GDT: Capitals @ Devils, 7:00 PM, Jaws

[billingtons ghost]

Good to know

Blackwood isn't bad because you said so

I'm glad you have faith in Blackwood. Unfortunately, so does this organization.

I think I'm 26 years old. I'm not going to acknowledge my actual age because a weak birth certificate and drivers license say so.

I'm definitely younger than someone born in 1996, even though I was born way before that.

Just bc you're completely up the wrong tree today, it's not my fault. If you'd like to talk about goaltending pls tell me which Ovechkin breakaway or wide open PP shit from his office any NHL goaltender would've had last night. To watch the highlights, see what people posted during the game and then come in and see you rant about bad goaltending as the culprit and summon the ghost of Cory Schneider is just frigging beyond laughable. But, SV%, yo!

 

[billingtons ghost]

Agreed. Regardless of the turnovers last night, 5 goals on 18 shots is just… horrible. 0.722%. Yiiikkkeeessss. And thing is, it’s not a one off.

Hahaha. This is it right here. This is the archetype silly stat post. I'm surprised you don't post about his Vezina chances when he had like a .975 SV% during a game.

This or load up 63 and 86 together on one line

As for Mac, I honestly think the team should cut ties with him. He isn’t the solution. What I saw last night was terrifying. He could not track the puck at all and his movement and placement on the Ovi goal was pathetic. Why he didn’t position himself to the right side of the paint when he had ample time to do so is beyond me. That allowed an easy goal for anyone in that spot, let alone Ovi. (The shot wasn’t even that good also, thats a bread basket shot for any other goalie in proper position)

Oh Lord.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Just bc you're completely up the wrong tree today, it's not my fault. If you'd like to talk about goaltending pls tell me which Ovechkin breakaway or wide open PP shit from his office any NHL goaltender would've had last night. To watch the highlights, see what people posted during the game and then come in and see you rant about bad goaltending as the culprit and summon the ghost of Cory Schneider is just frigging beyond laughable. But, SV%, yo!

Honestly, the Ovi goal. It was bad. I normally won’t involve myself in these goaltending discussions but as I posted just now, his movement was nonexistent on that. Thats a standard play. The pass wasn’t speedy either. Mac failed to get across to the right. If you look at the shot, it should have hit the bread basket on any goalie who got over and set. He didn’t. It wasn’t good at all. Unfortunately you have to find the MSG replays to show this angle. The ones uploaded on NHL.com are the caps feed and don’t have a proper angle that shows him being slow to get over and which shows where the shot actually went.


Edit: I see you saw my post.

And don’t “oh lord” me. I’m normally not interested in these goalie debates but that one is clear as day. It was horrible and if you think he did a good job on that play then you have an extremely low bar for goaltending. Go watch some Rags and Isles games to get reacquainted with what goalies should be doing out there at the bare minimum.

 

[MartyOwns]

that 3rd line should be wood-haula-mercer

 

[Devs3cups]

Hahaha. This is it right here. This is the archetype silly stat post. I'm surprised you don't post about his Vezina chances when he had like a .975 SV% during a game.


Oh Lord.

I don’t understand what you meant there. Mac was bad last night. Were the turnovers bad? Absolutely. Can a goalie stop chances off of turnovers/breakdowns more than once a game? Absolutely. Do most good/capable goalies do? Absolutely.

We rarely seem to get those saves.

 

[Azathoth]

Man, and here I was thinking this place was getting insufferable after a 3 game win streak.

 

[Bleedred]

Just bc you're completely up the wrong tree today, it's not my fault. If you'd like to talk about goaltending pls tell me which Ovechkin breakaway or wide open PP shit from his office any NHL goaltender would've had last night. To watch the highlights, see what people posted during the game and then come in and see you rant about bad goaltending as the culprit and summon the ghost of Cory Schneider is just frigging beyond laughable. But, SV%, yo!

Ummm, I thought a couple of those goals were at least stoppable. There were a lot of borderline goals, I said that last night. None were flat out BAD like his first game this year or that really weak glove side shot against the Ducks, but there were a few borderlines.

