Talk about Capitals hockey & more! > Washington Capitals & Other Hockey Discussion
GDT#79 Capitals @ Lightning 7:00pm Sat Mar 30, 2019 NBCSWA, NHLN, SUN
DC_1908:
--- Quote from: zerofox on Monday April 01, 2019, 12:04:38 AM Eastern ---
Yeah exactly. In my opinion Reirden is the number 1 reason why I don't think we've really got much of a chance in the playoffs. It really is a chess match and I think TR is still playing checkers.
There are definitely reasons why we could repeat, such as:
1) Similar roster as the Cup winning team last year. Yeah we lost Beags which was huge in terms of faceoffs, PK, and general hard hat work ethic. We lost Gruby, which quite frankly hopefully won't be relevant in the playoffs. But Hagelin and Jensen were pretty solid additions.
2) Sometimes we have these statement games and play well against good teams.
3) We are still studs offensively. We're the 5th highest scoring team in the league, and we have pretty solid scoring depth with our entire top 6 scoring 20+ and also Conno.
4) The team seemed to have "figured it out" last year. They know the secret formula (the trap), they know the mindset and the work ethic you have to have to win the Cup. They were mentally resilient enough to come back from 2-0 and 3-2 series deficits and come back from losing key players at different times. I think that's pretty huge.
But there are plenty of reasons why I don't think we will repeat:
1) TR is a checkers player in a chess player's world.
2) PP is too easily stymied. Teams can clog and too easily force someone like Kuzy to stupidly try to dance through 4 defenders. We're too predictable and Ovi is the only real weapon anyone respects.
3) PK is garbage
4) Last year we just straight up had a perfect storm in our favor. Ovechkin continued his brilliance. Kuzy really turned it on. Guys like Backy and Oshie were no slouches either. Holtby got his shit together after struggling all season. Guys like DSP, Conno, Wilson, Eller gave us additional depth and even scored huge goals / really stepped it up in the playoffs (DSP scored 7 in playoffs after scoring 7 all season). To have this perfect
storm again would be asking a lot from the hockey gods.
--- End quote ---
The biggest reason this year will be difficult is our Comference has gotten a LOT better. Despite not playing well the past two games against, TBL has improved, Boston has improved, Toronto has improved, and NYI. . . Oh nelly!
Add to that, we’ve only beaten the. Hens one series in recent history. They and anc CBJ (Torts mainly), will be gunnin for us. Then there’s The Habs, who ain’t out of it yet and the other best goalie and a solid D.
Also, keep in mind that The Caps are not a team with multiple Cups in recent in history, and/or have consistent strong playoff runs. They are a team that despite a high amount have gotten out of the second round twice in 20yrs, and have routinely failed badly in the playoffs. This also is mostly the same team that got booted two years ago.
Add to that, we didn’t just waltz to a Cup last year. There where games last playoffs where we looked god-awful. Trotz was able to adjust, correct, come up new schemes, get the players to buy in, and motivate them. But, he coaches NYI now and we have a rookie coach who as you accurately put it, is playing checkers while the other coaches are playin chess.
This is gonna be a very tough playoffs. This team will need correct several things pretty damn quick, hope to all hell the refs will call evenly, and play better than they did last year.
BlackIce:
Rush,
The reason that I make some posts comparing the Caps and other teams is that I sense that some posters, in describing the Caps' shortcomings, seem to describe them in personal terms sometimes, and also, in isolation, as if there wasn't another team on the ice trying to create and take advantage of those shortcomings. It isn't that I'm trying to excuse mistakes; but simply point out that they are an inevitable outcome of a competitive game played by humans, not automatons.
Regarding your school analogy, I first presume you are talking about failure in an educational setting where the material and the teacher are such that passing is an expected outcome (I say that because I have encountered classes where that is NOT the case). Assuming that one's child should reasonably be expected to pass or better, I think your analogy breaks down because unless the teacher grades on a curve, one child's performance is on their own merit, independent of what any other child does. In that case, if you have reason to believe that your child has the capabilities to pass, then no, other children's performance is no explanation/excuse for your child's struggle.
In hockey (and other competitive sports, for that matter), one has to take account of the interdependence between what your team is trying to do and what the opponents are trying to do. Hockey happens to be a "mistake-filled" game because of its speed and the in-your-face play that is allowed. In that environment mistakes WILL happen, on everyone's part. The idealistic vision is to make no mistakes; the real-world goal is to make fewer of them than your opponent.
One comment about Coach Reirdon. Sure, he's made mistakes. He's a first-year coach. If he turns out to be a top-notch coach, which can only be judged years down the road, it will be because he learns and grows into the job. Think Bruce Cassidy. We ran him out of town; now he seems to be a competent and respected head coach. He apparently learned something in the interim. I know it's frustrating sometimes that a team that still seems to be in a possible Stanley-Cup-winning window has to put up with a rookie coach. But the organization clearly wanted to have this guy as their next head coach (you don't just refuse other teams the right to interview one of your staff for a promotion out of spite.) And it just so happened that the expiration of the previous coach's contract coincided with a Stanley Cup, making the transition awkward. If the Caps had figured it out the PREVIOUS year (when they seemed to have their best team on paper) rather than in 2018, and then had done worse last year (which wouldn't have been a surprise given the turnover necessitated by salary cap issues), the transition to Reirden would have been much less awkward.
