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

[Calicaps]

I think Vrana would've been the same kind of problem, whatever it was, here as he was in Detroit.

I suspect Vrana was already an emerging problem, which is why he was traded.

 

[Drakon]

I suspect Vrana was already an emerging problem, which is why he was traded.

As do I, which is kinda why I don't get the narrative that the Caps gave up a lot for Mantha. It was Vrana and a second. The first was for cap space to take Panik off their hands.

 

[Calicaps]

Yeah, the favoritism can't be doing anyone any good. Kuzy gets to suck all over the ice, Backstrom gets to find his game no matter how bad he is, etc.

I know folks think I'm just 19's biggest fan, but it's not that. I just think the reality is that he's earned a hell of a lot of runway with the organization. I doubt too many guys in the room resent him. But I bet it's different with Kuzy. Backstrom may be sucking, but he isn't phoning it in--he's just struggling. Kuzy's lack of give-a-shit is plain to see.

 

[Langway]

So we have doom in one corner. Got it.

They have the third-worst record in the league in CY2023. They miss Carlson and sold some pieces. But they are not remotely strong.

We can joke about it and play up the tank but they're not trying to be terrible. They just often are.

 

[Ridley Simon]

They have the third-worst record in the league in CY2023. They miss Carlson and sold some pieces. But they are not remotely strong.

We can joke about it and play up the tank but they're not trying to be terrible. They just often are.

Their defense is terrible. In all facets. They can score here and there, but their D is horrendous.

That’s by design.

I’d be shocked if this is the 6 D they play all next season with (including JC74).

 

[HTFN]

I know folks think I'm just 19's biggest fan, but it's not that. I just think the reality is that he's earned a hell of a lot of runway with the organization. I doubt too many guys in the room resent him. But I bet it's different with Kuzy. Backstrom may be sucking, but he isn't phoning it in--he's just struggling. Kuzy's lack of give-a-shit is plain to see.

I think this should be plain to see for anyone with a foot in the real world. Backstrom isn't doing amazing, I might be one of those fans and I can't say he's doing great so much as I'm just glad to see him back playing the game after a relatively untested surgery. Nobody should really be holding that type of thing against someone who played way under cap for a long time.

Kuznetsov is an embarrassment right now.

 

[SherVaughn30]

Just a big question, so how would you all go about handling the coaching staff for next season?

I for one would let go of Lavi/McCarthy/Fraudsythe/Murray. I think Scott Allen has done a great job with the PK and should be kept, because he did a better job than what Scott Arniel did the season before. I would also promote Hershey goalie coach Juha Lehtola as he's done a very good job in coaching Hunter Shepard and Zachary Fucale to be one of top 2 teams in GAA in the AHL.

The PP needs to be restructured, where there can be shots taken from both sides and both high and low. Also the PP shouldn't be so reliant on high end talent to score goals. There needs to be some players that can win board battles and muck it up with traffic in front of the goalie. Shots for rebounds. I believe the Caps are one of the worst teams scoring goals off of rebounds.

Whoever is brought in as replacements, they need to be able to reduce the high amount of high danger chances given up per game. I like to see better taught technique to win board battles, winning face-offs, using speed to create more scoring chances while attacking the net more. Last the next coaching staff needs to get the players to buy in better and have better cohesion with the d-pairs and forwards to have a better team defense.

 

[WanderingCapsFan]

Just a big question, so how would you all go about handling the coaching staff for next season?

I for one would let go of Lavi/McCarthy/Fraudsythe/Murray. I think Scott Allen has done a great job with the PK and should be kept, because he did a better job than what Scott Arniel did the season before. I would also promote Hershey goalie coach Juha Lehtola as he's done a very good job in coaching Hunter Shepard and Zachary Fucale to be one of top 2 teams in GAA in the AHL.