Obviously, not ALL the goals are his fault. Not ALL of the goals are EVER any goaltenders fault from what I see. At least not over a large sample size of games.

The fact of the matter that all it takes are a couple and you lose the game over it.

And like I've said for 30 years, bad goaltending doesn't hurt you in the blowout games. It actually hurts you more in the 3-2 or 4-2 games than it does in the 7-3 or 6-2 games.

 

[Azathoth]

that 3rd line should be wood-haula-mercer

I think I'd like to see Wood bumped down to the 4th line and go with Tatar-Haula-Mercer as the 3rd. Then some combo of Hughes, Rango, Nico, Bratt, Palat, and Holtz/Zetterlund in the top 6, but I doubt Ruff would do that.

 

[Bleedred]

For the first time this season, I have not done my goals review the night of the games. I almost always watch and write the notes down in my phone to post for the next morning, because I'm usually laying in bed and too tired to post them until the next morning or close to lunch when I have a break at work. I'm gonna have to do that in a little while here.

Last night's game pissed me off so much that I didn't even wanna see anymore goals the rest of the night, although I did have a couple of the late games on in the background. I was too busy bitching about Blackwood and goaltending (what the f*** else is new?) the whole night, between this forum and some buddies through text.

And then the comments about Jarry getting scored on 4 times in a period and how it's not just Blackwood, despite the fact that Jarry is a MUCH BETTER goaltender in their careers and over the last two years than Blackwood.

That's almost like ''Well, Marty ain't that good. He allowed 5-6 goals in several of his Stanley Cup Finals games in his career''.

 

[Devs3cups]

I think I'd like to see Wood bumped down to the 4th line and go with Tatar-Haula-Mercer as the 3rd. Then some combo of Hughes, Rango, Nico, Bratt, Palat, and Holtz/Zetterlund in the top 6, but I doubt Ruff would do that.

Holtz - Hughes - Palat
Rango - Nico - Bratt
Tatar - Haula - Mercer
Wood - McLeod - Bastian

 

[billingtons ghost]

Ummm, okay.

Come on man, really?

Kind of funny that a person who champions Blackwood would say this about Kuemper and Campbell.

And yes, some of your massive calorie burning posts defending Blackwood are what I would consider “Championing” the guy. Maybe in confusing you with the other poster that starts with a P, but I think I’ve seen you show a little too much sympathy for him as well.

Okay, Campbell? Maybe not. He’s very polarizing. He’s definitely not at all popular analytically. I shredded him for that playoff series in 2021 against Montreal, where he played “Well” (had a high save percentage and low GAA) but gave up a few leaky softies late in that series that Carey Price was not allowing or getting beaten on. I also thought he sucked last year in the Lightning series.

Kuemper is not good? I mean, I don’t think he will continue to be good for very long, no.

But Kuemper is one of the best goalies in the league over the last 5 years, with all but one of those seasons playing for Arizona.

He’s a 32 year old injury case, his contract sucks and he’s probably not gonna be good for much longer, but that’s nothing but a guess and speculation on my part.

Why is he not good? Because he got his eye poked out and sucked for 13 games in the playoffs where Colorado won the cup in spite of him? He was great in the regular season and Colorado doesn’t finish that high in the standings if he played as poorly as he did in the playoffs. There’s no proof yet that will be the norm for him or that this is the new Kuemper. He’s been average this year up to this point. Like I said, I don’t think he’ll be good for much longer, but he’s been one of the better goalies in the league since 17-18.

He wasn’t much of anything up until that point though. He was mediocre in Minnesota, but that’s not part of the last five years where he’s been one of the best.

Kuemper

Honestly, the Ovi goal. It was bad. I normally won’t involve myself in these goaltending discussions but as I posted just now, his movement was nonexistent on that. Thats a standard play. The pass wasn’t speedy either. Mac failed to get across to the right. If you look at the shot, it should have hit the bread basket on any goalie who got over and set. He didn’t. It wasn’t good at all. Unfortunately you have to find the MSG replays to show this angle. The ones uploaded on NHL.com are the caps feed and don’t have a proper angle that shows him being slow to get over and which shows where the shot actually went.

