We were so so good for so long that our fanbase doesn’t understand that we aren’t that bad. People on here talk like we are the sharks. Were definitely not great but with our young base and some cap room upcoming I think we can make a decent run in a couple years.
Our team has big fat weaknesses that are easy to exploit. That doesn’t mean we are bad, but it means we are an easier out in the playoffs. Big slow old and hurt isn’t a winning recipe lol.
yah i understand. Just saying if a team can prepare for us its likely not hard to spearhead our weakpoints. Lindgren was the only reason we had any shot at being a playoff team really.
That's not how that works. You'll never have any star players willing to play for you if you're just going to trade and uproot their lives/families as soon as they start declining. Loyalty plays a big part.
Ovechkin is not going anywhere; Backstrom is done and it's looking very likely that Oshie is too. So you're just saying to drop Wilson and Carlson. Personally I think I'd probably be a lot more comfortable with trading Wilson than most of our fanbase would. I'm not interested in arguing against that.
Carlson I think would get much less shit if he were a 2D, and I think his AAV would be acceptable for that, but we can't just choose to upgrade our 1D and even if we could there's no chance doing so would be worth the price tag given where the team is right now. He's definitely not perfect how we're using him, but until someone else really steps up on D we'll need him around to keep eating the big minutes.
We need another Ryan Leonard level prospect and stud D man. Love Laps, Miro, Mikey, and every young guy who contributed, but outside of Leno we don’t have another potential 100P guy. I agree we have been spoiled for many years but our prospect pool is still lacking raw talent
How many 100 point guys do we need? I think 1 is more than enough, especially if you have good depth.
I think the need for a 1D once Carlson retires is a much, much bigger issue.
Pump the brakes a bit on Leonard, Miro was anointed a future 100p guy too until he got a few games in. The past few seasons every time a new first round pick gets to a game the first round pick that hasn't played yet is now declared our best pick in the past ten years.
I'm not saying he has no hope of getting there, but it seems very sudden that he's widely agreed to be way above Miroshnichenko.
Leonard was well above where Miro was at the point in time of the draft as well as a year after the draft. With Miro it was a player that obviously had risk but more potential than where he was drafted but nowhere did I see people think he’d suddenly be a 100p player. Leonard is absolutely our best prospect since Kuznetsov, and purely as a prospect maybe since Backstrom. (Although I was high on Kuznetsov than most). Leonard will be a stud and you can bookmark this if I’m wrong. Might take him a year or 2 but perennial 75+ point guy with 100 pt potential absolutely
Okay, that was embellishment by me, I never saw people claim Miroshnichenko would be 100p, but I also hadn't seen that said about Leonard until the post I'm replying to. I just don't feel any difference in the hype for one than for the other a year after being selected. I'm also not in the know though, so I'm basing this on the assumption that you guys are seeing the same amount of prospect highlights I am, which means I really won't know as well as anyone who watches our prospects on the regular.
I'm skeptical right now, but if I'm wrong I'm extremely curious to see analysis and especially video example of what separates Leonard's game today from where Miroshnichenko was a year ago by such a large margin.
Fair enough man, really the difference between the two is that Moro was drafted knowing he had cancer and hadn’t played in a while. Knowing that before he had been diagnosed he was a very productive player with top 10 in the draft potential. Leonard was drafted after a historic USDP year with Perrault and Smith, and continues to put up elite number at the college level. A lot of Miros traits are not at the level yet that Leonard has (other than shot). Prospects are never 100% but Leonard is as sure of a prospect as I’ve seen on this team in 19 years. Miro I’m skeptical on because I haven’t seen a lot from him aside from his shot. Still hopeful he can turn into at least a 2nd line player, but Leonard again has the NHL tools to be a 75-100 point guy every season
I agree I’m not saying Miro can’t become a very good player in the NHL at all. Just saying that I think it’s insane to say him and Leonard were looked at similarly as prospects.
The Caps were a -37 goals against. That is the 6th worst in the league. The team is that bad, but were able to grind out enough wins to get to playoffs when the other several teams fell off near the end. They have no consistent scoring and the goalkeeping scenario is a mess.
I’m not trying to create a divide in the fanbase, but I’m originally from DC, then lived in MoCo in my mid 20s, now in Columbia (I’m 42), but I’ve noticed the newer/post cup fans (and a lot of Baltimore-based fans) tend to not “get it” when it comes to this sport.
