Now-and-then Caps conversation

[SaucyJack]

I’ll start this thread for any random thoughts people have on the Capitals, unrelated to the Ovie goal count threads.

 

I take credit for what might be tonight’s best Caps comeback this year.  I was trash-talking them in the Flyers forum when they trailed the Islanders 3-0 in the 2nd period.  This reverse juju kicked in and resulted instead in a 4-3 OT win.

 

I think this can only ever happen for Washington on the road.  
 

A poor set of results the past two weeks, so this unexpected result is welcome to this bunch.

 

Since it was available to me, I watched the Islanders broadcast.  Can we trade Craig Laughlin for Butch Goring?  

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

I haven't watched a ton of Caps games this season....here and there, yes, when they play my teams, absolutely, and the rest is on highlights, stat sheets, and online articles.

That said, the one thing that has stuck out to me is the exorbitant amount of UFA's this team has at season's end! I mean, should the Caps decide they won't sign any of them (I know, I know, they will re-sign some), this team will basically look like another one entirely save for the goaltenders, Ovie and Backstrom!

I know the "must see" portion of the Capitals this year has been Ovechkin's chase of Gretzky, and barring injury, that will continue into next season as well.
But is that enough to keep fan interest in the overall product on the ice? I would think the fans still want a winning team and they'd want the team to be set up properly once the Ovechkin era is over.

That means hard decisions and a careful balance of keeping players to try to keep winning now vs looking ahead and trying to stockpile some draft picks or promising young current minor leaguers to keep the team competitive long term.
Ovechkin himself, while certainly driven by the Gretzky thing, would probably like to win another Cup before he has to hang them up as well.....and he can't do that playing wth a bunch of minimum wage players.

So that is what I will be watching from this team.
How they do the rest of the way and should they get into the post season, how they fare there.... as well as what kinds of decision will be made with all these UFA's, RFA's and players a season away from UFA status.

I really can't recall a team who has had this many UFA's while still trying to win since the NJ Devils who made the Finals against the Kings in 2012.
And in that case, the Devils, having taken their last shot at a Cup, decided to change just about the entire roster by making trades, letting UFA's walk, and making callups to their affiliates for young players to roster the following season.

I don't see the Capitals doing that simply based on Ovie's Quest for the Gretz. The team SHOULD be doing things to help bolster #8 and his crew's chances at another Cup within the next couple seasons.
But at the same time, the Caps would be foolish to spend all their young assets and remaining top picks on a slim chance to win it all without taking into account what the team will be like in about 2-3 years (when both Backstrom's and Ovechkin's contracts expire).

[SaucyJack]

2 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

is that enough to keep fan interest in the overall product on the ice? I would think the fans still want a winning team

D.C. area is rich compared to other metropolitan areas.  Lots of tech and defense (esp the Virginia side) with enough young’uns working for them to keep buying Capitals game tickets.  
 

As long as they are good enough to be alive for playoff chances, that’s probably good enough to keep ticket sales high.   And if playoffs start looking hopeless by March, they can just count oviegoals for fun.

[SaucyJack]

Danger Time!

 

Caps have had some good wins since their December hot streak: sweep of Jets, decisive scores vs Leafs and Rangers.  I think these were outweighed  by bad losses: home failures to Stars, Sens, Preds, and Wild, plus the Flyers Sweep.

 

Truth is, Caps schedule has not been tough or challenging lately.

 

Last night they started a run against mostly good teams…10 games spanning the Break including Vegas, Colo, Pbgh, Tor, Bos, and twice with Carolina.  Throw in Florida too.

 

A dismal start to this challenge last night as the Knights build a 5-love lead for the easy win.  Come Feb 19th, I expect to see Washington out of the playoff spots.  (Maybe they’ll claw back in later.)

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

2 hours ago, SaucyJack said:

Danger Time!

 

Caps have had some good wins since their December hot streak: sweep of Jets, decisive scores vs Leafs and Rangers.  I think these were outweighed  by bad losses: home failures to Stars, Sens, Preds, and Wild, plus the Flyers Sweep.

 

Truth is, Caps schedule has not been tough or challenging lately.

 

Last night they started a run against mostly good teams…10 games spanning the Break including Vegas, Colo, Pbgh, Tor, Bos, and twice with Carolina.  Throw in Florida too.

 

A dismal start to this challenge last night as the Knights build a 5-love lead for the easy win.  Come Feb 19th, I expect to see Washington out of the playoff spots.  (Maybe they’ll claw back in later.)

 

And with no Ovechkin in the game against Vegas yesterday, and with him being listed now as "day to day", the Caps will HAVE to come up with compelling games as the Ovechkin chase has been put on hold for now.

