Post-Game Talk: I think this team might have some flaws

[marcel snapshot]

I think there is more to that. Our players are never in a good position to receive the puck. When i watch it almost seems like each player has no clue where his teammates will be. That definitely affects the ability to make clean passes, quickly and decisively.

How many times do we see pass whipped around the boards and a dman not there to keep it in the zone.

Watching other teams, players pass to open ice where they know a player will be and can skate into it. They support one another. There is structure u can see.

Our players are so out of synch it exacerbated the lack of quality puckhandlers, which is an issue, but i dont think as bad as it looks.

And again my question is why? Why do our players not know whwre to be. Or how to support each other. This isnt a skill thing. This is fundamentals.

I'll just observe that Caps fans saw some similar stuff w/Lavy when he coached in DC. The team was not connected or crisp, lots of zone exits were "hope" rims around the boards, possession was limited because players (especially on the top lines) were more prone to free-lance and less apt to support and make themselves available to receive passes in good places.

I think there are real questions about Lavy's ability to coach all his players up and down the lineup into a playing a connected, 5-man game - and being disciplined about holding players accountable who are freelancing. Because the difference between the Caps team coached by Lavy and the Caps team coached by Carberry is night and day in terms of pace, connected-ness, providing support to each other on the ice is - and everybody (including Ovie before he was hurt) is bought into playing that way.

 

[McRanger92]

I'll just observe that Caps fans saw some similar stuff w/Lavy when he coached in DC. The team was not connected or crisp, lots of zone exits were "hope" rims around the boards, possession was limited because players (especially on the top lines) were more prone to free-lance and less apt to support and make themselves available to receive passes in good places.

I think there are real questions about Lavy's ability to coach all his players up and down the lineup into a playing a connected, 5-man game - and being disciplined about holding players accountable who are freelancing. Because the difference between the Caps team coached by Lavy and the Caps team coached by Carberry is night and day in terms of pace, connected-ness, providing support to each other on the ice is - and everybody (including Ovie before he was hurt) is bought into playing that way.

It's going to be Michael Peca time in NY sooner than later imo.

 

[McRanger92]

 

[Machinehead]

To be fair, he literally always looks like this.

He looked at his newborn first child like this.

 

[Dennis Reynolds]

How did Vaakanainen look?

I know it's pretty well-established that he's a 6/7, but I hope he's at least serviceable...

 

[McRanger92]

How did Vaakanainen look?

I know it's pretty well-established that he's a 6/7, but I hope he's at least serviceable...

Serviceable

 

[Peltz]

Big Em is our only reporter.

Welp... He may have faith in Drury but the players sure don't.

 

[Peltz]

I've been a pretty big Drury defender in wanting to give him time but it's been what, 4 years now? At some point the bad moves add up. He's an unmitigated disaster and I'm yet to see anything even resembling a plan. What's the best thing he's done, seriously? Probably the Trouba trade. Everything else has been bad or worse.

Since you asked, I think it's important to actually give a fair answer. The best moves he's made are:

• Signing Trocheck
• Signing Halak
• Signing Quick
• Extending Fox
• Extending Chytil
• Signing Gufstafson

Other arguably good things:

• Dumping Goodrow and Trouba (but it kinda destroyed the team so I say arguably).
• Exending Kakko another year
• Some solid draft picks
• Firing Quinn at the right time
• Firing Gallant at the right time

Objectively Bad things:

• Poor return for Buchnevich and then trading picks every playoff run to fill the same RW hole - the only one of those who remotely worked was Vatrano
• Igor's last extension for 4 seasons when it should have been at least 2 seasons longer so he couldn't ask for top dollar at his peak
• Wennberg
• Kane
• Lindgren's latest extension
• Anderson and Kravstov issues
• Dangling Kreider on the trade market this season publicly instead of keeping things tight lipped
• Inability to deal Trouba before the season started
• Signing Nemeth and the cost to get rid of him

Debatable things that I think have geniune pros and cons.

• Extending Zib with full NMC when Eichel was available (yes I know it looks bad now, but it was arguably the right move at the time)
• Extending Igor this season for a historically high contract with full NMC
• Hiring Gallant
• Hiring Lavi
• Signing Goodrow

Honestly, there's far more bad than good here. I'm being rather generous when it comes to the Zibanejad bullet point. When he was extended he was an incredible center that looked to be underrated at the time. Unfortunately, he's deteriorated faster than any of us thought he would.

 

[Profet]

To be fair, he literally always looks like this.

He looked at his newborn first child like this.

After you win a little league world series... it's all down hill from there.

 

[Peltz]

I don't think the Rangers had more structure, they just had a better roster, and they rode all the usual things new heights. They were a mediocre 5v5 team with one working line (that happened to have a top 5 player in the world on it, shockingly), dominant special teams, and great goaltending.

I think the Laviolette bump was really overexaggerated last year. The main difference between the 2022-23 group and the 23-24 group, to my eyes, was a) swapping Nemeth with Gustafsson and b) Panarin having another MVP tier bounceback after being the object of a ton of scrutiny and criticism (baldnarin really changed the game). Not to mention the difference between Halak's 0-4 start and Quick's first go-round with the team. Some huge improvements around the edges and a career season from your best player = 7 points in the standings.

They were definitely better defensively last year than in the Gallant years.

Lafreniere also played better last year.