Come on. The fact that we are even discussing goaltending after last night's team performance is gross. Did he move fast enough on the Ovi breakaway, and the Ovi backdoor tip ins he stopped? Cross ice pass, Ovechkin(of all people) in his office. In order to bring up the highlights I had to watch an ad for NHL on espn with Ovi scoring from the same spot as the first thing. Never mind that it was at the end of like two straight minutes of zone time and the Caps were shipping it around.

This guy is an average goaltender. Nothing more. Average goaltenders get destroyed with our system and team play. It won't matter who you bring in and I think Vanacek is going to prove that too. He will have three game winning streaks too, and then we will play like this in front of him and get crushed.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Kuemper

Come on. The fact that we are even discussing goaltending after last night's team performance is gross. Did he move fast enough on the Ovi breakaway, and the Ovi backdoor tip ins he stopped? Cross ice pass, Ovechkin(of all people) in his office. In order to bring up the highlights I had to watch an ad for NHL on espn with Ovi scoring from the same spot as the first thing. Never mind that it was at the end of like two straight minutes of zone time and the Caps were shipping it around.

This guy is an average goaltender. Nothing more. Average goaltenders get destroyed with our system and team play. It won't matter who you bring in and I think Vanacek is going to prove that too. He will have three game winning streaks too, and then we will play like this in front of him and get crushed.

Stopping a breakaway and other chances does not excuse horrible positioning on routine plays. That shit constantly kills the entire team. He is unfortunately not average. I wish he was.

 

[My3Sons]

Like I've said...... ONE QUARTER OF A DECADE AGO.

I'd prefer to go with over 75 million seconds.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Ummm, I thought a couple of those goals were at least stoppable. There were a lot of borderline goals, I said that last night. None were flat out BAD like his first game this year or that really weak glove side shot against the Ducks, but there were a few borderlines.

Obviously, not ALL the goals are his fault. Not ALL of the goals are EVER any goaltenders fault from what I see. At least not over a large sample size of games.

The fact of the matter that all it takes are a couple and you lose the game over it.

And like I've said for 30 years, bad goaltending doesn't hurt you in the blowout games. It actually hurts you more in the 3-2 or 4-2 games than it does in the 7-3 or 6-2 games.

Here is a thought you should consider. The same could be said of bad giveaways and breakdowns. We had a weeks' worth of those last night for a well coached team like the ones Jarry or Kuemper play behind.

Stopping a breakaway and other chances does not excuse horrible positioning on routine plays. That shit constantly kills the entire team. He is unfortunately not average. I wish he was.

There ain't nothing routine about Ovi one timers from the circle my good man, except they routinely and historically go in.

 

[NjDevsRR]

Here is a thought you should consider. The same could be said of bad giveaways and breakdowns. We had a weeks' worth of those last night for a well coached team like the ones Jarry or Kuemper play behind.


There ain't nothing routine about Ovi one timers from the circle my good man, except they routinely and historically go in.

Ugh, again. Look at the MSG feed. It wasn’t a classic ovi one timer. The shot wasn’t that good. I’ll try to find it. And even if it was a perfect shot, that doesn’t excuse the horrible movement and positioning Mac showed on that play. He gave the shooter the entire right side when he had a ton of time to get over. It was two passes to get to ovi, not one quick cross ice pass. Mac had time to be in better position than where he ended up. This isn’t hard man.

 

[NjDevsRR]

And again, I’m normally not interested in goalie debates. There’s enough of that on here. I’d rather discuss the lack of finishing and PP issues which I attribute to a lack of right shot forwards in the top 6 for the last 3 years. I still think this current crop can be average in goaks forced but I think a right or two can dramatically make them more dynamic.