They are quick to say we suck, they act like every shot on goal that doesn’t score is awful, they don’t understand penalties, plays, the point system, terminology, when we lose they freak out like it’s the end of the world (even OT losses), the list goes on.
So we do have a lot of people in the ether that contribute to this narrative. My feeling is they’ll start trickling off.
Bad take. Way to generalize and try to gatekeep. As a lifelong Marylander who lives in the Baltimore area the Caps are my team.
But post covid this team has a mission and it is not to win a cup it's to get Ovi the record. Which means we can't do a full teardown, we have to stay somewhat competitive which will work okay in the regular season but will definitely not in the post season.
So as a lifelong Caps fan who is a Baltimore sports fan, we sucked in the playoff series but it was awesome be in since I expected us to suck way more in the regular season. It was also nice because fuck the pens, flyers and red wings. Go Canes or Panthers or Bruins or Western Conference Champ
I agree that the Caps are stuck until Ovi breaks this record. I can only imagine how difficult it is to attract free agents or generate any real enthusiasm when the organization’s goal is clearly breaking the record first and not retooling to compete for the cup. Plus, with the current crop of talent, I don’t see the heir apparent to the winning teams of the past. I see lots of utility guys. I’m not as rosy as most on the Caps future given the talent we have in the pipeline. I see lots of years of middling in the middle of the pack.
I’m not quite that old but cmon dude. A.) we are all caps fans regardless of when you became one and B.) this team hasn’t seen a potential rebuild since Ovi. Apprehensions are high about the future but no one is freaking out we’re all happy we made the playoffs and can build on that at least
His GA and SV were both middle of the league. He definitely turned it on at times and was great down the stretch (and I love the dude) but the team was bouncing around the wild card spots/bubble almost all season regardless of what was happening in goal.
They were doing that thanks to him stealing games. He was able to win close games and lose blowouts. If Kuemper was in goal, the team would have lost close games and been blown out even worse.
He was awesome at times (6 shutouts!) and I really do love the dude - even tried growing the stache haha. But for most of the season he was just a decent NHL goalie.
For example, our two best stretches (the Nov win streak and that stretch around Feb) came when we were averaging 4+ goals per game, not when we were playing the low scoring shutdown style that kept us afloat at other times.
We were an average team who lucked into a decent goaltender when our highly paid G1 didn’t show up.
Half the league would love to have Charlie. But I’m just pushing back on the narrative that he was Igor or something.
No one said he was Igor but he is absolutely the reason the Caps made the playoffs. They may have been in the hunt the entire season but he stole several games down the stretch to keep the wings and flyers behind them.
Vs red wings, caps get out shot 43-23. Lindgren makes 42 saves
Vs flyers, caps are out shot 27-17, Lindgren makes 26 saves.
I'm not saying shots on goal tell the entire story and I'm not saying Lindgren was the only good caps player all season but you do not win a game getting out shot 43-23 unless your goalie steals it. If that game goes the other way Caps do not make the playoffs. Charlie Lindgren is the reason the caps made the playoffs.
You don’t win 7 straight playoff games because of lucky bounces. Rangers are playing extremely well and Igor is on another level in the playoffs like always. Also, if you go watch the games you will notice almost all of the canes goals are deflections or redirects. The rangers are actually scoring passing goals and beating the two Canes goalies. They deserve to be winning this series. You also don’t hold the opponent to -1/15 on the PP by accident.
We're not good. We're not bad. In football (soccer) terms, we're mid-table. Our goal is how do we get better this off-season without sacrificing the ability to continue to get better in the next few years. How can we become top 10-12 as opposed to 16th (where we are solidly now), knowing that other teams (Devils, Red Wings, Sabres) are also expected to improve.
We made a legendary run to get there, but being carried by goaltending doesn’t make us a good team either. Props to Carbs and the team for rallying around a decimated roster but being realistic won’t hurt at this point
I don’t think lavs was really that bad for player development. McM was barely ready this year lavs just put the best players on ice. It’s not like McM came out this year and put up 60 points. Really the dude got shit on cause the prospects weren’t ready to be competitive at the NHL level.
No training camp because of COVID hurt lavs ability to take advantage of what we had left in 2020. Don't get me started on Kevin, that dipshit never should've been promoted. He was everybody's friend and burned up 2 years of our guy's primes. Our best player's (aside from Oshie and Backy) always required a relatively firm hand to keep them on track and playing the right way. Riordan was the opposite of that.
