Thing is, Zero, lots of teams use the slingshot/dropback pass. Ar they all stupid? There is a point to it - try to back off the defense and come through the neutral zone to enter the o-zone with speed. Lots of times it doesn't work, but it is what it is.
I think you'd find that, if you looked at other teams as closely as you look at ours, a lot of their players, including some of their best ones, make stupid mistakes as well. Watch other teams. Lots of them sling the puck "mindlessly" around the boards in the defensive zone, just as we do. It's SOP in the league, if you don't have a clear exit from the d-zone, when in doubt keep the puck along the boards, where there is less immediate threat. We steal pucks in those circumstances just as often as other teams steal it from us. Other teams also cough up the puck in more dangerous areas in the d-zone, just as we do. I don't deny that we make mistakes, sometimes egregious ones. I just think you remember ours more than you remember those of other teams, specifically our opponents. Hockey is very much a game of forced and unforced errors - it's the nature of the game.
Good subject and good post Black!
I do like Zeros heart felt passion for the Caps! Reading some of Zeros more heated posts, helps to calm down some of my urges to “post when pissed”! LOL!
There is a lot of frustration with the Caps, expressed by many here on the board, in a myriad of ways, and differing degrees, as you already know!
For me personally, I think I have essentially TWO different modes, when I process all things Caps!
One view is comparative, in nature, contrasting the Caps performance against the backdrop of all other NHL teams, as you have pointed out in your post.
This view helps me to place, and generally rank their performance, as a TEAM! It contains more universality, with a wider general view. All good!!
The other perspective is a more personal one. Derived from many years of watching and studying the team, and their INDVIDUAL players. It’s a closer, more emotionally involved, perspective. It’s a relationship, where you want to know the players names, and gather more specifics on the team. One the team promotes, and wants the fans to have, obviously.
I post from both perspectives, as do many here. We witness posts that are mostly analysis, and other posts that are mostly emotional venting, high and low, and everything in between. (Again, I’m sure you know this already. Not trying to insult your intelligence, at all).
In fact, it’s because you strike me as a quite intelligent person, with your posts, and seem less emotional, and more level headed, than average, that I wanted to respond.
To say that the Caps PP slingshot, is also practiced by many other teams, league wide, with varying degrees of success or failure, is absolutely CORRECT. I totally agree with you! The same goes with the comments about slinging pucks mindlessly, and all teams making mistakes! ALL TRUE!!
What I wanted to ask was about the INTENT of your comparisons. What are you attempting to address?
I wasn’t quite sure, but it sounded like trying to justify bad play, mistakes, errors, etc, in order to allow oneself to feel better about it, or end with a “see, it’s not so bad, it’s everywhere”, type of retort.
If so, then I would disagree with the intention, but not the facts of the points!
I’ll use a parents children as an example, for my point!
A parents child has failing grades, in 4th grade elementary school. So do 15 other kids in the same classroom, which contains 35 children total!
Hard to believe that the intent of your point would be for the parents to accept their child’s failing grades, because “lots of other”, kids in the class have failing grades!
It’s like “lots of other teams do it”, so just accept it and try not to be so frustrated about it.
Yes, the Slingshot can be an effective entrance tactic on the PP, no doubt. And ALL teams make
plenty of mistakes. Just because it’s commonplace to commit errors, doesn’t mean that you excuse them, because it’s done everywhere else. Especially when it’s YOUR personal team! Of course, there would be a different emotion level!! If Backstrom gets hurt, its more significant to a Caps fan, than if finding out that Stamkos was injured!
Your thought track may help to put things RELATIVE, factually, but also risks flirting with the ever-growing acceptance of sub par performance, which is all too prevalent in both sports and life in general, IMHO! (That’s a whole different philosophical debate)! LOL
If I’ve misinterpreted your thoughts, then please forgive me, Black. Absolutely NOT my intent to challenge you negatively, as you seem to be a good man! Mainly, I was a bit confused by your point, but also thought it an excellent subject for the board, AND also your good-natured intent with Zero.👍
Respect, and God Bless,
Rush