 

[My3Sons]

Any GM change is going to be bringing someone in from the outside. Maybe two people with a President of Hockey Ops coming in for top job.

Great, so the new guys can be brought into a panic situation and make panicked decisions like the new team in Vancouver. Sure, that will fix it.

 

[MasterofGrond]

I really can't emphasize enough that, on average (last night wasn't great I admit), we don't have more terrible breakdowns than all but the absolute elite teams. If we did they'd show up in xGA numbers and shots against and everywhere else where they're not showing up (unlike GA).

Human brain just picks up negatives when our team does them (because they lead to goals) and tends to ignore them when the other team has them (because they don't lead to goals every single time for reasons I've spent 40 pages articulating).

 

[My3Sons]

How dead is this horse. And the beat goes on. While considering Fitz consider the owners




No he did not, there was a year left to his contract.




Owners

The owners aren't hockey guys. If they aren't hamstringing Fitz budget wise or making hockey decisions the buck has to stop with him.

 

[Bleedred]

Kuemper

Come on. The fact that we are even discussing goaltending after last night's team performance is gross. Did he move fast enough on the Ovi breakaway, and the Ovi backdoor tip ins he stopped? Cross ice pass, Ovechkin(of all people) in his office. In order to bring up the highlights I had to watch an ad for NHL on espn with Ovi scoring from the same spot as the first thing. Never mind that it was at the end of like two straight minutes of zone time and the Caps were shipping it around.

This guy is an average goaltender. Nothing more. Average goaltenders get destroyed with our system and team play. It won't matter who you bring in and I think Vanacek is going to prove that too. He will have three game winning streaks too, and then we will play like this in front of him and get crushed.

The most I will concede here is that the guy is a below average goalie and not in fact the worst in the national hockey league.

Cause if I ever told you a goalie was bad (twilight Brodeur, twilight Schneider, Kinkaid, last year of Hedberg), we are really venturing into previously uncharted waters with the last 60 games of Blackwood.

The last year of Hedberg was really bad, but he actually had one of the best years of his career in the his second to last year, which was absolutely overachievement at age 38.

 

[billingtons ghost]

Ugh, again. Look at the MSG feed. It wasn’t a classic ovi one timer. The shot wasn’t that good. I’ll try to find it. And even if it was a perfect shot, that doesn’t excuse the horrible movement and positioning Mac showed on that play. He gave the shooter the entire right side when he had a ton of time to get over. It was two passes to get to ovi, not one quick cross ice pass. Mac had time to be in better position than where he ended up. This isn’t hard man.

Again. After 2minutes of zone time and heavy pressure. If you are going to nitpick the speed of his movement in that play you need to go after the four guys absolutely dogging it around the ice too after being unable to clear the puck putting zero pressure on the passes... And a hall of famer, perhaps the greatest pure goalscorer of all time alone with infinite time, on a one timer.

I mean Christ. Of all the things to nitpick. Please look at all the circumstances, and not just the one second in a vacuum and tell me what percentage of the time do you think Ovi scores there?

The most I will concede here is that the guy is a below average goalie and not in fact the worst in the national hockey league.

Cause if I ever told you a goalie was bad (twilight Brodeur, twilight Schneider, Kinkaid, last year of Hedberg), we are really venturing into previously uncharted waters with the last 60 games of Blackwood.

The last year of Hedberg was really bad, but he actually had one of the best years of his career in the his second to last year, which was absolutely overachievement at age 38.

According to you, we've had about 12 bad goalies in a row now. About all I will concede is that last year's run of below average plug ins was gross.

Maybe you should consider it is the team play that impacts the numbers. And not the other way around.

 

[Azathoth]

And again, I’m normally not interested in goalie debates. There’s enough of that on here. I’d rather discuss the lack of finishing and PP issues which I attribute to a lack of right shot forwards in the top 6 for the last 3 years. I still think this current crop can be average in goaks forced but I think a right or two can dramatically make them more dynamic.

