Eastern Conference: Round 1 - #1 Washington Capitals vs. WC#1 Columbus Blue Jackets

[pilldoc]

 

 

All discussion between the Capitals / Blue Jackets series here:

 

Capitals (M1) vs. Blue Jackets (WC1)

Game 1: April 12 at Washington, 7:30 p.m.
Game 2: April 15 at Washington, 7:30 p.m.
Game 3: April 17 at Columbus, 7:30 p.m.
Game 4: April 19 at Columbus, 7:30 p.m.
*Game 5: April 21 at Washington, TBD
*Game 6: April 23 at Columbus, TBD
*Game 7: April 25 at Washington, TBD

[yave1964]

Picked the Caps in 7, it could go the other way if the Capitals goaltending goes sideways but really, the Caps drew the ideal opponent, Columbus is a good team but doesn't score a bunch so the defense/netminding issues will likely be glossed over for this round.

[pilldoc]

I've seen this movie before.  Caps...Caps...Caps is all hear during the regular season.

 

Caps will find a way to give this series away.  Bob vs. Holtby looks good on paper, BUT I see more pain in the future for Capital fans.

 

Yes ....the more fair weathered fans in the entire NHL.  Glad to see them in agony again.

 

Blue Jackets in 6

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

These Blue Jackets are REALLY tough to gauge.

 

On the surface, they seem like they'd be perfect for playoff hockey:

Big bodied, tough defensively, a good goalie in Sergei Bobrovsky, play a good forechecking game, AND have guys that can play with speed and finesse.

 

And they seem to be able to contain high scoring teams pretty well too.

 

Then again, high talent teams like Pittsburgh (twice) have bounced them from the post season...and Washington is just as capable of putting lots of offensive pressure as well as Pittsburgh...in addition to being a 'heavier' team to play against.

 

This series really will come down to which version of the Caps and Jackets show up.

 

If the version of the Jackets that shows up is the same one that grinds down opponents, score opportunistically, and has Bob in peak form, then I think the Jackets can win in 6.

 

If the version of the Caps that show up are the highly offensive, big hitting, score two goals in a nanosecond with some nasty extracurriclars, then I can see the Caps taking this in about 6 as well.

 

Call Washington chokers all you want (they certainly have earned that dubious distinction), but I think its more likely the Caps play like the better half of themselves than the Jackets do.

I think Columbus' issues isn't with the talent, but likely between the ears.

 

They ARE a tough bunch to play against, but at times, they EASILY get drawn into the other team's strengths (such as trying to play end to end with the Penguins in past series), and that is usually their undoing.

 

I will root for Torts' group, but I still think the Caps can pull this off in 6, with guys like Ovechkin (scoring and physical play), Wilson (with extracurriculars, antics, and general a-hole play), and Holtby (showing up the way he really is supposed to) playing big time factors.

[FD19372]

I'll take Caps in 7. More playoff experience, scoring and a better head coach IMHO.

[Kings Redeem LA]

5 hours ago, pilldoc said:

I've seen this movie before.  Caps...Caps...Caps is all hear during the regular season.

 

Caps will find a way to give this series away.  Bob vs. Holtby looks good on paper, BUT I see more pain in the future for Capital fans.

 

Yes ....the more fair weathered fans in the entire NHL.  Glad to see them in agony again.

 

Blue Jackets in 6

 

Hey come on, Pilldoc! 

You know full well that 

the Caps lose in the 

second round.  

 

That movie's bad enough as things stand!     

[OccamsRazor]

I got the Blue Jackets in 7 since well it's the Caps....

[Buffalo Rick]

Go Caps, go Wild, go Kings.  My choices 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

5 hours ago, Hockey Junkie said:

Go Caps, go Wild, go Kings.  My choices 

 

[yave1964]

Trotz laying it out there, starting Grubauer instead of Holtby. If it bombs you gotta think he will be canned. Props for not taking the safe route. Wonder where Holtbeast will be playing next year.....

[ruxpin]

17 minutes ago, yave1964 said:

Trotz laying it out there, starting Grubauer instead of Holtby. If it bombs you gotta think he will be canned. Props for not taking the safe route. Wonder where Holtbeast will be playing next year.....

