SaucyJack

Perhaps a thread for Ivan Miroshnichenko also needs establishing? (First post with a big 1 on it.) Pass the baton, Caps fans hope?

Anthony Mantha moving yesterday from Washington to Vegas reminded me of this trade nearly 3 years ago. Detroit did get two picks in the deal, but neither Jakub Vrána nor Richard Pánik are currently playing in the NHL now 3 years later. Had Mantha’s first two seasons in Washington been better, perhaps the deal would not be considered too lopsided now. Caps fans see it as getting 2 bad seasons and 3/4 of a good season from Mantha. Despite his 20 goals this year, there was little love for him from Caps fan comments in the WaPo game articles. I don’t much care to see VGK repeat as champions but I hope Mantha keeps up his decent form there. (Good chance their fans will like him more than ours did, if he does.)

Mantha turned things around with the Caps this season. A frequent healthy scratch last year under Peter Laviolette, he was bummed out. He worked on his physical and mental improvements last summer, resulting in 20 goals this season. And more importantly now, a chance with a contender.

Nevertheless, New Jersey remain in a nearly-even 5-team dogfight for 3rd place in the Mediocropolitan Division and the last Eastern playoff spot. Right or wrong. Just is.

A gawd-awful loss at home to a woeful Coyotes club. These guys don’t get that they HAD to take all 8 points from these first 4 games in March, before 9 of the last 11 contests ending the month are against elite foes. Just horrible to lay an egg like this. (Easter is still several weeks away, after all.) AWFUL https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2024/03/03/kuznetsov-waivers-capitals-coyotes/

Both teams have tough March schedules. Each play 9 games against elite opponents by my reckoning. Will be interesting to see who holds up, who nabs 3rd in the Metro.

Now that Caps goal was VERY much against the run of play.

Could’ve been 4-3 there with 7 minutes to go with the Tippett chance.

Capitals get some reprieve in the first third of March (4 games) not playing the teams in what I perceive as the Top 11. Their Fates will likely be decided in 11 games played between Mar 11th and 30th, starting with their Western Canada trip. Nearly all Top 11 teams in this most difficult 20-day stretch: @wpg @edm @sea @van @cgy tor car wpg det @tor bos Should be Murderer’s Row. April not as bad, a mix of best, middle, worst.

Alas, a glass half full. Or should I say empty. Yes, an Ottawa win, but a late lead blown to Florida resulting in 1 point, then last night’s butt-smacking by Detroit that left Charlie Lindgren as forlorn as I can recall all year. (Even though it was 2nd of a back to back, 3rd in 4 nights, and 5th in 8 nights, the Caps shouldn’t be outclassed and out-skated that badly.) 5.9% is what moneypuck says this morning. A few in the WaPo comments advise not being fooled by a few recent wins to forgo being a seller this spring.

Yeah, they have shown defensive weakness all year. Maybe they’ve had some luck lately, too. Before tonight, moneypuck.com had Philly at 66.3% and Washington only 11.1%. Wha?! On average, Washington would snare 3 pts from the 3 games in hand and thus trail Philly by 3 pts with 23 to play. So, I figured the experts were taking strength of remaining schedule into account. I subjectively classified 11 good teams, 12 fair teams, and 8 poor teams. Of the Caps remaining 25 games, 13 are against the Good, 7 the Fair, 5 the Poor. Of the Good, two teams have yet to be played this season. Three remain vs the Red Wings, and two against the Jets. Plus 2 apiece vs Bruins, Canes, and Leafs. Add in single matchups with the Canucks and Oilers. So tough sledding. Things look better in the standings than they actually are. P.S. Caps also still have two games to play in Buffalo. Per scheduling oddity, both are in April!

Well yeah…they’ve been pretty fair of late. They have two chances: catch Tampa or Detroit for a wild card, or catch Philly for 3rd in the Metro! They’ve edged past the Pens, Devs, and Isles, and could tie the Flyboys by winning their two games in hand. Somebody in the not-too-strong Metropolitan Division is gonna finish 3rd and get in. Big game in Motown tomorrow.

About time for the club named after Bobby Hull to finally win this Stanley Cup thing.

Thanks to a 3-game winning streak, the Caps have quintupled their playoff chances in a mere two weeks from 3% to 16.5%. A must-win last night in Lightning Land. Young Swedish D-Man Rasmus Sandin saves the club from two early 3rd period defensive lapses to bag the game winner with 5 minutes left against a club that Washington is desperately chasing. It’s still a bit bleak, but a big upset win Saturday night in greater Miami, then staving off Ottawa at home, and then a huge road win against another chase-em-down club in Detroit, would be a remarkable finish to February, and a welcome continuation of recent good fortune. ”Keep Hope Alive”, as they say.