I don't know if Ovechkin simply needed a maintenance day or not, but I am sure your fanbase will like it much better if he can get back on the ice sooner than later.

Meanwhile, his insurance partner, Nik Backstrom, has looked like he is slowly but surely coming around? Doesn't quite look like his dangerous playmaking self just yet (understandable), but has shown flashes of it.
This team needs both he and Ovechkin playing together, in sync, and carrying this team.

[SaucyJack]

3 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

Meanwhile, his insurance partner, Nik Backstrom, has looked like he is slowly but surely coming around? Doesn't quite look like his dangerous playmaking self just yet (understandable), but has shown flashes of it.
This team needs both he and Ovechkin playing together, in sync, and carrying this team.

Backstrom looked slow upon returning.  I don’t hold high hopes but how do you not have him (and Wilson) return?  Commenters to the WaPo game articles complain that their return has ruined chemistry.  But if so that’s on the players…

 

…who looked lost on Vegas goals 1&3.  Poor defense on 2nd goal 2-on-1.  Lucky 4th goal rebound but terrible defense on goal 5.  Gave up after that; why not do as the team does?  Or do I mean ‘dies’ as the spellchecker first suggested lol…

 

…Oshie admits the team was ‘disinterested’ but wtf!  How much you guys get paid, bruh?!?  Too many similar comments and excuses like this from Caps this year after similarly dull efforts.  Ovie or not, same stuff different day.

 

Dare I say it?  Maybe Peter Laviolette needs to go.  He is not inspiring his squad.   (Especially at home, despite this being a toad debacle.  Yeah we’ll go with the spellchecker correction! )

[SaucyJack]

Wow, Caps eke out a win in this tough stretch, tonight vs Pittsburgh.   They really needed two points, somewhere in this schedule.  (They deserved better in “Darcy Does Denver” the other night but just couldn’t translate dominating 3rd period play into the tying goal.  It’s a big concern, this team’s inability to finish a good scoring chance at a rate that other teams seem to.)

 

Kuemper has no real good excuse on the late Penguins tying tally that involved no screen…other than its wicked pace and place.

 

It was totally unexpected to see the Caps win the shootout after trailing 0-1.   I was especially shocked by Backstrom’s success.  A couple days rest then on to T’ronto.

[SaucyJack]

Sixth game in their tough 10-game stretch, in Beantown.  Maybe the Caps were lucky to face the Bruins in the first game back after a long all-star break for both.  Caps looked good on D despite some chances and bounces that could have changed things.   Boston had lost 3 of 4, all on the road, going into the break.  Maybe they need to rewarm the engine.
 

But who expected Washington to win this one?   They were 2-3 in their last five, the two wins being OT and shootout squeakers, and a couple losses (VGK, TOR) being decisive beat-downs.  So today is one of their season’s highlights.  Nice response to the 5-2 home drubbing from Boston in the season opener.

 

The first goal was a gift, in that the dumb “push the broken stick into the puck” penalty gave Washington the cinco en tres and the Backstrom power play tap-in. He says he’s good; clearly he’s willing to rush the net and pay whatever price to his hip.  (And I have never seen this flavor of interference penalty in my decades of hockey viewing.)

 

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t find a complaint about Oven Chicken.  I maintain he is not sufficiently multi-dimensional to be in any ‘all time great’ conversation.  You’d have had to see the 3rd period live since this did not make the Extended Highlights reel…

 

…7 minutes left, Caps up 2-1, and TJ Oshie rushes up the right wing on a 2-on-1 break.  He passes left to Ovie, who immediately shoots with the goalie perfectly in place and the defender quite close but not impairing his goalie’s sight.  OVECHKIN MUST return Oshie’s pass back, immediately!  Oshie surely was all alone for a great chance.  But unlike world football stars like Messi or Lewandowski, or better hockey players, he’d made his mind up to shoot and thereby limited his options including the pass.  Is it any wonder that his career +/- is quite mediocre?

 

Still, a very good day for this Caps bunch.  Let’s see if they throw it away in tomorrow’s home matinee against a San Jose squad who’ve been resting for two days and would love to end their marathon 8-game road odyssey with a W.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

I bench Backstrom on my fantasy team due to his spotty performance since returning, but he ends up getting the opening PP goal en route to the win.
That'll learn me, eh?  

[SaucyJack]

5 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

That'll learn me, eh?  

O ye of little faith.  Have ye not heard of the awesome power of Sweden’s heathen overlord Odin?  To Backstrom he gives The Power.  ️ (Not Tampa Bay, oddly.)

 

Hey you fixed smileys!  Or maybe not?!  The first one was supposed to be a lightning bolt; I guess that’s more Thor?  O well…

 

P.S.  You will be most pleased to hear my report that Ms Emily Kaplan was at her ever-outstanding best during the ABC TV broadcast.  Only the finest inquiries were directed at such luminaries as the aforementioned Swedish underlord and Coach Laviolette.

