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

[Hivemind]

How much cap space do we have if Backstrom and Haglin don’t play this season

$0 in actual cap space, ~$4.75M in LTIR exemption space

 

[IafrateOvie34]

I liked both AFJ and Leason and always push for the young players if they have a chance. If it means losing both for Protas to make the NHL, well I'm for Protas! I believe he'll be a fine NHL player, is very intelligent, and his interview skills is above many NHL players already!

 

[Ridley Simon]

Nothing surprising about the lineup really. The third line is probably not the advantage they believe it to be (or that it should be).

But, man, once Wilson returns it's going to be a lot of beef up front should Protas continue to belong.

Question is, who moves to LW when Willy returns? And who sits? Marge or Protas, is my guess. Hopefully Protas will be so good, it won’t be him.

They’d best put Mantha on his natural side. Then the 3rd line with Oshie will have some real teeth to it, what with either Protas or Mantha as the LW.

So many options. Put Willy back as 1RW, then where does Brown go? 2RW w Strome? Mantha or Protas as 2LW? The other is 3LW?

Pretty cool to mix and match.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

Question is, who moves to LW when Willy returns? And who sits? Marge or Protas, is my guess. Hopefully Protas will be so good, it won’t be him.

They’d best put Mantha on his natural side. Then the 3rd line with Oshie will have some real teeth to it, what with either Protas or Mantha as the LW.

So many options. Put Willy back as 1RW, then where does Brown go? 2RW w Strome? Mantha or Protas as 2LW? The other is 3LW?

Pretty cool to mix and match.

Someone will be hurt. But its fun to think we will have a full team at some point

I think Willy back with 8 and 92 unless Brown kills it on line 1

 

[Corby78]

Hate that we lost Leasin and AJF. Would have been nice to see them in Hershey and still have some options down there. But they weren’t going to play here this year so….

 

[Portable Mink]

This is going to sound weird but I miss Vrana being the outlier for speed and finish. As a big strong heavy team, Vrana was able to catch defense off-guard by being quicker thank what they expect most of the time. I feel like we are missing that kinda of player from our top 6-9.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

This is going to sound weird but I miss Vrana being the outlier for speed and finish. As a big strong heavy team, Vrana was able to catch defense off-guard by being quicker thank what they expect most of the time. I feel like we are missing that kinda of player from our top 6-9.

But he never could score and would just miss all his breakaways

 

[Langway]

What I’m hearing about the Capitals ahead of the 2022-23 season opener

A collection of pertinent notes about some recent Capitals roster moves/issues before the puck drops on Wednesday's season opener.

theathletic.com

Caps plan to add Alexeyev to the roster when he's healthy and ready to return after an eventual AHL conditioning stint. Some way off yet.

 

[twabby]

Neat little visualization that looks at the timing of goals given up, rather than just raw numbers. Basically weighing "backbreaking" goals against more than garbage time goals. Who cares if a goalie gives up a softie if the score is already 6-0, for instance. But giving up a cheap goal against in a tie game in the third period really stings.

Turns out Washington's goalies performed really poorly in this metric! Only PHI, BUF, and MTL did worse.

Micah estimates goaltending lost ~10 standings points for Washington last year, even if cumulatively they were only slightly worse than average. That's uh a lot. If they even get average goaltending this year they should be comfortably in the postseason, and perhaps pushing 105-110 points.

 

[kicksavedave]

Turns out Washington's goalies performed really poorly in this metric! Only PHI, BUF, and MTL did worse.

Micah estimates goaltending lost ~10 standings points for Washington last year, even if cumulatively they were only slightly worse than average. That's uh a lot. If they even get average goaltending this year they should be comfortably in the postseason, and perhaps pushing 105-110 points.

This matches the eye test. There were games where either IS or VV would play very well, the Caps would get a 3-1 or 4-2 lead, then they would give up dreadful crap goals in the 3rd period to let the other team back in it. Or they would give up 3 early in the 1st then tighten up a lot over the last 50 minutes and still lose 4-3. And I've said for YEARS now that the measure of a great goalie is not how many great saves them make, its how many softies they DON'T allow. Softies demolish a teams momentum, it crushes their energy, it lets a team that doesn't deserve to be in the game, have a chance to win it. A poorly timed softie is a death knell in hockey. Great goalies make ALL the saves they are supposed to make, and a handful of spectacular saves. Poor goalies make a few spectacular saves and give up a handful of goals that beer leaguers should stop. That was us last year.

 

[Hivemind]

This matches the eye test. There were games where either IS or VV would play very well, the Caps would get a 3-1 or 4-2 lead, then they would give up dreadful crap goals in the 3rd period to let the other team back in it. Or they would give up 3 early in the 1st then tighten up a lot over the last 50 minutes and still lose 4-3. And I've said for YEARS now that the measure of a great goalie is not how many great saves them make, its how many softies they DON'T allow. Softies demolish a teams momentum, it crushes their energy, it lets a team that doesn't deserve to be in the game, have a chance to win it. A poorly timed softie is a death knell in hockey. Great goalies make ALL the saves they are supposed to make, and a handful of spectacular saves. Poor goalies make a few spectacular saves and give up a handful of goals that beer leaguers should stop. That was us last year.