Its such a shame they don't have any other right handed shots available on the bench that could fill those roles

 

[JK3]

Ugh, again. Look at the MSG feed. It wasn’t a classic ovi one timer. The shot wasn’t that good. I’ll try to find it. And even if it was a perfect shot, that doesn’t excuse the horrible movement and positioning Mac showed on that play. He gave the shooter the entire right side when he had a ton of time to get over. It was two passes to get to ovi, not one quick cross ice pass. Mac had time to be in better position than where he ended up. This isn’t hard man.

Are you kidding? I have to draw the line with this nonsense lmao. It's f***ing Ovechkin unloading a bomb with perfect placement over the pad off a cross ice pass. He's done this over and over, every team knows it's coming but they can't stop it. He puts pucks THROUGH goalies unlike anyone to ever play the game. Mac got over and got his blocker on it but it was almost ripped off his hand with the puck going into the net.

 

[Bleedred]

I really can't emphasize enough that, on average (last night wasn't great I admit), we don't have more terrible breakdowns than all but the absolute elite teams. If we did they'd show up in xGA numbers and shots against and everywhere else where they're not showing up (unlike GA).

Human brain just picks up negatives when our team does them (because they lead to goals) and tends to ignore them when the other team has them (because they don't lead to goals every single time for reasons I've spent 40 pages articulating).

Yup

Once again, fans of every team with a bad goalie think they have the worst defensive team in the world.

Sometimes it's true, the Ducks and Coyotes are BAD teams. They have A LOT of breakdowns, they allow A LOT of shots.

That does not mean that Gibson is still good (he's not) or scrubby Vejmelka, who would not have been brought to the league and over to this continent to play NHL hockey by anybody else.

I will say, Gibson hasn't really shown up in my personal stats as bad. I do see a lot of things wrong with him that make me go ''Oh, okay, I can see why he's a bad a goalie. I see what he did there, I see how he played that and laid on the ground or overcommitted but I can't give him a stoppable goal on that or it's just confirmation bias. I'm putting under a microscope here, but I have to separate that from my personal stats''.

Vejmelka is one of the worst goalies I've seen to get a full time job in the league in the last couple of years. All I see are WEAK and LEAKY goals left and right. Gaffes all over the place. Guy really sucks badly. Him and any tanking team are a match made in heaven and absolutely deserve one another.

Koskinen was very bad too, but he's no longer in the league.

 

[billingtons ghost]

I don’t understand what you meant there. Mac was bad last night. Were the turnovers bad? Absolutely. Can a goalie stop chances off of turnovers/breakdowns more than once a game? Absolutely. Do most good/capable goalies do? Absolutely.

We rarely seem to get those saves.

With any of the past 10 goaltenders we've had, and the new guy Vanacek too, I guess.

And likely the next guy and the next guy.

Yup

Once again, fans of every team with a bad goalie think they have the worst defensive team in the world.

Sometimes it's true, the Ducks and Coyotes are BAD teams. They have A LOT of breakdowns, they allow A LOT of shots.

That does not mean that Gibson is still good (he's not) or scrubby Vejmelka, who would not have been brought to the league and over to this continent to play NHL hockey by anybody else.

I will say, Gibson hasn't really shown up in my personal stats as bad. I do see a lot of things wrong with him that make me go ''Oh, okay, I can see why he's a bad a goalie. I see what he did there, I see how he played that and laid on the ground or overcommitted but I can't give him a stoppable goal on that or it's just confirmation bias. I'm putting under a microscope here, but I have to separate that from my personal stats''.

Vejmelka is one of the worst goalies I've seen to get a full time job in the league in the last couple of years. All I see are WEAK and LEAKY goals left and right. Gaffes all over the place. Guy really sucks badly. Him and any tanking team are a match made in heaven and absolutely deserve one another.

Koskinen was very bad too, but he's no longer in the league.

And this is classic you.

It's the Coyotes, man. Those leaky goals come after unbearable pressure. My Yotes fan friend Loves the milkman bc he keeps them in games when they have no biz being there