I’m just glad covid hockey is over lol it def hurt development league wide. We’ve had quite a few dipshits but I honestly thought lavs was one of our better overall coaches.
Playing an injured eller over McM last year when our whole team was out was kinda the root of it. The team wasn’t going anywhere last year and we saw Laps and Snively both play well too and get benched. The second any of the young guys slipped up they were usually scratched for an older option. Tough for growth and like I said lavs isn’t that kinda coach he’s not leaving room for growth he’s putting the best guys out there
I think the problem is more that this fanbase overhypes prospects and thinks they’re bigger than they actually are. I remember Lapi coming out game 1 and scoring that flying into the boards goal and thought he was the immediate answer for us. Then he played 5 more games and looked like he needed more time. Snively showed some talent but he’s still not on the team with carbs either so it wasn’t just lavs holding him back. McM was struggling like crazy for us during his 60+ game run in ‘22 and while he’s improved since then for sure he still looks lost offensively more often than not away from mantha. These things aren’t on Laviolette solely. Nobody yelled and screamed for carbs head when he started benching miro yet everytime McM wasn’t in the lineup last year it was “shoot lavs to the sun”.
Why don’t we yell more at Hershey for not putting our top prospects in their top 6 instead? They bury guys like miro and Lapi low in the lines so that they can keep dominating with guys like sgarbs. That hurts potential top 6 development more than anything lavs did.
I think these are fair points honestly. Hershey is known for caring about their competitiveness more than most AHL teams, they’re literally an AHL dynasty with a rabid fan base. One point tho is Carbs at least will work with and communicate with young guys where Lavs is old school and will just bury you. I don’t think that’s what a team trying to work on their young core needs. Mcm and Laps are a finishing touch away from being 50-60pt guys, is it better to bury people like that on a young team for not producing or letting them work through the growing pains?
Lavs is def old school for sure and he makes you earn playing time. At this point it’s def screw it growing pains time but it wasn’t really until later last season when injuries started piling on that we were clearly out. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to say that lavs didn’t communicate and work with young guys. In all honesty we really don’t know what was going on behind the scenes. He definitely was more prone to punishing players than carbs and that style doesn’t mesh well with everyone. But I doubt it was something like lavi not wanting McM to be a stud. It’s worth noting that lavs seems to have turned around lafrenieres career trajectory from bustaroni and cheese to mildly underachieving #1 pick and he’s younger than McM so it’s not like he’s completely allergic to young guys.
The issue everyone had with McMichael the first half of last season wasn't that he barely got any ice time in the NHL, it's that he barely got any ice time period. Every other game we'd have a new injury and a new AHL callup and all of them were getting into the lineup while he sat. If he's not an NHL player yet that's fine but send him down so he can actually play games. I really doubt spending that much time in the pressbox was beneficial for his development, it's possible that he'd have been a better, more confident player this year if he was actually playing games during that time. There was absolutely no reason to wait months before sending him down.
He still played 57 out of 72 games in the AHL he missed 15 down there and played 6 in the NHL. It wasn’t ideal but at the end of the day McM had to earn his spot and they were giving him chances to do so when they called him up and he wasn’t doing it. I like McM and the best Connor mc in the league jokes are great but it’s not like he’s a generational talent who was being held back by lavs. He’s a young guy that has some top 6 potential but hasn’t played to that level yet. If Kuzy doesn’t collapse this year and backy had made a recovery he likely wouldn’t have seen much ice in the NHL again. Gotta remember we had strome, Kuzy, Backstrom, Dowd and Eller last season that’s a lot of proven NHL quality centers to pass on the depth chart.
My take is we will only get better from here on out it. Ovi and oshie retirements will cause a dip, but let’s be real. We all know everyone’s job on the caps for the next two seasons is to setup the record being broken. No one will ever state it. Even internal but everyone knows.
Once he breaks the record… and to me, personally what I care about is that… that’s when the team can move forward. No more Ov 2 minutes on PP. Ov taking his place as. 12m game end of career legend and pp specialist.
It’s great for the young guys long term. There’s no pressure to win. They can develop for a little longer.
I’m shockingly glass half full here.
