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League News: NHL Talk - (News n' Scores n' Stuff) - 2022-23 season, Vol. 4, Off-season Edition

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A (supposedly) contending team relying on two young, unproven goalies was never going to be a recipe for success, regardless of who the goalie coach was. You can somewhat excuse the season in which Lundqvist was supposed to be the back-up only for his heart to almost explode. But the fact they willingly went back to that situation the following season was beyond frustrating.

That being said, Scott Murray is 100% the root of the issues with that phase of Caps goaltending history. I'm not going to go at-length (again) about all the ways in which Murray screwed with Holtby's game and botched the development of Sammy and Vitek, so if you want that go find some of my previous posts on the topic. But suffice to say, under Price and Korn this franchise was churning out starting goalie after starting goalies (Varlamov, Neuvirth, Holtby, Grubauer) to a franchise where their established star goalie was struggling and both of their highly drafted, young goaltenders were going sideways in their development under Murray. Tracing back the times in which Murray was in charge and when Korn was in charge, it was glaringly obvious what the common factor was.
 
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Hivemind said:
A (supposedly) contending team relying on two young, unproven goalies was never going to be a recipe for success, regardless of who the goalie coach was. You can somewhat excuse the season in which Lundqvist was supposed to be the back-up only for his heart to almost explode. But the fact they willingly went back to that situation the following season was beyond frustrating.

That being said, Scott Murray is 100% the root of the issues with that phase of Caps goaltending history. I'm not going to go at-length (again) about all the ways in which Murray screwed with Holtby's game and botched the development of Sammy and Vitek, so if you want that go find some of my previous posts on the topic. But suffice to say, under Price and Korn this franchise was churning out starting goalie after starting goalies (Varlamov, Neuvirth, Holtby, Grubauer) to a franchise where their established star goalie was struggling and both of their highly drafted, young goaltenders were going sideways in their development under Murray. Tracing back the times in which Murray was in charge and when Korn was in charge, it was glaringly obvious what the common factor was.
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And it appears to be yet another example of the reluctance of the Caps front office to hold any of the coaching staff responsible and make changes. If Scott Murray is indeed the problem, and we sure as hell know Forsythe has long past his use by date coaching the PP, why the hell isn't anything being done to address it?
 
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Not to diminish the Scott Murray stuff cause it’s looking bad for him right now.

But, we know these guys can play well for stretches - just no consistency. I seem to remember Sammy playing just as well (or close) to start last year, with shutouts on a west coast trip, etc...

Then that 4 goal 3rd period happened in Sunrise, FLA at some point in December(please correct me if I’m remembering this incorrectly) and Sammy totally fell apart.

It then became a bungling rotation until VV got hot for like 6 weeks in the Spring, until he imploded, and it was tweedle dee and tweedle dumb the rest of the way.

So, talk to me when either guy keeps this going through the end of the calendar year. VV I’m happy for; Sammy was a bit too maddening on and off the ice, esp as a 1st rounder, to have those kinda good feelings just yet.
 
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RedRocking said:
Not to diminish the Scott Murray stuff cause it’s looking bad for him right now.

But, we know these guys can play well for stretches - just no consistency. I seem to remember Sammy playing just as well (or close) to start last year, with shutouts on a west coast trip, etc...

Then that 4 goal 3rd period happened in Sunrise, FLA at some point in December(please correct me if I’m remembering this incorrectly) and Sammy totally fell apart.

It then became a bungling rotation until VV got hot for like 6 weeks in the Spring, until he imploded, and it was tweedle dee and tweedle dumb the rest of the way.

So, talk to me when either guy keeps this going through the end of the calendar year. VV I’m happy for; Sammy was a bit too maddening on and off the ice, esp as a 1st rounder, to have those kinda good feelings just yet.
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Yeah I never had an issue with Vanacek because he seems like a humble guy and there was never an expectation that he'd be our starter. And when he was kind of forced to be I think we all knew he wasn't going to lead us to a Cup or anything.

Samsonov - he seemed like a clueless jerk and I stand by my theory (unfounded and pure speculation) that he wasn't popular among the Caps team. That idiotic behind the net giveaway against Boston, with Ovie yelling at him - I think that's when it became clear to the team: "He ain't the guy". And I could see how his relationship with his teammates could have gone downhill from there.
 
