McPhee and Oates Out of Washington

[nossagog]

Sadly, I think the only way the Caps become a winner again is to somehow part with Ovie.  Now before you all bash me, think about it.  Ovie tries to be a one man show and hardly every skates back to get on defense.  For all the talent in the world that Ovie has, IMO, he is a cancer to the team.  You can bring in Scotty Bowman to coach this team, and unless you real in Ovie and get him to commit 100% to a system, the Caps will be a talented team going no where.

 

I get that Ovie is currently the face of the franchise and that he puts bodies in the seats, but at what price?  The Caps are not a horrible team and they have a wonderful and talented AHL team in Hershey.  When skates and puts forth the effort he can be a beast on the ice, but when starts playing lazy that whole team suffers.  Again this all my humble opinion.

 

Solve the the Ovie problem and you go along way to solving the Caps problem.  Now to find a coach who wants to deal with Ovie........well good luck.

 

Doc, I don't think you'll find many that are going to bash you.  Even those who used to support Ovie, including Caps fans(go to one of their sites), have just about given up on Ovie. 

 

Curley Boudreau(Jack Adams award winner) tried to change him, failed and got canned. 

Hunter tried, failed, and got canned.

Oates tried, failed and got canned.

His team is on its 8 starting goaltender since he came into the league, good luck Jaroslav

They've tried the wide open offense, scored lots of goals, lost early in playoffs

They've tried to play tighter defense, goal production down, lost early in playoffs(and now missed the playoffs)

New Coaches, no change. Different styles of play, no change. Change team mates, no change.

 

The common thing, Ovie's still there, and will be there as long as he's putting cans in the seat.  My biggest criticism of Ovie is and always has been that he's a self centered player who thinks only of himself and scoring goals.

 

I used to get bashed on other sites, since I was a Pens fan, I was only criticizing The Great 8 because I was jealous that he was better than Crosby.  Yep, he's better at scoring goals, and that's it.  Other players who came in at the same time as Ovie have improved their games, especially in areas that they were lacking.  Ovie has not. He's not tried to get better at defense, backchecking, blocking shots, heck, has he EVER taken a faceoff.

 

He has become SO one dimensional, he's almost not even effective at 5v5 any longer.  His game has gotten WORSE. He's becoming the highest paid power play specialist ever in NHL history.

 

Team Captain? His comments after he was criticized about not getting back on defense on the game winning goal against coming down the stretch was telling.   He said, "Well other players didn't come back either".  Really, not many players would try to deflect blame somewhere else, let alone a team captain.

 

I just can't see how the Caps can get rid of him.  That contract is so restrictive, what team would take him.  It would have to be a team that consistently spends to the cap, which would be a perennial cup competitor. But those teams also have good management who see Ovie in a much different light than most.  They are in the business of building "teams", not individual stats. 

 

Its a shame really, he was one of the most exciting players in the league, and the Caps were such an offensive juggernaut at one point. But IMHO, he has been the biggest reason for the Caps downturn.  I just don't see it turning around until he's gone, but will the fans stay afterwards or through this if they can't make the playoffs.

[pilldoc]

I think the only way the Caps solve this problem is one of two things.

 

1) pray Ovie would like to go to the KHL .......  (or)

2) the Caps commit financial suicide and buy him out. (not gonna happen)

 

 

Other than that ...yup he is "THE" cancer to why the Caps are where they are,.