 

I just now saw this on Twitter and came here to see if anyone posted.   That's astounding, huh?

 

Yeah, i can't imagine Holtby stays there next year.   A couple of teams could use a goalie.   St. Louis, Ottawa, Buffalo, Detroit, Vancouver, Edmonton.  Just to name a few.   

 

Philly.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

I am not anything close to an NHL head coach, but seems to me starting your backup goalie (and let's not kid ourselves, Grubauer IS the back up) over your very good #1 (despite his struggles down the stretch) simply sends a bad message to the team in general.

 

And someone once told me that a goaltender's confidence when a coach doesn't think he can be "the guy" can be easily shattered, or the goalie goes into "eff you coach" mode.

HOnestly, I don't care HOW well Grubauer has played down the stretch, Holtby is your number one.

 

You live and die with your number one.

 

If Louis Domingue had been playing better than Vasilevskiy (and at times it looked like he was), I'D STILL want Vasy in net for the playoffs..... same with any goaltender behind Dubnyk in Minnesota, I am sure the same holds true in places like Montreal, Florida, Los Angeles, San Jose, Colorado...etc...you guys get the idea.

 

If you have a number one, you PLAY your number one.

If that number one fails you in the post season, and you want to go in a different direction, then fine, but unless Barry Trotz thinks Holtby is 'washed up', then he needs to play him.

[ruxpin]

11 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

I am not anything close to an NHL head coach, but seems to me starting your backup goalie (and let's not kid ourselves, Grubauer IS the back up) over your very good #1 (despite his struggles down the stretch) simply sends a bad message to the team in general.

 I agree with this and the rest of your post.  But isn't New Jersey pretty much doing the same thing?  Or do you view that differently?  I think maybe I do because I didn't think twice about it until reading your post. 

[MadDevil]

As a fan of a team whose backup has outplayed the starter and stolen his job down the stretch, I understand starting Grubauer. You have to go with the guy you think gives you the best chance to win. Especially if you're a team with a reputation for playoff futility like Washington. Now is not the time to let a goalie "play through" his struggles.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

1 minute ago, ruxpin said:

 I agree with this and the rest of your post.  But isn't New Jersey pretty much doing the same thing?  Or do you view that differently?  I think maybe I do because I didn't think twice about it until reading your post. 

 

Good point.

And the NJ situation did occur to me.

 

I think I would actually start Cory Schneider as well (as long as he is fully healthy and ready to go) then go from there.

Schneider still is the number one in NJ and the same reasoning applies to the situation in Washington.

 

Regarding BOTH Holtby and Schneider, if they struggle in the opening game, then perhaps it would be safe to say "Ok, well we are going to give Grubauer / Kinkaid a go".

 

I am a firm believer that if you have a legit number one goalie, you play him.

[ruxpin]

@yave1964 @TropicalFruitGirl26

 

I think maybe it didn't bother me as much with New Jersey because Schneider is meh whereas Holtby is Holtby (even if he hasn't played well). 

 

I agree it's the same principle, though. 

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Well, if Coach Trotz really is going to go with Grubauer, this could change things in this series against the Jackets.

 

I mean, the Caps are still gonna have to defend and are still gonna have to score better than Columbus, but how would you like to be the Jackets, look across the ice, and see Braden Freakin Holtby wearing the baseball cap while Philippe Le GruBear is in net??

 

If I am a skater on Columbus I am thinking, "Man, we got a bit of a break here.....we can take advantage and maybe steal Game 1!"

 

Now whether the Jackets actually do that is a whole other thing, but the thing is, I am still betting they would be happier to see the Washington backup in there instead of worrying about whether a guy like Holtby will round into his Vezina quality old self and completely shut them down.

 

I will stand by my prediction of Caps in 6, but I made that prediction thinking Holtby WOULD be a big factor.... and that the version of the Jackets that come out to play is NOT the one that knows how to wear down the opponents and then score when they are too tired to do anything about it.

 

Caps may have made things a bit more difficult for themselves with a goalie move like this because Columbus may feel better about things to start the series on the road like they are.

