I am surprised the rose bloomed as quickly as it did. I expected more struggles early on as the new guys became familiar with the rest of the team on the ice.

Isn't Miro a natural RW? Though I've not really seen much from him other than husttle and good hockey sense, I'd hate to lose him, especially to the Rags.

   




He is listed on the Caps site as a LW.  I know the team has been shuttling a few guys back and forth between LW and RW because of their shortage of dedicated RW'ers.  In fact, Protas was a RW when he moved up to L1, though there was also some scuttlebutt about Ovie at RW sometimes.  Whether that was an effort to get Protas time at LW or whatever, I do not know.


With regard to reservations that people have about giving up particular young players, I understand that.  But the price for a guy like this is going to be high.  I'd like to think that, say, Lapierre and TVR could get it done, but I doubt it.  The alternative, which the Rangers MAY be looking for, for all I know, is draft picks.  But they'd probably have to be high, because now the Caps look as though they could be a team whose picks would be toward the end of the round.   


All of this is why I asked the question at the end of my original post - is the Caps' performance thus far sufficient to justify a move like this?  It isn't an easy call - the bloom COULD come off the rose as the season progresses.  There are some players who have broken out or are playing over their career-established heads right now, and we could definitely see regression later in the season.   


The other factor to take into account is that, while Lindgren and Thompson have been OK in goal so far, they haven't shown themselves to be elite.  But I think, in no small reason because of their cost, we ARE going to ride with them this year unless/until injury strikes, and even in that event, we may just bring up one of the Hershey goalies to fill in.  Is THAT a good enough enough tandem to consider making what would look to be a pretty big move with some risk at this point?  We all know of conditions where a good team runs into elite goaltending and gets knocked out.  To this point, signs are that we can't expect to be the team with elite playoff goaltending.

Interesting BlackIce.  I'm not sure the Rangers would trade a young guy like that - especially to the Caps.  I would also hate to give up Alexyev as a throw-in as I have been really wanting them to develop him more. He could be very solid for a long time, especially if they get him to use his big body.


I am thrilled where the Caps are and have to eat some crow as I thought they should be tanking for a lottery pick.  I'm still not thinking they could win the Cup, but they could get on a run and  scare some people, and who knows....


I think the key guys that will really make a difference are Chyckrun and PLD.  If those guys get even better, then we could be a contender.

Ovechkin skated this morning before the team practice.

https://www.nhl.com/news/alex-ovechkin-injury-status-update-december-2-2024

Thanks for posting this.   

I will take PLD at 8.5 over Kuzy for 8.5.  That's basically who he replaced.  Not really legit way to look at it, but...

He definitely needs to score more goals, but he is playing very very well.  Can't say the dude has been a dud or a failure, just that he is overpaid. Only some of that is on the Caps, and like...(someone) said - a big chunk of that was going to be paid for moving Kuemper (one way or another)