Speculation: Caps Roster General Discussion (Coaching/FAs/Cap/Lines etc) - 2022-23 Season Part 3: Drop the puck!

[AvStock]

Avs fan coming in peace. How is Kuemper treating you guys? I’m one of the few Avs on HF boards who liked him, felt he didn’t get a fair shot with us but still won the cup. I don’t believe we won “despite” him.

 

[zappa4ever]

Avs fan coming in peace. How is Kuemper treating you guys? I’m one of the few Avs on HF boards who liked him, felt he didn’t get a fair shot with us but still won the cup. I don’t believe we won “despite” him.

Solid as Iraq so far, no complaints from me
Basically playing like a Top 10 goalie and not many soft goals, making some saves other goalies wouldn't
If Caps make playoffs, I think he'll be one of the bigger reasons why

 

[DWGie26]

Avs fan coming in peace. How is Kuemper treating you guys? I’m one of the few Avs on HF boards who liked him, felt he didn’t get a fair shot with us but still won the cup. I don’t believe we won “despite” him.

Love Keumper. Our woes are really the dee and team defense. But it is so nice to have Keumper back there as the last line of defense. Great to have that trust.

 

[Dr John Carlson]

I've seen enough out of Kuemper to say that he's a much better goalie than either Rufus or Doofus were the past two seasons. That might sound obvious, but I gotta say, GMs are not afraid to dish out big contracts to goalies who have good reputations but secretly stink (Bobrovsky). That's not the case here.

 

[AvStock]

Love hearing that. I miss him here. He is a great goalie and glad to hear y’all are enjoying him!

 

[RedRocking]

But he can't. What do you think happens if GMBM just gets rid of all the old veterans that Lavi leans on and forces him to just use his new young talent? He'd be fired in a heartbeat. GMBM isn't the end all be all of this organization. Ted and Patrick are. In Washington the GM and the Head Coach are on similar levels, GMBM just has to try to get players he both believes are good but also ones Lavi will use.

What has Snively done to show he's really earned that spot though? We needed a top 6 player the last game, and Snively gets 15 minutes while Protas and CMM get 8 and 9. Snively gets PP time and Protas and CMM get no special teams time.

Week 1 where they had Brown in the lineup? Sure, I guess I can get missing a spot. Protas really showed out and earned it, but now?

I haven’t been too impressed with Snively (this year) yet either. Maybe they could sit him, and move Sheary back down with Dowd-Hath. And that could make room for CMM in the middle 6. They should at least give him some games, at some point, to try and get him into some kind of rhythm.

 

[Corby78]

Those look pretty generous to the caps

 

[Jags]

But he can't. What do you think happens if GMBM just gets rid of all the old veterans that Lavi leans on and forces him to just use his new young talent? He'd be fired in a heartbeat. GMBM isn't the end all be all of this organization.

He could have passed on MoJo and/or dealt Eller to open up another spot or two. I don't have a huge problem with either of those decisions, but the bottom line is he could have forced Lavi's hand if he wanted to. He rightly saw something in MoJo and still sees significant upside in Eller, at least compared to the alternatives.

I would have liked to have those spots open and $4.6m to spend on something else, but what the hell do I know? McMike has looked unremarkable from camp forward, so it's hard to quibble with those choices now.

What has Snively done to show he's really earned that spot though?

What has McMichael done this year to show he's earned ANY spot? Snively has looked fine. We need his speed. I think both those guys proved last year that they deserve a chance this year, but so far this year McMike has been kinda blah. If you'd rather have McMichael at wing than Snively, you've bumped your head.

 

[Jacoby4HOF66]

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

I think of all the UFAs on the team at the end of the year, he and Jensen are the two guys that should return for sure.

 

[DWGie26]

I think of all the UFAs on the team at the end of the year, he and Jensen are the two guys that should return for sure.

Jensen hasn’t looked so good this year.

Orlov is definitely a priority and GMBM is saying that in his way. I suspect that will get done.

I think Jensen could go either way. It will depend on what term and dollars he wants/can get. I think it will come down to TVR or Jensen. They will resign one and get someone new. I don’t know if Iorio or Chelsey will be ready so it needs to be a 1 or 2 yeat deal for whomever.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Jensen hasn’t looked so good this year.

