Series Discussion: Caps vs Canadiens de Montréal

[Marshall]

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Oh no, clearly this means MTL is gonna sweep us. It also means Florida, Edmonton, etc are gonna get swept too

Why even play. Just concede

This surprised me.

 

[Ovechkins Wodka]

No team in the playoffs has better 1st round odds then the Caps. But what do I know...

 

[Kazer]

Oh no, clearly this means MTL is gonna sweep us. It also means Florida, Edmonton, etc are gonna get swept too

Why even play. Just concede

Seeing Boston at the bottom of this chart brings me so much joy.

 

[Calicaps]

This surprised me.

to the upside or down?

 

[kicksavedave]

Seeing Boston at the bottom of this chart brings me so much joy.

Nothing says we're raising the white flag like trading your Captain within the division.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

It's a small rink. You can't have breakaways if you're too slow. You need opportunity AND speed.

For years, every time we got burned by some team that kept getting behind our D people complained about team speed. We have a lot of guys who can move.

If the Caps get "out-skated" it will be due to effort and quickness and efficiency. They were good at those things earlier in the year. They can be again.

Duh….lol.

Breakaways aren’t the measure of team speed though IMO. Getting behind a D is blown coverage.

 

[g00n]

Duh….lol.

Breakaways aren’t the measure of team speed though IMO. Getting behind a D is blown coverage.

Slow teams don't finish 2nd in the league, though.

This "we're too slow" shit is just left over whining from previous seasons.

 

[EroCaps]

MTL lost to Chicago in a win and in scenario last week. Give me a break. Their soft Euros are no match for our hard Euros.

 

[zappa4ever]

Rd. 1 is where Will vs. Skill sends home better teams

Hope our lackluster finish to the season doesn't dictate how R1 starts and we come out banging from the 1st whistle

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

Slow teams don't finish 2nd in the league, though.

This "we're too slow" shit is just left over whining from previous seasons.

Previous year, fast teams gave us trouble, but we’ve gotten better. Should be no issue.

 

[stephenball]

I think with locking stuff up so early it became a thing of trying not to be hurt, we’ve been way less physical for a while which often translates into lackadaisical play. Now that the real games are here I expect them to bring the heat more, and hopefully that shakes off some bad habits

 

[TheSmokingMan]

Listening to the nervous nellies on these boards is exhausting. I get it, we've been burned by previous Caps teams and we want to protect ourselves from getting burned again. I'm here to tell you that it's going to be ok. This team is a different animal than those previous teams.

Go look at the rosters of some of those early Ovi era Caps teams that flamed out in the playoffs. They were critically flawed and top heavy rosters. Later years we either ran into prime Henrik Lundqvist or prime Crosby and the Penguins on their way to another finals appearance. The years after the 2018 Cup run were a bit of a letdown as the organization tried to run it back with an aging core.

Washington Capitals Historical Statistics and All-Time Top Leaders | Hockey-Reference.com

I guess what I'm saying is that the narrative of Washington as some kind of playoff choker is unwarranted. This years team is young, fast, deep at every position, and well coached. The only question marks we have are around injuries and health.

Losing meaningless games at the end of the season won't impact how they play in the playoffs. It's been completely overblown by people looking to find flaws with a team they didn't expect to be this good. The playoffs are a brand new season; what happened before doesn't matter.

Learn to enjoy the ride instead of always expecting the worst.

 

[Portable Mink]

I don’t think it matter which goalie we play.

 

[philip]

No team in the playoffs has better 1st round odds then the Caps. But what do I know...

I think you can both think we'll beat MTL in R1 but also be bummed out about how we've pathetically petered out in performance levels in recent weeks. You want to be peaking now not going the other way. I bet coach is scratching his head trying to figure out how to get back to how things were earlier in the season.

 

[Nice]

Think this could be a favorable matchup for Leonard playing against such a young team

 

[SecretaryofDefense5]

Bear playing would be bad news bears. See what I did there.

In all seriousness, I assume it means one of Carlson or Roy still aren’t ready. Carlson has been out for a while so that is worrisome.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

This is going to be a restless few days of mental gymnastics while we wait….

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Fever and Protas not skating today, LT on the ice and staying with the group for practice. Carlson, Roy, and Bear all practicing. I think I’d rather play Bear than McIlrath at 3RD with TvR as his partner but I’m just an internet speculator.

 

[Kazer]

Bear playing would be bad news bears. See what I did there.

In all seriousness, I assume it means one of Carlson or Roy still aren’t ready. Carlson has been out for a while so that is worrisome.

At this stage, my concern level is quite minor. Why?

(1) Bears have a glut of D right now, to the point where they sent Perrott down and still healthy scratched Muggli, Gucci, and Hunt (you're welcome @DWGie26). (2) After tonight, Hershey's regular season is done and with the way the wild card works [3v6 and 4v5 play 3 game series to determine who plays 1 & 2] they won't be playing for several days.

This just seems like a reward for a guy who has put in hard work at the AHL level all year, so much that he was recently named to the AHL Second All-Star team.

Edit to add: Based on Fever not skating, my concern is a touch higher. I'm still not concerned at all about Roy & Carlson who are both skating/practicing, and I agree with AM8 above that TvR - Bear or AA - TvR feels like a better option than TvR - McIlrath given the matchup.

 

[SecretaryofDefense5]

Carbery is doubling down on lines that couldn’t score down the stretch. Interesting.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Ooooo Alexeyev over Big Mac and Bear, I like. AA is criminally underrated around these parts.

 

[twabby]

No Protas is really unfortunate. But hopefully they can still win while he's out and give him time to heal.

I also like Alexeyev over McIlrath and Bear. Alexeyev was quite good defensively on the third pair last year.

 

[Brian23]

I don't hate those lines, even if they weren't scoring that top line at least looked dangerous. I'd have to see the underlying numbers to really judge though, and without Protas I'm not sure there's a better first line you can put together.

I think my only critique is I'd really like them to swap Raddysh and Leonard, and let Leonard run some harder/tougher minutes for awhile. Then again, I'm a noted Mangi and Eller hater this year so

 

[tycoonheart]

I'm happy to see Beau with Ovi and Strome. They have looked quite good.

 

[um]

I don't hate those lines, even if they weren't scoring that top line at least looked dangerous. I'd have to see the underlying numbers to really judge though, and without Protas I'm not sure there's a better first line you can put together.

I think my only critique is I'd really like them to swap Raddysh and Leonard, and let Leonard run some harder/tougher minutes for awhile. Then again, I'm a noted Mangi and Eller hater this year so

Agreed.

At this point I’d rather have a stacked top 9 than roll 4 lines. Eller and Mangi just aren’t getting it done.