 

 

Edited February 12, 2023 by SaucyJack

[SaucyJack]

https://russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2023/02/13/winnipeg-jets-place-axel-jonsson-fjallby-on-waivers-giving-capitals-opportunity-to-claim-him-back/
 

Well hell YEAH, bring AJF back to Washington.  It’s worth it just for his name.  Axel Jonsson-Fjällby…rolls off the tongue…that Swedish sound…sound like….Victory.

[SaucyJack]

The Caps have played 10 home games so far in calendar year 2023.  After tonight’s home loss to the Red Things, they are 2-8 in those games.  (One was in OT, so 5 points out of a possible 20.  Uggh!  And lost the last four since the now infathomable road win in Boston.)

 

P.S.  Even if the teams were amenable, Patrick Kane could nix a move to Washington.  His Chicago contract has a clause denying being traded to any club not in any position or chance of winning the Stanley Cup.  Ha ha

[SaucyJack]

At this stage, Darcie Kuemper’s mindset is surely all What the Friggin’ Fork as to what this season is about.  You mean I left my 2022 Championship Team for bleedin’ THIS ?!?

 

So he largely shut the door at The Island last night, in what was surely a must-win against a team they chase for seed #8.  After spotting them an early goal, Stromer and Osher turn ‘er around with help later from Mantha, Howdy Dowdy, and Backs.

 

Adjusted for 68 games played, 1 point added for each game in hand, here’s yer East Wild Card story after completion of play on Saturday 11th March:

 

Pbgh   79

NYI       76

Fla       74

Ott       73

Buf       72

Was      72

Det       70

 

Had the Caps lost in Brooklyn, they’d be 8, not 4, points back of a berth.  Not over yet despite their recent dealings.  

Far less of an ordeal to capture 8th than to beat a Bruins or Canes in 1st round.  Were I neutral, I’d be rooting for an Ottawa or Buffalo to get playoff experience instead, than to see the chance wasted on this Aging Bunch.  

[SaucyJack]

Such sad sacks of sh!te are this year’s Capitals.  Utterly desperate for 2 points every game now, they face the lowest-points team in the league, at home. 

So what do they show against the Blue Jackets?  
 

(Of course, unlike teams locked into playoffs, they must start their playoff push *earlier*, to give maximum effort here in March, rather than waiting to ramp up the full-bore energy and battles of attrition in April.  *Now* is the time, unfortunately, for *any* bubble team, to expend the extra energy.)

 

So they lose in OT in a game they never trailed.  Surely all should have known by now that home leads of 3-0, 4-2, 5-3, and 6-5 would only signify an eventual single brownie point rather than the full points.  Frigging hosers.

 

Since 29th December, the Caps have played 12 home games against playoff non-contenders.  What do they have to show for it?  I will enlighten you: 3 wins, 6 losses, and 3 overtime losses.  So, that’s 9 points instead of what a manly squad would garner at home against a long run of visiting weak foes, about double that, going 9-3 for 18 points.  Frigging weakling girly-men, yahhh, no one can pump you oppp, aww right?

 

I know one thing for sure:  it is an utter joke and sham for the final home game to be deemed Fan Appreciation Night.  No, that’s bowl sheet, mahhhn…this team is undeserving of any sentiment like that.  Frigging hoser coward boys too lazy to practice properly so as to play consistently well.  They are hardly talentless but don’t get the job done against lower-tier clubs, the overpaid dandies.

 

Cue the exit music for these hosers…

 

 

[NHL HHOF]

Capitals eliminated, hampered by injuries to Backstrom, others

Had made playoffs for 8 straight seasons; moves before Trade Deadline provide optimism for 2023-24

https://www.nhl.com/news/washington-capitals-eliminated-hampered-by-injuries-to-nick-backstrom-others/c-343137812?tid=277548856

[SaucyJack]

It’s all aftermath now; what a sorry sad sack season.  All that remains is for people to make wisecracks and to cheer when Peter Laviolette is let go.

 

Yet again for the umpteenth time, Coach Lav said the team needed more energy.  He cannot inspire any of that though, quite clearly.  Two short-handed goals early in the second turn an early 1-0 Caps lead upside down to 2-1 Habs and an insurmountable run from there.

 

Y’know who did have some energy last night:  Montreal fans.  With massive power outages only blocks from Bell Centre stadium, Habs supporters walked thru darkened streets to see Ovenchicken’s only visit of the season, long after the exploits of either team mattered other than for draft lottery chances.

 

Q: How many Washington Capitals does it take to change a light bulb?

 

A: It all depends; what’s their energy level tonight?