[OccamsRazor]

2 hours ago, yave1964 said:

Trotz laying it out there, starting Grubauer instead of Holtby. If it bombs you gotta think he will be canned. Props for not taking the safe route. Wonder where Holtbeast will be playing next year.....

 

Wow would love to have Holtby on the Flyers Braden Holtby would be a perfect stop gap til Hart is ready 2 more years at 6.1mill per.

 

Call em Ron get to dialing!!!!!!!

[MadDevil]

57 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

 

Good point.

And the NJ situation did occur to me.

 

I think I would actually start Cory Schneider as well (as long as he is fully healthy and ready to go) then go from there.

Schneider still is the number one in NJ and the same reasoning applies to the situation in Washington.

 

Regarding BOTH Holtby and Schneider, if they struggle in the opening game, then perhaps it would be safe to say "Ok, well we are going to give Grubauer / Kinkaid a go".

 

I am a firm believer that if you have a legit number one goalie, you play him.

 

I would doubt Hynes' sanity if he went with Schneider to start the playoffs. He's lost 12 straight starts and has given up at least 3 goals in all of them.

 

Back to Holtby though he hasn't been quite as bad as Cory has, but has given up 3 or more goals in 11 of his last 14 games. I think at this point a coach is looking for consistency and right now that's Grubauer if you're looking at the two. If he flops, Holtby can save the day and earn back the starting job. If Grubauer doesn't flop, maybe the Caps finally win something (doubtful with the Pens looming in the second round again). If Holtby is unhappy backing up a team that finally does something, that's on him for underperforming and losing his job.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

@MadDevil

 

Well, hard to argue with your reasoning there.

At the end of the day, the head coach knows his goalies and has his hand on the pulse of the team (one would think anyways), so any decisions he makes should be based on what he knows and not what us fans THINK we know.

 

Trotz could come out of this looking like a genius starting Grubauer over Holtby....but if the Jackets rip the back up goalie, oh boy....

Then like you said, Holtby better have his white horse ready to charge in...

[Kings Redeem LA]

This goalie move surpises me. 

Whatever its reason I feel it charges Columbus  , 

gets them thinking the Caps may be in some disarray, 

that they're gonna strike even harder if Washington's  

#1 netminder won't be the one on guard to begin. 

 

I can see going backup if Holtby bombs in the first game 

or if the Caps go up 3 - 0. Perhaps the Coach knows or 

feels something that the public can't know or feel right now. 

But unless there's some overpowering phenomenon to go without 

Holtby to start, this move seems, well, unnecessarily experimental, 

decidedly risky.  

 

Yeah the Capitals have underachieved in past playoffs but Braden 

certainly isn't the primary culprit in that. The team's gotta do better 

at forcing their game on their opponents, producing at home during 

must-win postseason battles, and getting on a 

same positive page psychologically. No group this good, this 

relatively healthy, over the last few years should still be less. 

 

 

 

 

[hf101]

I got the Caps in 6.  This could be their year.  just saying...

[yave1964]

Fun game last night, Anderson IMHO deserved 2 minutes not 5 for his hit on Kempny but they are calling that stuff hard all year. That is his game tho.

  Vanek has been the perfect addition to the Jackets, an under the radar free pickup at the deadline he has been everything and more the Jackets needed to give a boost to the power play.

 

   Now what for Washington? That goal by Panrin in OT was weak, poorly played by Grubauer (although it took a near perfect shot) he allowed too much of the net. Who is in net tomorrow for the Caps?

[OccamsRazor]

@hf101

 

The Bread Man went Yeast Mode on the Caps!!!!!

[Kings Redeem LA]

19 hours ago, yave1964 said:

Fun game last night, Anderson IMHO deserved 2 minutes not 5 for his hit on Kempny but they are calling that stuff hard all year. That is his game tho.

  Vanek has been the perfect addition to the Jackets, an under the radar free pickup at the deadline he has been everything and more the Jackets needed to give a boost to the power play.

 

   Now what for Washington? That goal by Panrin in OT was weak, poorly played by Grubauer (although it took a near perfect shot) he allowed too much of the net. Who is in net tomorrow for the Caps?

 

It's gotta be Holtby.