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Revenge is a really solid way to shape one's focus. I imagine both Sammy and VV sitting around like Edmond Dantes thinking about nothing else than proving it was all Scott Murray's fault.

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Not sure if he's claimed yet but Kiefer Bellows is apparently on waivers and could be a good energy gut with a scoring touch to put on the fourth line so Protas can take Ellers 3C spot
 
YippieKaey said:
Not sure if he's claimed yet but Kiefer Bellows is apparently on waivers and could be a good energy gut with a scoring touch to put on the fourth line so Protas can take Ellers 3C spot
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The thing is: if he was a "good energy guy with a scoring touch" would he have been waived by two teams and headed for the minors?
 
Langway said:
The Rangers are in Troubal.
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One nice thing about this season is seeing the Rangers rightfully come back down to earth. They’re a team that’s terrible at drafting and developing and they’re only out of their “rebuild” because guys want to play in New York which is how they got Fox and Panarin. Shesterkin put up one of the top five seasons in history last season which masked a lot of their deficiencies. They had a really nice trade deadline which boosted their depth but they lost a lot of that in the off-season.

The Ziby trade remains a a masterpiece though. What a steal they got their for the corpse of Brassard — and they got a 2nd round pick to boot.
 
PlushMinus said:
The thing is: if he was a "good energy guy with a scoring touch" would he have been waived by two teams and headed for the minors?
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Given the amount of injuries we're having we better grab everyone off waivers.

But seriously though, he had 19 pts in 45 games with the Isles last season. That's good for around 30-35 points in a full season. We've done stupider things than grab someone like him off waivers.
 
YippieKaey said:
Given the amount of injuries we're having we better grab everyone off waivers.

But seriously though, he had 19 pts in 45 games with the Isles last season. That's good for around 30-35 points in a full season. We've done stupider things than grab someone like him off waivers.
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We already have a bunch of forwards (Eller, Dowd, Milano, Hathaway) who project to have 30 points or less in a full season. All four of them are roster mainstays. If they can't score or provide offense I doubt a new guy will either.

Still - might be good to pick him up and have him play in the minors. He's a 19th overall pick I believe so he must have some talent and ability.
 
PlushMinus said:
We already have a bunch of forwards (Eller, Dowd, Milano, Hathaway) who project to have 30 points or less in a full season. All four of them are roster mainstays. If they can't score or provide offense I doubt a new guy will either.

Still - might be good to pick him up and have him play in the minors. He's a 19th overall pick I believe so he must have some talent and ability.
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My idea was trading some guys there.

And yeah, you never know. Milano is looking a bit reinvigorated here so.
 
Not a good day for the Playoff train.

Tank train:

Good:

- Wings won
- Sabres won

Bad:

- 'Hawks, Blue Jackets, Sharks and Ducks are... really bad. Each lost again.

Playoff train:

Good:

- Nothing

Bad:

- Isles won
- Red Wings won
- Sabres won
 
trick9 said:
Not a good day for the Playoff train.

Tank train:

Good:

- Wings won
- Sabres won

Bad:

- 'Hawks, Blue Jackets, Sharks and Ducks are... really bad. Each lost again.

Playoff train:

Good:

- Nothing

Bad:

- Isles won
- Red Wings won
- Sabres won
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Damn. We cant win and we cant even tank properly. Feel weird being stuck is this purgatory.
 
trick9 said:
Not a good day for the Playoff train.

Tank train:

Good:

- Wings won
- Sabres won

Bad:

- 'Hawks, Blue Jackets, Sharks and Ducks are... really bad. Each lost again.

Playoff train:

Good:

- Nothing

Bad:

- Isles won
- Red Wings won
- Sabres won
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Are these two trains heading in opposite directions, or are they on a collision course on the same track?

I don't think the Caps will ever "tank" in full but if they are really hopelessly out of it by the TDL I hope they sell off everything and start over.
 
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kicksavedave said:
Are these two trains heading in opposite directions, or are they on a collision course on the same track?

I don't think the Caps will ever "tank" in full but if they are really hopelessly out of it by the TDL I hope they sell off everything and start over.
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Playoff train is the train we are currently in but the train is old, slow and breaking down. When it breaks down middle of the way it's the tank train that will come and pick us up.
 
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