-50 he loses the puck because he no longer will go in hard to the boards.  My suspicion is that he is gun-shy from his own concussions and watching Oshie get a concussion every season.  Whatever the reason, he is a great passer but he needs time and space and they won't give it because they want to hit him and he don't like that no more.

Kuzy -- has gotten paid and no longer seems to have the intensity he did when he was proving himself.  MacLellan called him out on that. He looks confused most of the time and when he is he falls back to what he knows which is skating and stickhandling.  He is absolutely killing us because he takes a whole line out of the game

Eller -- may have outplayed his ability last spring but he goes 100 miles an hour with no real thought or direction as to what he is doing.  Look at his inability to score and you see a player that is just not getting it done at a level that is required.  He is not making anybody better which is the job of a center.  And, he gets thrown out of EVERY faceoff he takes.

Boyd -- Is fine but has one goal in the last 12 and is starting to over stickhandle in the Kuznetsov mode. 

In order for this team to control games the way they need the center play has to get better.  Plain and simple.  There are wingers who can score but they need to be set up from the middle.

Great points. One common theme I hear alot during our slump is that our top Centers suck (Kuzy playing retarded, Backy playing soft, etc). In the playoffs, both guys were playing well. What got us the Cup IMO (aside from our system/defense) was a combination of our big Centers playing to their abilities, our big Wingers playing to their abilities (i.e. Ovi and Oshie), and our depth guys stepping up big time. In fact the last part is probably what differentiated us - when guys like Eller and DSP stepped up big time. Top Centers and Wingers playing well gets you far, but the depth guys playing like Top 6 guys got us over the hump. Currently, we have none of those things going for us - other than the occasional brilliance from Ovi and Vrana/Wilson.

[alta]

We have 1 quality D man right now. Carlson. The rest suck.

wait, what?

[alta]

I can't listen to these NBC asshats,