VV giving up a softy goal in the first 10 minutes and then tightening up for the rest of the game was a special of his. There was a stretch in mid-season where it happened in like 5 or 6 consecutive starts for him.

 

[Corby78]

Neat little visualization that looks at the timing of goals given up, rather than just raw numbers. Basically weighing "backbreaking" goals against more than garbage time goals. Who cares if a goalie gives up a softie if the score is already 6-0, for instance. But giving up a cheap goal against in a tie game in the third period really stings.

Turns out Washington's goalies performed really poorly in this metric! Only PHI, BUF, and MTL did worse.

Micah estimates goaltending lost ~10 standings points for Washington last year, even if cumulatively they were only slightly worse than average. That's uh a lot. If they even get average goaltending this year they should be comfortably in the postseason, and perhaps pushing 105-110 points.

My nice visualization was watching it unfold all season.

 

[Calicaps]

My nice visualization was watching it unfold all season.

pfft... you knew nothing before you saw this chart.

 

[g00n]

Neat little visualization that looks at the timing of goals given up, rather than just raw numbers. Basically weighing "backbreaking" goals against more than garbage time goals. Who cares if a goalie gives up a softie if the score is already 6-0, for instance. But giving up a cheap goal against in a tie game in the third period really stings.

Turns out Washington's goalies performed really poorly in this metric! Only PHI, BUF, and MTL did worse.

Micah estimates goaltending lost ~10 standings points for Washington last year, even if cumulatively they were only slightly worse than average. That's uh a lot. If they even get average goaltending this year they should be comfortably in the postseason, and perhaps pushing 105-110 points.

Moose out front already told me

 

[twabby]

Moose out front already told me

 

[IafrateOvie34]

This matches the eye test. There were games where either IS or VV would play very well, the Caps would get a 3-1 or 4-2 lead, then they would give up dreadful crap goals in the 3rd period to let the other team back in it. Or they would give up 3 early in the 1st then tighten up a lot over the last 50 minutes and still lose 4-3. And I've said for YEARS now that the measure of a great goalie is not how many great saves them make, its how many softies they DON'T allow. Softies demolish a teams momentum, it crushes their energy, it lets a team that doesn't deserve to be in the game, have a chance to win it. A poorly timed softie is a death knell in hockey. Great goalies make ALL the saves they are supposed to make, and a handful of spectacular saves. Poor goalies make a few spectacular saves and give up a handful of goals that beer leaguers should stop. That was us last year.

This, so glad last season is done.

 

[Langway]

Another LD off the board.

 

[FlyguyOX]

Another LD off the board.

Just puts provorov on the block most likely.

 

[Zarao71]

My nice visualization was watching it unfold all season.

That's nuts! Igor is near perfect.

 

[DWGie26]

Well i don’t want to panic but this is bad hockey. I do love Fever thought and that is my next jersey.

I think you put in both Snively and CMM as a radical change. I’d also move Mantha to 1RW (even though he looked lazy to me in what i have seen), and pair Brown with Strome (and Protas).

But as is… bad!

 

[RVACapsFan]

If this is the year we fall off, what does the deadline look like? We have a ton of pending UFAs and Strome is an RFA. Other than Orlov I think they'd all be on the block. Orlov is still a solid D-man and by all accounts loves it in DC, so I could see him re-upping with us.

I do wonder what the market could look like for Carlson at the deadline. He has a 10-team NTC and three years left after this season at $8M AAV. Man it would be a gift to get out of the end of the contract.

 

[Corby78]

Last night was probably the worst over results for DC sports. It’s looking like this might be a long winter unless the caps wake up

 

[Kuz]

If this is the year we fall off, what does the deadline look like? We have a ton of pending UFAs and Strome is an RFA. Other than Orlov I think they'd all be on the block. Orlov is still a solid D-man and by all accounts loves it in DC, so I could see him re-upping with us.

I do wonder what the market could look like for Carlson at the deadline. He has a 10-team NTC and three years left after this season at $8M AAV. Man it would be a gift to get out of the end of the contract.

At least its probably the best draft since McDavid's draft. So if they should fall off it could kickstart their rebuild.

I guess Caps will start to do better soon, but if not Brown, Strome, Eller, Jensen, Hathaway, Sheary, Johansson and TVR should all be available at 50% to increase their value in a trade.

Right now they need to switch up the lines. 1st line are not producing and giving up a lot of goals (All are -3).

 

[Misery74]

Over/Under on Laviolette being fired should be Thanksgiving.

Hoping for Under. The guy is f***ing terrible.

 

[Roughing]

Carlson is brutal. The money going to him, Backstrom, and Eller (at least) is completely wasted. And Blaine Forsythe should have been fired years ago. That guy sucks something awful.