Talk about Capitals hockey & more! > Washington Capitals & Other Hockey Discussion
GDT#R1G5 Hurricanes @ Capitals 8:00pm Sat Apr 20, 2019 NBC, SN360, SN1, TVAS
RavenCp:
6 booms, I like it!
RavenCp:
I felt like Kuzy is coming back, even without scoring, he is striding well. Also coming back DSP made an emotional spark. I'd say we have seen the last year Caps' playoff game.
PUCKNRUSH:
--- Quote from: ArJunaZ on Saturday April 20, 2019, 11:11:27 PM Eastern ---Reirden got this team turned around. Good on him!! Give credit where due!
--- End quote ---
Hey AJ!
Excellent 60 min effort for the game tonite, hands down!! Everybody “bought in”!!
I give Rierden credit for the line change ups, in the sense of getting a good spark going!!
It also appears Rierden put some redirection into the PP. very good!!
This was an extremely satisfying game to watch, witnessing the gradual energy/effort, build its way up to peak level, through the 1st period!
Only to have a steady, continual, performance, of the same, basic, magnitude, throughout the 2nd and 3rd, then putting the period on it, with the STRONG finish!!
GREAT TOTAL GAME!!! Very praiseworthy, all around!!
Although it’s not very often, I have to differ with you, somewhat, on the Rierden turning the team around thing, EXCEPT, in the sense that the head coach always, and rightly so, inherits both the praise, and scorn, in the general course of wins and losses.
My take is more consistent with the prior opinion I posted, about games 3and 4, of the series in Carolina, on where the EFFORT factor originates from!
I still maintain that it was the PLAYERS themselves, independently, and outside of the realm of ANY influence from coach Rierden, (i.e. a motivational locker room talk, a harder practice, etc.), that CHOSE to go “ALL IN” tonite!
The line changes are fine, from the coaching perspective, BUT, in the end, I’m convinced, most any of the regular line combos we have seen, would have dominated tonight’s game, IF, and WHEN, these guys all communicate to each other, that it’s time to “BRING IT”!!... AND THEY CERTAINLY DID TONIGHT!!
I will give TR the very “generalized” credit, properly due the head coach, for this GREAT WIN!!
BUT....I’ll end with this point:
Tonites game is one of those games that imparts, and deservedly EARNS, the FULL spectrum of joy and elation, that the overall fan base can feel, for the status of this type of game! (Round one playoff win)!
OR, at least, this SHOULD BE THE CASE!
As a big fan, If the max joy scale for tonight’s game is potentially a BIG 100, and the boys truly did CHOOSE their intensity level, THEN, being honest, that implies they DIDNT CHOOSE, that level of play, in Thursday’s game 4, (obviously)!
IMHO, THAT implies it’s frickin OPTIONAL, some nights, for them, (by their own admission, in some interviews)!! THAT, then, shows they take for granted, on occasion, their PRIVELEGE, of playing hockey at the ultimate professional level!!
THAT, then, DILUTES the overall feeling, because a small part of my fan experience is “ripped off”, by the less-than-stellar performances, that have been proven to be SO, when we see what they can do, otherwise, WHEN THEY REALLY WANNA!!
Even letting go of the poor performances, as is necessary for my fan sanity, LOL, doesn’t change the reality of the poor effort losses, NOT happening, and more so, the WHY, and the team attitude, behind HOW they generally occur!!
So the joy scale, for me, comes in now at a potential max of 94-95ish!
It’s a great feeling, but in the recesses of the mind, rises, that rarely mentioned, “effort stain”, that has its slight, yet, permanent effect!
On the real positive, at least we can be fairly sure, that these boys, with tonight’s effort, show that they haven’t PLANNED, behind the scenes, for an early golfing playoff exit!
Wherever the effort comes from, they look to stand as good as anybody else, for the remainder of the playoffs!! THAT IS A GOOD THING!!!
GO CAPS!!
Rush
ArJunaZ:
Home ice belongs to us all the way to the final, if we make it there. Lightning and Calgary are out, so we have the best record of remaining teams. I suspected this could happen. ;D I was pretty confident TBL might go down. Flames helped our cause too.
Could it be in the cards? Maybe even a rematch of last year's final against VGK?
Can you imagine! Back to Back?
:genuflect:
ArJunaZ:
Great post Rush!
I agree with so much of what you say, but I don't just put the two loses on the players not showing up. Maybe in the regular season I would totally agree, but I truly believe our guys are as hungry as ever to win a cup.
While true, the players maybe 'seemed' to not be 100% committed the last two games, I have to give much credit for that to a very motivated Hurricanes team that took their play up to a level that made me feel we were playing ourselves. They hammered the hell out of us and dogged the crap out of us. I think that caught us a little by surprise. They earned it with excellent coaching and effort. Also, we did not get bounces, we got some some really bad calls by the refs, and all these things combined to provide a shock to our guys. Not to mention the insanely loud fan base in Carolina. To me the biggest thing that worked against us in Carolina was the excellent play of the Canes. I will fault us for not continuing to bring the physicality to them that we had in the first two games. Can't imagine why that happened except maybe the shock of being dogged, hammered with the Canes delivering both good and plenty of dirty hits, and finding our game plan was not totally not up to snuff.
It seems ALL parts of the machine made the right changes and went all in tonight with a strategy that worked. I also mentioned early in the series that the physicality (on and from both sides) would take it's toll on the Canes in the later part of the series. Look at how scared they were to go near the puck tonight. I think this will be even worse for them in game 6.
The Canes are going to need one hell of a lot of heart to have a chance in game 6 IMO. I think that if we hammer the hell out of them and especially if we do that and score first that they are going to be easily defeated. They appeared spent tonight. They played as badly or worse than we did in game 3.
I think Reirden made some bold moves With Seigenthaler up with Carlson and Hagelin taking Oshie's spot. DSP not being brought in would have been stupid IMO, so I won't call that bold. DSP might be a fool in his politics, but damn he can turn it on in the playoffs.
As you said, the PP changes didn't give the Canes the chance to hound us as we did not resort to the predictable 4 year old PP strategy that everyone knows is coming. So good on coaching there.
Doing what we did tonight after the last two games AND losing Oshie on top of Kempny was a credit to all. Hell, even the refs screwed with us again tonight. With all the changes of late we look capable of beating anyone. I sure hope we do. I think the overcoming of adversity will only serve to make us stronger for coming weeks.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version