DC_1908:
--- Quote from: BlackIce on Monday April 01, 2019, 08:52:35 AM Eastern ---Rush,
The reason that I make some posts comparing the Caps and other teams is that I sense that some posters, in describing the Caps' shortcomings, seem to describe them in personal terms sometimes, and also, in isolation, as if there wasn't another team on the ice trying to create and take advantage of those shortcomings. It isn't that I'm trying to excuse mistakes; but simply point out that they are an inevitable outcome of a competitive game played by humans, not automatons.
Regarding your school analogy, I first presume you are talking about failure in an educational setting where the material and the teacher are such that passing is an expected outcome (I say that because I have encountered classes where that is NOT the case). Assuming that one's child should reasonably be expected to pass or better, I think your analogy breaks down because unless the teacher grades on a curve, one child's performance is on their own merit, independent of what any other child does. In that case, if you have reason to believe that your child has the capabilities to pass, then no, other children's performance is no explanation/excuse for your child's struggle.
In hockey (and other competitive sports, for that matter), one has to take account of the interdependence between what your team is trying to do and what the opponents are trying to do. Hockey happens to be a "mistake-filled" game because of its speed and the in-your-face play that is allowed. In that environment mistakes WILL happen, on everyone's part. The idealistic vision is to make no mistakes; the real-world goal is to make fewer of them than your opponent.
One comment about Coach Reirdon. Sure, he's made mistakes. He's a first-year coach. If he turns out to be a top-notch coach, which can only be judged years down the road, it will be because he learns and grows into the job. Think Bruce Cassidy. We ran him out of town; now he seems to be a competent and respected head coach. He apparently learned something in the interim. I know it's frustrating sometimes that a team that still seems to be in a possible Stanley-Cup-winning window has to put up with a rookie coach. But the organization clearly wanted to have this guy as their next head coach (you don't just refuse other teams the right to interview one of your staff for a promotion out of spite.) And it just so happened that the expiration of the previous coach's contract coincided with a Stanley Cup, making the transition awkward. If the Caps had figured it out the PREVIOUS year (when they seemed to have their best team on paper) rather than in 2018, and then had done worse last year (which wouldn't have been a surprise given the turnover necessitated by salary cap issues), the transition to Reirden would have been much less awkward.
--- End quote ---
The decision to hire Reidon and let Trotz go was moronic to the point of incompetence. There is absolutely NO other way to justify, excise, or support it. Trotz was PRIMARY reason this team finally won a Cup,
However, my guess that Trotz wanted out of from under Monumental and knew he was gonna leave, particularly with the changes in the front offices of NYI, (there was probably with a few phone calls from them too). This certainly explains why Trotz went to a real system and the fuckin circus shit and won the Cup.
We know Ted and GMBetaMale have had raging hardons for a new coach that they can market and do what they what they say. Think about it, why the fuck wasn’t he in Hershey last year or this year? Why? We couldn’t find another Defensive Coach? Or we couldn’t find a head coach, or, god forbid pay Trotz for a couple years, (should he have agreed), while Reidon cut his teeth in Hershey?
How many coaches with little to no head coaching experience made the jump from Assistant to Head Coach? Remember the last time we tried that?
Do you really think, REALLY,, that Reirdon has a chance in HELL of our coaching, our stratigiziing, our manipulating, and out adjustming any coach he’ll play in this playoffs? Particularly Trotz?
I’ll tell ya right now, with a sub-80% PK, where gonna see more dives than EVER this playoffs. That’s pretty damn simple, particularly when we all now how little embellishment is actually called. The time has long since passed for Reirdon to adjust for, correct that.
Mickstix:
Is it too late to get on the "dooms day" bus?? :rofl: :rofl: Ya'll are gonna worry yourselves to death.. It's gonna be tough, but it's gonna be fun!!! We're cup champs, remember!! They can't take it back.. :raspberry:
Look what's up in Detroit: Madbow lights up Marchand in open ice.
https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2019/04/01/madison-bowey-nails-brad-marchand-with-a-big-hit/
DC_1908:
--- Quote from: Mickstix on Monday April 01, 2019, 11:06:43 AM Eastern ---Is it too late to get on the "dooms day" bus?? :rofl: :rofl: Ya'll are gonna worry yourselves to death.. It's gonna be tough, but it's gonna be fun!!! We're cup champs, remember!! They can't take it back.. :raspberry:
Look what's up in Detroit: Madbow lights up Marchand in open ice.
https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2019/04/01/madison-bowey-nails-brad-marchand-with-a-big-hit/
--- End quote ---
Yep! Don’t recall him hittin like that here, BTW I put up a hell of a fight from that game.
But. I don’t mean to sound “dooms day”, I’m just being pragmatic. This playoff will be the toughest ever for this organization. Expectations are higher than ever, everyone’s gunning for us. and the division is tougher. Meanwhile, we’re a 100ft team with an elite goalie, pathetic PP, pathetic face off %, and slumping PP.
Bottom line is this team will assuredly place as far harder, better, and smarter than last year, and Reudon is gonna need to step way the hell up
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