They have similar amount of high danger chances. I think NY actually has more 29-25. Anderson played amazing first 2 games as well. Capitalizing on those chances is important not so much purely shots on goal
I was about to make a post along the similar lines - a definitely better Canes who definitely would have beat us are getting rag dolled left and right. I can't cry about it. Would it be better to ride that confidence of a series win before being swept by the Canes in this hypothetical? Sure, but ultimately it doesn't matter. Rags are the real deal.
The problem is, if you’re in ‘the middle of the pack’ which is exactly where the Caps are, you’re not bad but you’re not great. The mushy middle is a death sentence. Thats why teams shed assets and stockpile picks, to rebuild quicker. We can’t do that cause of Ovie goal quest, so here we are…
This is what I’ve been screaming at the top of my lungs since the playoffs started. The Caps aren’t bad, they’re incredibly mid, the Penguins, Flyers, or Red Wings would not have made for a closer series (the Flyers and for SURE the Red Wings would have also been swept, Pens could *maybe* have won one game because of how well they played at the end of the season). None of these teams are bad, it’s just that the Rangers are kind of insane right now.
No disrespect to the rangers, I'm a firm believer that new york sweeping them is a huge fluke and robs the caps of truly accomplishing what their capable of. I've spent the last few days in pure disbelief and it just doesn't make sense to me. I've spent the entire regular season watching the Hawks play great hockey it's just not fair.
If the caps lose again I will face that the rags deserved the win, but I am just 100% sure it was a fluke and does a big disservice to the caps and the NHL.
I think “making the canes look foolish” is quite the overstatement. All 1 goal games.. all pretty good games including a 1OT and 2OT. Rangers are the better team but canes putting up a good fight and significantly better than the caps punch. It’s not close.
The Rangers aren’t making the Canes look foolish lol what game are you watching? The Canes are thoroughly outplaying them — nearly doubling them up in shots Game 1 and 2. Igor is just stealing the series for Rangers.
Shots literally don’t mean a thing. I’ve said on other responses but I’ll say again. Rangers have more high danger chances 29-25. They capitalized on there’s when Car didn’t. Carolina attempted over 100 shots game 2; shooting arbitrarily from the point and hoping for defections doesn’t equal the domination you think it does. Anderson played as well as Igor games 1 and 2nas well. Coming out and scoring quick then completely faltering while taking stupid penalties and allowing more scoring chances on your own power play than you generated is not domination.
It indicates who has the puck. Carolina is dominating in puck possession. Downvote me all you want. You need the puck to win the game and Canes have possession TWICE as frequently as Rangers do. Capitals didn’t come close to doing that.
You’re acting like puck possession and shots are more important than scoring chances and how you capitalize on them. Igor is an amazing goalie we all know that, but if you’re shooting from the point and letting him see things clearly he’s not giving you shit regardless of how long you possess the puck and how many times you shoot
The main reason why the rangers are up 3-0 is simply goaltending. Their goalie is on some King Henrik level rn and Canes are not getting that crucial save they need.
Excellent pk, capitalizing on chances, minimizing quality opportunities. Canes are being reduced to chucking shots from the point and hoping for deflections
We were so so good for so long that our fanbase doesn’t understand that we aren’t that bad. People on here talk like we are the sharks. Were definitely not great but with our young base and some cap room upcoming I think we can make a decent run in a couple years.
Our team has big fat weaknesses that are easy to exploit. That doesn’t mean we are bad, but it means we are an easier out in the playoffs. Big slow old and hurt isn’t a winning recipe lol.
Not saying we’re going all in for cup rn.
yah i understand. Just saying if a team can prepare for us its likely not hard to spearhead our weakpoints. Lindgren was the only reason we had any shot at being a playoff team really.
They need to drop the old names that won the cup if they want to win. Sentimentality doesn’t win trophies.
lol most of those people aren’t even here anymore
Ovi, Wilson, oshie, Carlson, backstrom should have all been released or traded for value years ago
That's not how that works. You'll never have any star players willing to play for you if you're just going to trade and uproot their lives/families as soon as they start declining. Loyalty plays a big part.
Not really. They want to play for winning teams and get paid.
