GM Brian MacLellan speaks of his squad

[SaucyJack]

The flailing Caps might possibly boost their sagging spirits with a home win over conference leaders Carolina tonight.  Unable to play well lately, home or road, this becomes one of those regular season games that the coaches have to make the squad prepare as if it were a playoff game.  And then grade accordingly.  It won’t take a miracle for the Jackets or Wings to overtake them by late April for the final playoff spot.

 

Here are some quotes from GM MacLellan in this morning’s WaPo article by beat writer Samantha Pell:

 

His overall assessment:

- “At the beginning of the year, I would say we’re a legit contender. . . . Now we’re at the low level of that next level of [contending] teams”

- And calling his group’s fall “frustrating” and “disappointing.”

 

On his two young goalies:

- “The concerning thing for me is sometimes the goals, the timing of the goals, game-situation goals that some veteran guys would tighten it up and make that save”

 

Finally, his view on improving via trades before the deadline:

- in recent years, the Capitals have slightly overpaid at the deadline to add depth pieces they felt could fuel deep postseason runs. But he expressed skepticism that this group had the potential to pull that off

- as for improving the goaltender position, “Is this [a trade] going to get us over a hump on the goaltending side? I don’t know if there’s that many guys that are out that are [of enough] quality”

 

This doesn’t feel quite like the end of the ‘02-03’ season and the huge rebuild that followed.  But the days of trading young prospects in the hopes of short-term gains to improve post-season success seem to be over.  (I say ‘good’ since a 4th straight first-round exit is the most likely result no matter what.)

 

 

 

[SaucyJack]

So, the mighty (?!) Hurricanes managed to accomplish what the last six visitors (Vegas, San Jose, Edmonton, Columbus, Ottawa, and Toronto) to downtown DC were unable to do:

 

LOSE TO THE HOME TEAM  

 

I get ESPN+ so could watch, but with my current Central Time Zone home care responsibilities it is hard to tune in before midway thru the 2nd period.  By golly I saw a Cap block a Canes shot by sliding to the ice a la playoffs.  Caps we’re hustling.  
 

The hardcore fans who comment in the WaPo on the hockey article are now of course a bit more gung ho on this turnaround.  I’m a bit less so.  The Canes looked flat and kept giving the puck away.  Caps blew what looked like a sure short handed goal late in the 2nd;  missed another great turnover chance midway in the 3rd.  The kind of plays you must take advantage of in playoffs.  Should a been higher than 4-0 score.

 

I looked at Carolina’s results since mid-January.  Rather lukewarm, and streaky.  Consider a 6-0 home loss to the Jackets, but two road annihilations of the Bruins by combined 13-1 score.

 

All I know is that come playoffs, this would not be the Canes squad we saw last night.

 

==> Caps grade:  pass but indeterminate longer-term assessment.  Insufficient data; opponent didn’t come ready for action