Perhaps so back then, I have little knowledge of it, but right now I’d say that the UEFA Champions League, and its lesser brothers like the Europa League, are very popular across Europe. Large enthusiastic crowds in most game highlights that I view. Anyway, I digress and am off topic in regards to the Olympics. Not to mention the corruption of the international governing bodies of various sports. I just watched the Feb 2023 episode of Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (soon to be or already expired off of HBO/Max). One story was about how many put their headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, because the Swiss do not require much if any transparency. So instead of $$ going into development of their game, esp in 3rd World countries, they throw lavish parties for themselves and otherwise enrich their higher-ups. The Swiss say that having these organizations help their economy, and whistleblowers are looked down on and/or ignored (or worse). Still, I love watching Olympic weightlifting while not bothering to research whether it’s governing body is corrupt. It’s my every-4-year chance to savor it.

Can’t say I remember that 2/3/99 home game 10-1 clobbering against then-lowly Tampa Bay, but upon lookup I saw that Peter Bondra scored a hat trick in that 4:47 span along with an assist. The Lightning got their revenge in their second-ever playoff series in the spring of ‘03, defeating the Caps 4-2 after having lost the first two games at home. (A series that signified an end of an era in Washington, leading to rebuild and the eventual acquisition of Ovechkin.)

Of course, it means a new formula of how often one plays each team in one’s division, in the other division in your conference, and the other conference. Several choices to make, including whether to only play some teams in the other conference once. I disagreed with 32 being perfect as far as playoff achievement. NFL and MLB still only allow less than half to qualify for postseason, despite expanding those fields in recent years. (I.e., 16 in, 20 out, is OK in my view.)

Russians are banned in team sports for the 2024 Paris summer games per their state-sponsored doping scandals. Whether that ban extends to the 2026 Turin winter games has not yet been decided, or so I read. It is more important for ice hockey to put on an exciting star-studded Olympic competition than other sports, as it is the only team game for a winter Olympiad. (The summer games are so overloaded and getting even more crowded, they can afford something like, say, basketball being amateur-only should that ever occur.)

Wow. Hunter had been out of Québec for 6 years when he pulled his crap on Turgeon in the ‘93 playoffs.

Dale Hunter vs Pierre Turgeon 1993, anyone?

Losers of six straight, lowering their making-the-playoffs odds to 3%, with a trip to Beantown and the mighty Bruins earlier this afternoon, that I missed. The Capitals win this game ?!? In a 3-0 blanking of the Conference Top Dogs ?!? In their rink ?!? My head just asploded.

After scoring 83 pts in the regular season of their Cup victory, he degraded to 72, 52, and 29 points the next three. (But the 29 was the 41-game Covid Seadon so project that as 58 pts.) He improved in 21-22 for 78 pts, then degraded last year to 55. But this year is especially bad with 17 pts in 47 games. (That projects to a meager 30 pt season if he played all 82.) It is extra bad now in 23-24, for sure, nothing quite compares to these low totals.

The fans may be down on Kuzy and his performance this season. But several commenters on the WaPo article thought he was brave to admit he had a problem and to take advantage of the league’s program.

Say what you might about Evgeny Kuznetsov, and most of it these days is not pretty from fans commenting on WaPo game articles, who want his now-underachieving arse and ridiculous salary out the door… …but he is nevertheless beloved for providing the most dramatic and cathartic moment in Washington Capitals history in the 2018 Cup run: - sure, the Cup was won against Vegas, but with relative ease in 5 - and sure, they were an inch from confirming their Choking Dog natures in round 1 vs Columbus, before Carl Eller’s double OT road winner prevented going down 3-0 - and yes, in round 3 the fans could hear those dreaded Dog Sounds against Tampa Bay, after losing 3 straight before winning the last two to win in seven - IT WAS ROUND TWO - - - finally beating the Penguins, the two-time defending champs, in OT, even if it was “just” a game 6. IN Pittsburgh. Crushing those demons…listen to my favorite sports call of all time, courtesy of Caps radio play-by-play man John Walton. Tears well up for me whenever I watch this every couple years or so. Good afternoon; good evening; and good night !!

WaPo says he tested positive for cocaine in 2019 representing Russia in the World Championships. (Possible of course since Washington hasn’t won a playoff series since the 2018 Cup.) And, this was originally named the “substance abuse and behavioral assistance program”. So I doubt the Problem is consuming too much Diet Coke.