[NHL HHOF]

Would the Washington Capitals still had won the Stanley Cup in 2018 if David Poile was their General Manager?

[SaucyJack]

11 hours ago, NHL HHOF said:

Would the Washington Capitals still had won the Stanley Cup in 2018 if David Poile was their General Manager?

Given that his playoff squads were repeatedly cursed, losing many game sevens and crucial OTs even when they held the skating advantage, I’d say no.

 

But sometimes playoffs in sports are dumb luck.  Go back in time to April 2018 and replay everything, I doubt Caps break the curse, Poile or not…avoid 0-3 deficit to Jackets with multi-OT goal on road.  Another uncharacteristic Caps OT winner vs Penguins game 7 care of Kuzy.  Then win G6&7 for comeback over Tampa. 
 

Had a butterfly swept its wings slightly different in Bolivia a month prior, or if a front row Jackets fan had spilled his beer a different direction in OT, the Caps would be in the same Cupless Club as VAN & BUF & others.

[NHL HHOF]

Would Alex Ovechkin been drafted by the Washington Capitals if David Poile had still been their general manager?

[SaucyJack]

2 hours ago, NHL HHOF said:

Would Alex Ovechkin been drafted by the Washington Capitals if David Poile had still been their general manager?

Absolutely.  Any GM would have.  He was like Bedard, the hands down #1 choice that season.

 

Caps got the #1 pick per the rebuild that started after the spring 2003 playoff collapse to Lecavalier’s and St Louis’ Tampa Bay squad.  One of the many playoff debacles.  Within a year, Bye Bye Bondra.  (Also bye bye coach Bruce Cassidy yeah our VGK winning coach has been around a while.)

[SaucyJack]

3 hours ago, SaucyJack said:

He was like Bedard, the hands down #1 choice that season.

This is my memory, which can be faulty.    I see that Malkin went 2nd in summer of ‘04.  I do not recall any serious “Ovechkin or Malkin?” hand-wringing indecision back then.   But might Poile have chosen Malkin?  Note: like Ovie, Malkin has a mediocre career +/- of +47.  

 

I had also forgotten that Ovie didn’t hit the ice until a full year later, as the Sep ‘04 lockout evolved into the Fully Lost Season.

[NHL HHOF]

21 hours ago, SaucyJack said:

This is my memory, which can be faulty.    I see that Malkin went 2nd in summer of ‘04.  I do not recall any serious “Ovechkin or Malkin?” hand-wringing indecision back then.   But might Poile have chosen Malkin?  Note: like Ovie, Malkin has a mediocre career +/- of +47.  

 

I had also forgotten that Ovie didn’t hit the ice until a full year later, as the Sep ‘04 lockout evolved into the Fully Lost Season.

 

Do you recall if Alex Ovechkin ever publicly stated or if his agent ever mentioned that he had a list of NHL teams he wanted to play for before he was drafted. Did he specifically mention Washington, or did he not care which team drafted him?

[SaucyJack]

3 hours ago, NHL HHOF said:

 

Do you recall if Alex Ovechkin ever publicly stated or if his agent ever mentioned that he had a list of NHL teams he wanted to play for before he was drafted. Did he specifically mention Washington, or did he not care which team drafted him?

I do not recall.  I read somewhere he felt good about being picked #1 rather than #2 (whether it be vs Malkin or anyone else.)  Here’s a Wayback Machine link to the 2004 WaPo article on the entry draft; McPhee had several trade offers.  Hope the firewall lets you read at least one article:

 

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/sports/2004/06/27/caps-make-ovechkin-no-1-pick-in-draft/0d3657b5-cc01-448a-a8be-db0172c764c0/

 

Reading about all of this, I learned that Ovie played an extra year for Dinamo Moscow because of the ‘04-‘05 NHL season cancellation.  (My own head that season was less ‘Ovie is coming’ than it was ‘last season sucked and Bondra left’.  I recall a business presentation we gave with customer guests from either Pittsburgh or Toronto in early ‘05 and somehow it became apparent they were hockey fans and I mentioned the lost season and how I missed Bondra anyway and they were just shaking their heads in commiseration on how sad it was to have no NHL for a full year.  Ah, bad times…)

Edited July 19, 2023 by SaucyJack

[SaucyJack]

So, who picked all 5’8” of young Calgary native son Matthew Phillips to score Washington’s 1st tally of the season?  And to do so against the only NHL team he’d ever played for (3 games total that’s it) before this season, his hometown Flames?

 

And, to assist on the Caps’ second goal of the season?  And to have been the subject of a WaPo Sports feature article writeup just this morning?

 

“You can’t make this stuff up.” : David Letterman

[Brewin Flames]

Yup, almost scripted, but he spent 7 years in the flames organization was was never able to do squat, so whatever.