The PP needs to be restructured, where there can be shots taken from both sides and both high and low. Also the PP shouldn't be so reliant on high end talent to score goals. There needs to be some players that can win board battles and muck it up with traffic in front of the goalie. Shots for rebounds. I believe the Caps are one of the worst teams scoring goals off of rebounds.

Whoever is brought in as replacements, they need to be able to reduce the high amount of high danger chances given up per game. I like to see better taught technique to win board battles, winning face-offs, using speed to create more scoring chances while attacking the net more. Last the next coaching staff needs to get the players to buy in better and have better cohesion with the d-pairs and forwards to have a better team defense.

I fear there are a lot of old dogs that can't learn new tricks.

 

[SherVaughn30]

What bothers me most about the current coaching staff, they can't get the players to properly defend a lead. There are less talented teams that do a better job having a lead or at least make it harder for the opponent to comeback and score on them. This teams coaching is a sieve when it comes to team defense.

 

[SherVaughn30]

I fear there are a lot of old dogs that can't learn new tricks.

True to a certain extent. If we get a new coaching staff that's better at knowing how to mix older/younger players, then this team will be far better off. You might even be surprised and see some of the older players playing better. Age can be a factor for both good and bad for a team, but another factor is the system. The system at hand is not maximizing the roster.

Former Kings coach Darryl Sutter had a great response to a reporter, years ago, in regard to the team being too old and slow. He basically said players can't skate as fast as the puck slides on the ice. So basically connecting on passes quicker and move into open spots to receive those quicker passes. The opponents can't cover all of the ice if the puck is moving fast.

Also, when you have one of the oldest teams you emphasize more on the players conditioning. There always gonna be some injuries during a season, but you can reduce the percentage risk by making sure the team goes through intense conditioning training during the off-season.

Yes, the team still needs to get younger and not hold on to older players so much, but it takes time to do so and coaching willing to take advantage of using the younger players at their disposal.

 

[Holtbyisms]

Their defense is terrible. In all facets. They can score here and there, but their D is horrendous.

That’s by design.

I’d be shocked if this is the 6 D they play all next season with (including JC74).

What changes can they really make there? Carlson ain't going anywhere, Jensen and TVR just resigned so they're a lock. Sandin is BMACs "I'm retooling" savior. Fehervary is looked at as a young top 4 by BMAC...he's getting resigned. That leaves you one spot to rejuvenate a bad defense. So plug in your best bargain bin LD UFA who can put up points like Gostisbehere/Gustafson(again) and rinse/repeat the same bad defensive breakdowns night in and night out we have now.

 

[um]

What changes can they really make there? Carlson ain't going anywhere, Jensen and TVR just resigned so they're a lock. Sandin is BMACs "I'm retooling" savior. Fehervary is looked at as a young top 4 by BMAC...he's getting resigned. That leaves you one spot to rejuvenate a bad defense. So plug in your best bargain bin LD UFA who can put up points like Gostisbehere/Gustafson(again) and rinse/repeat the same bad defensive breakdowns night in and night out we have now.

Why is Fehervary locked in as a top 4 dman?

 

[SherVaughn30]

What changes can they really make there? Carlson ain't going anywhere, Jensen and TVR just resigned so they're a lock. Sandin is BMACs "I'm retooling" savior. Fehervary is looked at as a young top 4 by BMAC...he's getting resigned. That leaves you one spot to rejuvenate a bad defense. So plug in your best bargain bin LD UFA who can put up points like Gostisbehere/Gustafson(again) and rinse/repeat the same bad defensive breakdowns night in and night out we have now.

