Talk about Capitals hockey & more! > Washington Capitals & Other Hockey Discussion
GDT#R1G7 Hurricanes @ Capitals 7:30pm Wed Apr 24, 2019 NBCSWA, NBCSN, SN, SN360
Kaz:
Oh, and not hitting Forsythe with a shovel for the PP struggles with the slingshot and zone entries. That's been a problem FOREVER and the coach has done nothing about it.
We had some other issues, sure. But Reirden was just as bad as anyone. He and Kuzy share my #1 spot for people to blame for atrocious performance. They were both terrible at their jobs.
Devise:
Just because I say that I didn't come out of that game/series blaming Reirden doesn't mean I'm somehow justifying mistakes he made in the series and/or during the season. Reirden simply isn't the reason we lost that series, especially that Game 7, imo.
I also don't see how bringing up regular season points here is relevant. Again, just because I disagree with the assertation that Reirden "cost us the game/series" doesn't mean I'm "defending" or taking a side. It's a thing called nuance, it exists.
Any coach you put behind the Caps bench in the Game 7 I saw last night doesn't change the result. I stand by that. The collective team of the Washingon Capitals did not have enough in the tank to win that game. I saw a coach (Reidren) who was shuffling lines not just to try to get chemistry, but to try to find any killer instinct/extra effort up and down the line up and what we saw was a team that other than in bursts was just trying to rag the clock most of the game. Even when we were playing better than Carolina in the the first and most of the second, we did so because Carolina themselves were playing panicked/rushed and in general just inexperienced hockey. Almost all of our goals/good shifts come from bursts of individual effort from players known for ramping up and working hard. Like Wilson, or our third line which was our best line last night bar none. But it was all still about bursts of energy, every thing in that game was. Structure wasn't gone, it wasn't like our forwards weren't back checking. We didn't give up a godly amount of odd man rushes. We simply were turning the puck over in our own end and not going after it. All the time.
On the far wall we had high wingers (Ovechkin for some of it) just watch the Canes cycle and that started happening late in the second and was beginning to persist for much of the third. All the coaching in the world will never change the fact that once we got to Game 7, it was clear our boys only had the hustle to make it a regular season game. So they took their lead and hung on for dear life. Trotz would of done (and has done with our group as coach previously) the same thing there. Any coach would of. Anyone with a brain saw that even if you throw the 4th line out more minutes from defense on up to forward we maybe had 5 players after the second period who had any real gas left in the tank to make anything other than zone defense happen. We were so tired. Like it can not be understated because IT IS absolutely the reason we lost a game we lead in.
That said analyzing and picking apart specific performances is still all fine and dandy. Kuzy wasn't the stud he should of been, protecting Djoo's was a mistake, we needed more PP adjustments. One can agree with all of this and still accept the reality that our boys emptied their tanks this season/playoffs and following last seasons emotional win didn't and wouldn't of had enough.
As for changes/alterations going forward, for me it's too early at least on the coaching staff front. I absolutely think we need to make more PP adjustments and I do think it starts with personnel because rotating that same top group allows them to get comfortable in a way that doesn't work. If Kuzy isn't willing to dump it on the playoffs on the PP then he can sit. Put Eller out there. Forysthe also has to go back to the drawing board a bit, our set up and variation once we set up is great. But if a team is going to pressure to prevent the set up we need to find ways to either adapt to that or counter it to force a set up.
Reirden specifically, way too early to judge for me. He made mistakes in the regular season and playoffs but like I said I don't think any other coach would of gotten much more this season in general out of our team. For me I have to see another season before I make the judgement on him one way or the other.
DC_1908:
Game 7 Double OT, Stevenson, Dowd, and DSP where under 10min TOI. Hurricanes had one player play 10 or under: a rookie who hasn’t played 40 total games. .
As Kaz said, Reidon TOTALLY fucked up last change and all matchup and adjustments
advantages he had. Rather Reidon is stubborn, arrogant, or just following Monumental and/or the players orders, who knows. But if the goal was to get a player and “fan friendly” coach, they got it alright. . . but they if they wanted a winning coach, . . . They got screwed by the pooch full doggie style and got a donkey punch
Beaglefan2:
Kaz - very good couple of posts. My 4 points:
1. Caps don’t have enough guys with the absolute burning desire to win. Guys that refuse to lose.
2. Kuzy was the number 1 disappointment for the regular season and the playoffs. He needs a hardass coach that will bench him when he doesn’t shoot or doesn’t give the effort.
3. Worst coaching was for special teams. It was obvious to everyone that our PP was a one-trick pony and our slingshot and entry into the zone was embarrassing. Forsyth needs to go.
4. Our defense needs to be totally revamped to get more size and physicality and be coached to stop trying to clear the zone by staying on the boards every single time.
DC_1908:
--- Quote from: Beaglefan2 on Thursday April 25, 2019, 05:09:04 PM Eastern ---Kaz - very good couple of posts. My 4 points:
1. Caps don’t have enough guys with the absolute burning desire to win. Guys that refuse to lose.
2. Kuzy was the number 1 disappointment for the regular season and the playoffs. He needs a hardass coach that will bench him when he doesn’t shoot or doesn’t give the effort.
3. Worst coaching was for special teams. It was obvious to everyone that our PP was a one-trick pony and our slingshot and entry into the zone was embarrassing. Forsyth needs to go.
4. Our defense needs to be totally revamped to get more size and physicality and be coached to stop trying to clear the zone by staying on the boards every single time.
--- End quote ---
Agreed.
Just note the relation between 2 and 4 and how much 7+ mil, with 10k of cap space, could go to revamping the D
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