Orlov is definitely a priority and GMBM is saying that in his way. I suspect that will get done.

I think Jensen could go either way. It will depend on what term and dollars he wants/can get. I think it will come down to TVR or Jensen. They will resign one and get someone new. I don’t know if Iorio or Chelsey will be ready so it needs to be a 1 or 2 yeat deal for whomever.

The sample size this season is quite short for Jensen, I think he earns a contract based on his body of work with us.

TVR will command a bigger raise, cap management may force them to move on from him.

 

[DWGie26]

The sample size this season is quite short for Jensen, I think he earns a contract based on his body of work with us.

TVR will command a bigger raise, cap management may force them to move on from him.

Could be right on both of those. My main point is I think we will sign 1 of them and not both. And we should let that play out till offseason. but we should get Orlov done sooner rather than later.

 

[Alexander the Gr8]

Could be right on both of those. My main point is I think we will sign 1 of them and not both. And we should let that play out till offseason. but we should get Orlov done sooner rather than later.

Agree on both counts, sign Orlov now and wait until the off-season for everyone else

 

[zappa4ever]

lol moneypuck really wants to be relevant this early in the season, completely meaningless numbers

after 20 games it may start to mean something to the bottom half of the league

 

[SecretaryofDefense5]

Oh….

Toronto vs WSH

 

[tycoonheart]

Oh….

Toronto vs WSH

Interesting. Doesn't match the eye test. At least mine. Keumper has been solid so far.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Oh….

Toronto vs WSH

IDK about this stat... The top 4 are like 4 of the worst teams in the league.

 

[twabby]

Oh….

Toronto vs WSH

Too small of a sample size to really care so far.

Heck even a full season might be too small of a sample size.

 

[IafrateOvie34]

5.1% for NJD to win the SC? ROFLMAO!

 

[Rayquaza64]

goalies are fake at this point

 

[SherVaughn30]

Why can’t these guys get any better at face offs? Kuz has good hand eye and fast hands.. why can’t he translate that? Not strong enough? I remember peca having a big impact on the team in that area.. am I just remembering that wrong? its time to look to bring someone else in here. This is pathetic.

It's coaching. Fraudsythe coaches the centers but it goes beyond the centers winning face-offs. The wingers have to battle hard and help win the face-offs too. All the regular top face-off teams win face-offs because their forwards are taught well on how to battle for pucks in the dot. There are so few centers who are actually very good winning a face-off clean.

 

[HecticGlow]

It's coaching. Fraudsythe coaches the centers but it goes beyond the centers winning face-offs. The wingers have to battle hard and help win the face-offs too. All the regular top face-off teams win face-offs because their forwards are taught well on how to battle for pucks in the dot. There are so few centers who are actually very good winning a face-off clean.

Faceoffs also aren’t a one-off skill guys can learn in a vacuum, either, in a way skating or hand-eye coordination can be. I remember reading an interview with Beags when he was in Vancouver explaining he does his own scouting on oppositions centers — their tendencies when taking draws — and would go into those faceoffs with a specific plan for how to beat that player. He also made the point that even late in his career he was having to develop his faceoff strategies and techniques as the game develops.

I guess it’s also like saying a guy has a great shot on an empty net in practice, but can’t buy a goal against a goalie. Kuzy’s ability to bat a puck out the ear doesn’t necessarily mean he can foresee where that puck is going to go after the drop.

 

[zappa4ever]

Faceoffs have been a pet peeve of mine for years here

While ultimately they're not hugely "important", in certain situations they can be very important

Def a Team Stat as much as individual, maybe 50/50 btwn the C to win and the skaters to fight to retrieve, very frustrating that we suck so bad at it, look at last gm v LAK last 2:30 we lost how many draws in a row in our end? got lucky they didn't capitalize

Crazy we don't improve b/c we actually score off them sometimes, usually from the RW dot back to OV

I've seen the head-to-head FO contests in practice, wonder if they ever work on retrieval tho'... you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation

 

[pman25]

we've pretty consistently been at the bottom of the pack in faceoffs, even during the presidents trophy/cup winning days we were like bottom 5 usually.

Last year, Colorado was 28th, Minnesota 26th, Florida 24th, New York 22nd. They all did pretty well

Just not that important of stat to pay much attention to.