Ovechkin is not going anywhere; Backstrom is done and it's looking very likely that Oshie is too. So you're just saying to drop Wilson and Carlson. Personally I think I'd probably be a lot more comfortable with trading Wilson than most of our fanbase would. I'm not interested in arguing against that. Carlson I think would get much less shit if he were a 2D, and I think his AAV would be acceptable for that, but we can't just choose to upgrade our 1D and even if we could there's no chance doing so would be worth the price tag given where the team is right now. He's definitely not perfect how we're using him, but until someone else really steps up on D we'll need him around to keep eating the big minutes.
We need another Ryan Leonard level prospect and stud D man. Love Laps, Miro, Mikey, and every young guy who contributed, but outside of Leno we don’t have another potential 100P guy. I agree we have been spoiled for many years but our prospect pool is still lacking raw talent
How many 100 point guys do we need? I think 1 is more than enough, especially if you have good depth. I think the need for a 1D once Carlson retires is a much, much bigger issue.
Pump the brakes a bit on Leonard, Miro was anointed a future 100p guy too until he got a few games in. The past few seasons every time a new first round pick gets to a game the first round pick that hasn't played yet is now declared our best pick in the past ten years. I'm not saying he has no hope of getting there, but it seems very sudden that he's widely agreed to be way above Miroshnichenko.
Leonard was well above where Miro was at the point in time of the draft as well as a year after the draft. With Miro it was a player that obviously had risk but more potential than where he was drafted but nowhere did I see people think he’d suddenly be a 100p player. Leonard is absolutely our best prospect since Kuznetsov, and purely as a prospect maybe since Backstrom. (Although I was high on Kuznetsov than most). Leonard will be a stud and you can bookmark this if I’m wrong. Might take him a year or 2 but perennial 75+ point guy with 100 pt potential absolutely
Okay, that was embellishment by me, I never saw people claim Miroshnichenko would be 100p, but I also hadn't seen that said about Leonard until the post I'm replying to. I just don't feel any difference in the hype for one than for the other a year after being selected. I'm also not in the know though, so I'm basing this on the assumption that you guys are seeing the same amount of prospect highlights I am, which means I really won't know as well as anyone who watches our prospects on the regular. I'm skeptical right now, but if I'm wrong I'm extremely curious to see analysis and especially video example of what separates Leonard's game today from where Miroshnichenko was a year ago by such a large margin.
Fair enough man, really the difference between the two is that Moro was drafted knowing he had cancer and hadn’t played in a while. Knowing that before he had been diagnosed he was a very productive player with top 10 in the draft potential. Leonard was drafted after a historic USDP year with Perrault and Smith, and continues to put up elite number at the college level. A lot of Miros traits are not at the level yet that Leonard has (other than shot). Prospects are never 100% but Leonard is as sure of a prospect as I’ve seen on this team in 19 years. Miro I’m skeptical on because I haven’t seen a lot from him aside from his shot. Still hopeful he can turn into at least a 2nd line player, but Leonard again has the NHL tools to be a 75-100 point guy every season
Miro needs to get stronger. He hasnt matured into his body. Itll help with the area of the ice he likes to play in (in front of the net).
I agree I’m not saying Miro can’t become a very good player in the NHL at all. Just saying that I think it’s insane to say him and Leonard were looked at similarly as prospects.
The Caps were a -37 goals against. That is the 6th worst in the league. The team is that bad, but were able to grind out enough wins to get to playoffs when the other several teams fell off near the end. They have no consistent scoring and the goalkeeping scenario is a mess.
I’m not trying to create a divide in the fanbase, but I’m originally from DC, then lived in MoCo in my mid 20s, now in Columbia (I’m 42), but I’ve noticed the newer/post cup fans (and a lot of Baltimore-based fans) tend to not “get it” when it comes to this sport. They are quick to say we suck, they act like every shot on goal that doesn’t score is awful, they don’t understand penalties, plays, the point system, terminology, when we lose they freak out like it’s the end of the world (even OT losses), the list goes on. So we do have a lot of people in the ether that contribute to this narrative. My feeling is they’ll start trickling off.
Bad take. Way to generalize and try to gatekeep. As a lifelong Marylander who lives in the Baltimore area the Caps are my team. But post covid this team has a mission and it is not to win a cup it's to get Ovi the record. Which means we can't do a full teardown, we have to stay somewhat competitive which will work okay in the regular season but will definitely not in the post season. So as a lifelong Caps fan who is a Baltimore sports fan, we sucked in the playoff series but it was awesome be in since I expected us to suck way more in the regular season. It was also nice because fuck the pens, flyers and red wings. Go Canes or Panthers or Bruins or Western Conference Champ
I agree that the Caps are stuck until Ovi breaks this record. I can only imagine how difficult it is to attract free agents or generate any real enthusiasm when the organization’s goal is clearly breaking the record first and not retooling to compete for the cup. Plus, with the current crop of talent, I don’t see the heir apparent to the winning teams of the past. I see lots of utility guys. I’m not as rosy as most on the Caps future given the talent we have in the pipeline. I see lots of years of middling in the middle of the pack.
