Pre-Game Talk: GAME 36 7:08 PM - Washington

[Fenway]

Monday, December 23 (TD Garden | Boston, MA)
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• Morning skate, 10:30 a.m.​
• Interim Head Coach Joe Sacco and select players available to media following morning skate​
• Game vs. Washington Capitals, 7 p.m. (TV: NESN | Radio: 98.5)​
• Interim Head Coach Joe Sacco and select players available to media following the game​

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[Aeroforce]

Did anyone see coming what the Caps have done thus far? First place in the Metro at Christmas, with games in hand. Their success is as much a surprise as the Rangers imploding.

Whatever Spencer Carbery is preaching, the Caps are buying it.

 

[bobbyorr04]

F**k the Craps

B's win 4-2

 

[Blitzkrug]

Did anyone see coming what the Caps have done thus far? First place in the Metro at Christmas, with games in hand. Their success is as much a surprise as the Rangers imploding.

Whatever Spencer Carbery is preaching, the Caps are buying it.

Little bit of column A and column B for the Caps.

It's part Carbery and part they went out and got a bunch of guys in the offseason to help him out. They hit on pretty much every pickup. Roy and Chychrun have been huge for the backend giving them a legit top 4 between those two, a still fairly potent John Carlson and Rasmus Sandin. PLD decided to start giving a shit again and is on pace for a career season in points. Hell even randomly bringing back Jakub Vrana has worked out pretty well given he's got 10 points in 20 games after his very public struggle with addiction. Logan Thompson has been effective in a tandem with Charlie Lindgren.

Where Carbery has really shined is his development of the younger Caps. Connor McMichael has been fantastic and idk who the hell Aliakesi Protas is, but he's already tied his career high in points at 29 in roughly half the games it took for him to hit that last year.(Washington probably has an enormous bargain on their hands given they moved to lock him up real f***in' quick) And then there's just getting good stuff out of the guys you already had like Strome and Ovechkin before he got hurt.

Nothing about their underlying stats/numbers say they're frauds or a mirage either. This is just an all around good hockey team. Especially defensively.

 

[Fenway]

Did anyone see coming what the Caps have done thus far? First place in the Metro at Christmas, with games in hand. Their success is as much a surprise as the Rangers imploding.

Whatever Spencer Carbery is preaching, the Caps are buying it.

The proof is in the metrics

 

[Aeroforce]

Little bit of column A and column B for the Caps.

It's part Carbery and part they went out and got a bunch of guys in the offseason to help him out. They hit on pretty much every pickup. Roy and Chychrun have been huge for the backend giving them a legit top 4 between those two, a still fairly potent John Carlson and Rasmus Sandin. PLD decided to start giving a shit again and is on pace for a career season in points. Hell even randomly bringing back Jakub Vrana has worked out pretty well given he's got 10 points in 20 games after his very public struggle with addiction. Logan Thompson has been effective in a tandem with Charlie Lindgren.

Where Carbery has really shined is his development of the younger Caps. Connor McMichael has been fantastic and idk who the hell Aliakesi Protas is, but he's already tied his career high in points at 29 in roughly half the games it took for him to hit that last year.(Washington probably has an enormous bargain on their hands given they moved to lock him up real f***in' quick) And then there's just getting good stuff out of the guys you already had like Strome and Ovechkin before he got hurt.

Nothing about their underlying stats/numbers say they're frauds or a mirage either. This is just an all around good hockey team. Especially defensively.

Absolutely.

I think Washington also benefited from injuries and such to grizzled vets, that created playing time and cap space for the young guys to shine - Backstrom, Oshie, Kuznetsov.

From what I recall, the consensus in the off-season was the Caps were just trying to be competitive while Ovechkin chased the record, but they weren't considered contenders.

 

[caz16]

A win with no injuries would be a nice Christmas present. We always seem to end up with injuries when playing the Caps. Tampa did their job and lost to the Panthers, hopefully that happens again today.

Our internet was down last night, they told us 12-24 hours to try to fix it remotely but that it would be Tuesday to send someone out if they couldn't. Magically, it is working this morning. Fingers crossed it has been fixed remotely, I don't want to lose it over the holidays and for the game tonight. Not to mention the many contests I enter, that is serious withdrawal!

 

[Thirty Seven]

Hopefully a good effort from everyone.