This is hypothetical and based on the Caps having a new coaching staff for next season. The new guy in charge of coaching defense has fresher ideas and a scheme that works better with the current d-men on the roster. I just don't like McCarthy's philosophy. I think it's more beneficial for the 5-man unit on the ice to play a hybrid zone/man-to-man system. Man-to-man requires that all your players deployed, are fast skaters and are well conditioned. The man-to-man system forces a lot of chasing. If caught in your d-zone too long, this can become very taxing and also confuse players to mark the wrong man or be out of position. Playing zone on the other hand can be less taxing because each of the 5 players are responsible for a portion of the d-zone. It's more structured, but might allow really fast skaters to quickly hit an opening and be able to get a good shot receiving a quick pass. The zone formation might also hinder the quickness of breaking out/counter attacking, after retrieving the puck. With this roster, playing zone coverage in the d-zone would eliminate the high danger chances the Caps give up. I think it would also lower the amount of shots given up, which would take some pressure off the goalies.

Why is Fehervary locked in as a top 4 dman?

I would say because potentially he can stay locked up in the 2nd pairing. To me he doesn't fit playing as a 5/6 guy.

 

[McVechkin]

I’m not counting on a new coaching system anymore since reading that latest Tarik article in the athletic. He didn’t seem to indicate any certainty one way or the other.. but definitely made it sound like everyone is happy with PL… which is mind boggling.

 

[Langway]

I’d be shocked if this is the 6 D they play all next season with (including JC74).

Irwin & Carlsson are bad to be sure but Carlsson wasn't on the ice for any GA last night and Irwin only one. Alexeyev is a work in progress. Goaltending has let them down but the defensive warts in Sandin's game appear very real. Without much cap space I'm not sure it will be in the cards for it to be upgraded into a strength. The defensive limitations in the forward group may be even harder to tackle, including their inability to drive play generally.

Down the stretch without a ton of motivation to dial in mentally these bad habits are apt to creep into their game. But they've always struggled to not have those bigger blip breakdown lulls. Subtracting Orlov remains a very costly subtraction competitively when there's such little stability to be found elsewhere. Jensen & TVR are solid but it seems likely to remain a bit light. It's Fehervary they're banking on stepping into Orlov's role but that will at best be a work in progress IMO.

 

[895]

As do I, which is kinda why I don't get the narrative that the Caps gave up a lot for Mantha. It was Vrana and a second. The first was for cap space to take Panik off their hands.

Seriously?

And why did we need that cap space? Because Mantha had a much bigger contract.

It was Vrana and a 1st and 2nd. It was a terrible trade.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Sorry the 1st was to dump 2 years of Panik…he wasn’t cheap to lose.

 

[Misery74]

Sorry the 1st was to dump 2 years of Panik…he wasn’t cheap to lose.

BMac signed Panik, which seemed puzzling at the time. It was an awful signing, and an awful trade.

 

[Brian23]

BMac signed Panik, which seemed puzzling at the time. It was an awful signing, and an awful trade.

Oh come on, the general consensus was that was a good signing and Panik was an extremely undervalued player. The only comment were it might be one year too long, but that's what cap strapped teams do. Acting like it was a headscratcher at the time is entirely hindsight.

 

[Misery74]

Oh come on, the general consensus was that was a good signing and Panik was an extremely undervalued player. The only comment were it might be one year too long, but that's what cap strapped teams do. Acting like it was a headscratcher at the time is entirely hindsight.

Are you kidding? Signing Richard Panik for four years was always a head scratcher. No hindsight necessary.

If I knew how to search on this website, I would look for the post.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

BMac signed Panik, which seemed puzzling at the time. It was an awful signing, and an awful trade.

It didn’t really seem that puzzling and most people thought it was a shrewd signing. He was pegged to be Connolly’s replacement. He was a big, skilled winger who put up very solid underlying numbers on bad teams. Led the Coyotes in goals/60 the year before he signed in Washington. He had scored 22 goals a few seasons prior to signing with Washington while on Chicago and then put up decent numbers on bad Arizona teams in addition to playing well and producing at the international level at the World Cup in 2018-19. There were plenty of reasons to assume he’d play well on a team with better talent.