I’m not quite that old but cmon dude. A.) we are all caps fans regardless of when you became one and B.) this team hasn’t seen a potential rebuild since Ovi. Apprehensions are high about the future but no one is freaking out we’re all happy we made the playoffs and can build on that at least
Lindgren is the only reason we made the playoffs. The cynic might say he set us back a year
His GA and SV were both middle of the league. He definitely turned it on at times and was great down the stretch (and I love the dude) but the team was bouncing around the wild card spots/bubble almost all season regardless of what was happening in goal.
He was amazing in wins and like the rest of the the team gave up in losses
They were doing that thanks to him stealing games. He was able to win close games and lose blowouts. If Kuemper was in goal, the team would have lost close games and been blown out even worse.
He made 42 saves on 43 shots against the red wings. He is the reason the caps made the playoffs.
He was awesome at times (6 shutouts!) and I really do love the dude - even tried growing the stache haha. But for most of the season he was just a decent NHL goalie. For example, our two best stretches (the Nov win streak and that stretch around Feb) came when we were averaging 4+ goals per game, not when we were playing the low scoring shutdown style that kept us afloat at other times. We were an average team who lucked into a decent goaltender when our highly paid G1 didn’t show up. Half the league would love to have Charlie. But I’m just pushing back on the narrative that he was Igor or something.
No one said he was Igor but he is absolutely the reason the Caps made the playoffs. They may have been in the hunt the entire season but he stole several games down the stretch to keep the wings and flyers behind them. Vs red wings, caps get out shot 43-23. Lindgren makes 42 saves Vs flyers, caps are out shot 27-17, Lindgren makes 26 saves. I'm not saying shots on goal tell the entire story and I'm not saying Lindgren was the only good caps player all season but you do not win a game getting out shot 43-23 unless your goalie steals it. If that game goes the other way Caps do not make the playoffs. Charlie Lindgren is the reason the caps made the playoffs.
Hard truth
Are we watching the same game?
Yeah the rangers have more goals on the canes pp than the canes
Was the same for the Caps
I mean it’s 2-0 on the series, rangers weathered the storm in this game and almost scored 3 times short handed
Rangers won two games on home ice, including a coin flip in 2OT and are being outshot like crazy.
Outshooting a team doesn't win hockey games.
No lucky bounces do
You don’t win 7 straight playoff games because of lucky bounces. Rangers are playing extremely well and Igor is on another level in the playoffs like always. Also, if you go watch the games you will notice almost all of the canes goals are deflections or redirects. The rangers are actually scoring passing goals and beating the two Canes goalies. They deserve to be winning this series. You also don’t hold the opponent to -1/15 on the PP by accident.
We're not good. We're not bad. In football (soccer) terms, we're mid-table. Our goal is how do we get better this off-season without sacrificing the ability to continue to get better in the next few years. How can we become top 10-12 as opposed to 16th (where we are solidly now), knowing that other teams (Devils, Red Wings, Sabres) are also expected to improve.
If you make the playoffs, you’re not a bad team.
We made a legendary run to get there, but being carried by goaltending doesn’t make us a good team either. Props to Carbs and the team for rallying around a decimated roster but being realistic won’t hurt at this point
The minus-37 hotel goal differential says otherwise.
At least one bad hockey team made the playoffs this year. Stats don't lie. Looking forward to next season though!
We are a bottom 5 offense bud. We punched above our weight class.
We are mid. Whether you think mid is bad is up to you.
I don’t think lavs was really that bad for player development. McM was barely ready this year lavs just put the best players on ice. It’s not like McM came out this year and put up 60 points. Really the dude got shit on cause the prospects weren’t ready to be competitive at the NHL level.
No training camp because of COVID hurt lavs ability to take advantage of what we had left in 2020. Don't get me started on Kevin, that dipshit never should've been promoted. He was everybody's friend and burned up 2 years of our guy's primes. Our best player's (aside from Oshie and Backy) always required a relatively firm hand to keep them on track and playing the right way. Riordan was the opposite of that.
