Talk about Capitals hockey & more! > Washington Capitals & Other Hockey Discussion
GDT#77 Hurricanes @ Capitals 7:00pm Tue Mar 26, 2019 NBCSWA, NBCSN
BlackIce:
Back from the game.
Carolina is a team that looks to get the puck on net at every conceivable opportunity, unlike us. So their 28 shots were pretty low for them, and really, they had only a few high-danger chances. Holtby saw most everything. It really wasn't that difficult of an evening for him.
Kuzy was a beast tonight. He looked like he was breaking down the defense in some way or other every time he had the puck in the offensive zone. His pass to Oshie was through about a 6-inch seam. And he gave Ovie a magnificently timed screen on Ovie's goal. It seems the past several games Ovie has been in one of those funks where everything he shoots is into the goalie's chest, and it was the same way tonight -- UNTIL the goal.
Djoos has been very solid since filling in for Kempny, but they are protecting him to some extent. Tonight he started with Carlson, but mid-game they switched him and Jensen, and he finished the game paired with Orpik, playing mostly against lower-line guys. At least Niskanen and Orlov looked good tonight. Those guys have not had a great regular season -- maybe they are going to get it ramped up for the playoffs.
By the way, Siegenthaler has been brought up, and I did not see Lewington. He was on the ice for warmups, but was scratched. I'm assuming that Lewington was brought up initially because he was cheaper than Siegenthaler, and once they were able to fit Sieg. under the cap for the rest of the regular season, they switched them. My understanding is that the Caps are so tight up against the salary cap that they literally have to count every dollar. What I don't understand is, is it not possible to put a player on LTIR with less than 10 games remaining in the regular season? You'd think they could put Kempny there and get enough of an exemption to bring up whoever they want from Hershey.
Kaz:
Yeah, LTIR isn't available when there aren't enough games left for the classification. We're also looking at a cap overage of more than $700K that will come off of next year's cap because Vrana and Orpik have both hit their performance bonuses, and Vrana has one left that he'll most likely hit, too. So we'll have less to spend than everyone else next year.
As it stands now, we won't be able to afford both Connolly and Burakovsky next year, so one has to go unless we trade another sizable salary.
alta:
the first two periods last night were a snooze fest, things didn't really start rolling until OV scored, then the whole team seemed to wake up.
and there's 5 games left for OV to get the magical 50th goal
Mickstix:
--- Quote from: alta on Wednesday March 27, 2019, 09:41:07 AM Eastern ---the first two periods last night were a snooze fest, things didn't really start rolling until OV scored, then the whole team seemed to wake up.
--- End quote ---
You finally made it to the game? :snicker:
BlackIce:
By the way, our PP again looked futile in the relatively little time it had, and the problem seems to be entirely in establishing a presence in the offensive zone. We're fine once we set up; we CAN create chances. But we can't get established. This is where Marcus Johansson was invaluable, but that's water under the bridge now. I know DC and others decry the slingshot approach, and I agree, it sure doesn't look effective. But straightforward trying to work it into the zone without the slingshot isn't working either. Maybe we need to move Wilson up to the 1PP unit in place of, say, Oshie, do more dump and chase, let Wilson try and help establish puck possession in the offensive zone, and then let him take Oshie's place in the middle of the PP setup. The problem is that it would probably be only very incremental improvement, because Oshie is the best puck hound we have already on the boards and behind the net. But who else are you going to replace? Ovie isn't going anywhere. If Carlson were replaced, it would be by another d-man, not a 5th forward, and somebody has to be available to take the point shots. And Kuzy and Backstrom are the orchestrators. Take one of them out and you may lose as much or more on creating and converting the setup plays as you gain by doing better at getting into the setup.
It's a conundrum.
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