His first season in Washington the league got shut down by Covid and he never really found his groove here but to say it was an awful and puzzling signing at the time is not all that accurate. The only thing people really griped about was the term which we know was done to keep AAV low. If I recall correctly, total contract value was less than what a bunch of models predicted.

Panik and Mantha do provide some lessons though if you’re willing to look and evaluate. Both big and skilled but had complaints about not being physical enough with their size. Both were/are very streaky. Both had good underlying numbers on bad teams while playing in roles they weren’t going to be playing in DC. These should be factors or red flags for them as they’ve tended to do better in opposite situations: identify guys who are not utilized well or played enough and give them meaningful roles as opposed to guys who produced and played meaningful roles and then come here and see their TOI and responsibilities decreased.

And I’m not directing this at you personally but adding it in this comment because of some of the stuff I’ve been reading: this board has a bad case of revisionist history. It’s wild how often things are brushed with a broad stroke to paint a narrative that isn’t or wasn’t true.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Are you kidding? Signing Richard Panik for four years was always a head scratcher. No hindsight necessary.

If I knew how to search on this website, I would look for the post.

I just did the search and you’re not going to like what you’re going to read if you think this was the sentiment. The term was the only thing people balked at and we know that was BMac’s modus operandi.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Thank you for debunking revisionist history…

 

[Misery74]

It didn’t really seem that puzzling and most people thought it was a shrewd signing. He was pegged to be Connolly’s replacement. He was a big, skilled winger who put up very solid underlying numbers on bad teams. Led the Coyotes in goals/60 the year before he signed in Washington. He had scored 22 goals a few seasons prior to signing with Washington while on Chicago and then put up decent numbers on bad Arizona teams in addition to playing well and producing at the international level at the World Cup in 2018-19. There were plenty of reasons to assume he’d play well on a team with better talent.

His first season in Washington the league got shut down by Covid and he never really found his groove here but to say it was an awful and puzzling signing at the time is not all that accurate. The only thing people really griped about was the term which we know was done to keep AAV low. If I recall correctly, total contract value was less than what a bunch of models predicted.

Panik and Mantha do provide some lessons though if you’re willing to look and evaluate. Both big and skilled but had complaints about not being physical enough with their size. Both were/are very streaky. Both had good underlying numbers on bad teams while playing in roles they weren’t going to be playing in DC. These should be factors or red flags for them as they’ve tended to do better in opposite situations: identify guys who are not utilized well or played enough and give them meaningful roles as opposed to guys who produced and played meaningful roles and then come here and see their TOI and responsibilities decreased.

And I’m not directing this at you personally but adding it in this comment because of some of the stuff I’ve been reading: this board has a bad case of revisionist history. It’s wild how often things are brushed with a broad stroke to paint a narrative that isn’t or wasn’t true.

I just don’t understand. If we had to pay a first round pick to get rid of him, like some here are claiming, it was a terrible signing.

I’m just not sure how this is even debatable.

It was too long. It was too much money. He was more of a two way forward, and a coach that likes two way forwards didn’t even want him.

I just did the search and you’re not going to like what you’re going to read if you think this was the sentiment. The term was the only thing people balked at and we know that was BMac’s modus operandi.

I would actually like to read it.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

I just don’t understand. If we had to pay a first round pick to get rid of him, like some here are claiming, it was a terrible signing.

I’m just not sure how this is even debatable.

It was too long. It was too much money. He was more of a two way forward, and a coach that likes two way forwards didn’t even want him.

It wasn’t a terrible signing at the time. At the time being the key phrase here. There was no reason to believe his play would drop off a cliff and he’d be an anchor they had to pay to get rid of. $2.75M/year for a middle six winger was more than fair. He was a good player at the time who looked like a better two-way version of Connolly.

It turned out to be a terrible signing but that’s not the same as when you sign a player to a contract and you know before the ink dries it’s a terrible contract like David Backes in Boston, Milan Lucic in Edmonton, Bob in Florida, etc.