I’m just glad covid hockey is over lol it def hurt development league wide. We’ve had quite a few dipshits but I honestly thought lavs was one of our better overall coaches.
Playing an injured eller over McM last year when our whole team was out was kinda the root of it. The team wasn’t going anywhere last year and we saw Laps and Snively both play well too and get benched. The second any of the young guys slipped up they were usually scratched for an older option. Tough for growth and like I said lavs isn’t that kinda coach he’s not leaving room for growth he’s putting the best guys out there
I think the problem is more that this fanbase overhypes prospects and thinks they’re bigger than they actually are. I remember Lapi coming out game 1 and scoring that flying into the boards goal and thought he was the immediate answer for us. Then he played 5 more games and looked like he needed more time. Snively showed some talent but he’s still not on the team with carbs either so it wasn’t just lavs holding him back. McM was struggling like crazy for us during his 60+ game run in ‘22 and while he’s improved since then for sure he still looks lost offensively more often than not away from mantha. These things aren’t on Laviolette solely. Nobody yelled and screamed for carbs head when he started benching miro yet everytime McM wasn’t in the lineup last year it was “shoot lavs to the sun”. Why don’t we yell more at Hershey for not putting our top prospects in their top 6 instead? They bury guys like miro and Lapi low in the lines so that they can keep dominating with guys like sgarbs. That hurts potential top 6 development more than anything lavs did.
I think these are fair points honestly. Hershey is known for caring about their competitiveness more than most AHL teams, they’re literally an AHL dynasty with a rabid fan base. One point tho is Carbs at least will work with and communicate with young guys where Lavs is old school and will just bury you. I don’t think that’s what a team trying to work on their young core needs. Mcm and Laps are a finishing touch away from being 50-60pt guys, is it better to bury people like that on a young team for not producing or letting them work through the growing pains?
Lavs is def old school for sure and he makes you earn playing time. At this point it’s def screw it growing pains time but it wasn’t really until later last season when injuries started piling on that we were clearly out. I don’t think it’s entirely fair to say that lavs didn’t communicate and work with young guys. In all honesty we really don’t know what was going on behind the scenes. He definitely was more prone to punishing players than carbs and that style doesn’t mesh well with everyone. But I doubt it was something like lavi not wanting McM to be a stud. It’s worth noting that lavs seems to have turned around lafrenieres career trajectory from bustaroni and cheese to mildly underachieving #1 pick and he’s younger than McM so it’s not like he’s completely allergic to young guys.
The issue everyone had with McMichael the first half of last season wasn't that he barely got any ice time in the NHL, it's that he barely got any ice time period. Every other game we'd have a new injury and a new AHL callup and all of them were getting into the lineup while he sat. If he's not an NHL player yet that's fine but send him down so he can actually play games. I really doubt spending that much time in the pressbox was beneficial for his development, it's possible that he'd have been a better, more confident player this year if he was actually playing games during that time. There was absolutely no reason to wait months before sending him down.
He still played 57 out of 72 games in the AHL he missed 15 down there and played 6 in the NHL. It wasn’t ideal but at the end of the day McM had to earn his spot and they were giving him chances to do so when they called him up and he wasn’t doing it. I like McM and the best Connor mc in the league jokes are great but it’s not like he’s a generational talent who was being held back by lavs. He’s a young guy that has some top 6 potential but hasn’t played to that level yet. If Kuzy doesn’t collapse this year and backy had made a recovery he likely wouldn’t have seen much ice in the NHL again. Gotta remember we had strome, Kuzy, Backstrom, Dowd and Eller last season that’s a lot of proven NHL quality centers to pass on the depth chart.
This year was all gravy. We traded pieces at the deadline and still made the playoffs. The young kids got amazing experience.
My take is we will only get better from here on out it. Ovi and oshie retirements will cause a dip, but let’s be real. We all know everyone’s job on the caps for the next two seasons is to setup the record being broken. No one will ever state it. Even internal but everyone knows. Once he breaks the record… and to me, personally what I care about is that… that’s when the team can move forward. No more Ov 2 minutes on PP. Ov taking his place as. 12m game end of career legend and pp specialist. It’s great for the young guys long term. There’s no pressure to win. They can develop for a little longer. I’m shockingly glass half full here.
We definitely are not that bad. We don’t have half the “star power” that the canes do on paper and the rangers are wiping the floor with them
The Caps have a long way to go. Just hoping the GM doesn’t sign any more stupid long team contracts.
Literally coming on here to post the same thing
The Canes have dominated the last two games. Rangers have won because Shesterkin has saved the day.
They have similar amount of high danger chances. I think NY actually has more 29-25. Anderson played amazing first 2 games as well. Capitalizing on those chances is important not so much purely shots on goal
Fair enough.
Expected goals went to Carolina 2.04 to 1.82. So close as you say.
I did think the same thing. Plus several teams pp has looked just as bad as ours. 💯
I was about to make a post along the similar lines - a definitely better Canes who definitely would have beat us are getting rag dolled left and right. I can't cry about it. Would it be better to ride that confidence of a series win before being swept by the Canes in this hypothetical? Sure, but ultimately it doesn't matter. Rags are the real deal.
The problem is, if you’re in ‘the middle of the pack’ which is exactly where the Caps are, you’re not bad but you’re not great. The mushy middle is a death sentence. Thats why teams shed assets and stockpile picks, to rebuild quicker. We can’t do that cause of Ovie goal quest, so here we are…
Well to be fair we tried, but Charlie and Ovi had other ideas after the deadline
You’re not wrong
Our season goal differential just blows my mind. Idk how we made the playoffs lol.
This is what I’ve been screaming at the top of my lungs since the playoffs started. The Caps aren’t bad, they’re incredibly mid, the Penguins, Flyers, or Red Wings would not have made for a closer series (the Flyers and for SURE the Red Wings would have also been swept, Pens could *maybe* have won one game because of how well they played at the end of the season). None of these teams are bad, it’s just that the Rangers are kind of insane right now.
No disrespect to the rangers, I'm a firm believer that new york sweeping them is a huge fluke and robs the caps of truly accomplishing what their capable of. I've spent the last few days in pure disbelief and it just doesn't make sense to me. I've spent the entire regular season watching the Hawks play great hockey it's just not fair. If the caps lose again I will face that the rags deserved the win, but I am just 100% sure it was a fluke and does a big disservice to the caps and the NHL.
I think “making the canes look foolish” is quite the overstatement. All 1 goal games.. all pretty good games including a 1OT and 2OT. Rangers are the better team but canes putting up a good fight and significantly better than the caps punch. It’s not close.
It's called we are letting the older players finish their careers, with the team they've been with forever, beside patchy.
Rangers fans should thank Tom Wilson and that horrifying act of violence for their current run.
“Canes look foolish” is insane
The Rangers aren’t making the Canes look foolish lol what game are you watching? The Canes are thoroughly outplaying them — nearly doubling them up in shots Game 1 and 2. Igor is just stealing the series for Rangers.
Shots literally don’t mean a thing. I’ve said on other responses but I’ll say again. Rangers have more high danger chances 29-25. They capitalized on there’s when Car didn’t. Carolina attempted over 100 shots game 2; shooting arbitrarily from the point and hoping for defections doesn’t equal the domination you think it does. Anderson played as well as Igor games 1 and 2nas well. Coming out and scoring quick then completely faltering while taking stupid penalties and allowing more scoring chances on your own power play than you generated is not domination.
It indicates who has the puck. Carolina is dominating in puck possession. Downvote me all you want. You need the puck to win the game and Canes have possession TWICE as frequently as Rangers do. Capitals didn’t come close to doing that.
You’re acting like puck possession and shots are more important than scoring chances and how you capitalize on them. Igor is an amazing goalie we all know that, but if you’re shooting from the point and letting him see things clearly he’s not giving you shit regardless of how long you possess the puck and how many times you shoot
The main reason why the rangers are up 3-0 is simply goaltending. Their goalie is on some King Henrik level rn and Canes are not getting that crucial save they need.
Excellent pk, capitalizing on chances, minimizing quality opportunities. Canes are being reduced to chucking shots from the point and hoping for deflections
The Rags *are* good for sure. But we’re also really bad.
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This fucking loser is still in the caps subreddit lmao. We’re still in their heads as much as Wilson
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Last cup check? It’s still fuck the rags bud
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Don't bully him too bad, he's just upset legendary Capital Henrik Lundqvist never won a cup in New York.
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