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

[BallardEra]

Watching Pens vs Avs before Oilers game starts.

13-2 shots for the Avs. Pens look very slow compared to the Avs.

 

[Marshall]

Dammit, Avs...

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Thanks for nothing, Colorado and Seattle. The Metro teams have won four of five games they’ve played and Pittsburgh could make that five for five if they beat Colorado in OT right now. Florida also beat Tampa as well. Literally no help.

 

[um]

Thanks for nothing, Colorado and Seattle. The Metro teams have won four of five games they’ve played and Pittsburgh could make that five for five if they beat Colorado in OT right now. Florida also beat Tampa as well. Literally no help.

This is gonna be a very interesting stretch of hockey going into the playoffs. Much more interesting than last years playoff race.

If the Caps do make it they should at least be battle hardened.

 

[Hivemind]

...but if you attempt to answer that question, he hits you with the "You're being mean because he might have a Real Problem that's impolite to discuss!" bat.

I don't care that it's "impolite to discuss." I care that it's speculative BS.

I want reporters to do digging on the issue, not random forum posters to spin whatever narrative is convenient for their perspective on the team. I think that's fairly obvious.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

And Pittsburgh wins. Colorado scores on goal on 42 shots and hits a bunch of posts including one right before Pittsburgh scored. Really want to see MoneyPuck’s deserve to win o’meter on this one.

 

[twabby]

I will take one (1) Timo Meier please. Short-term and long-term solution in the top 6. Provided he is extended in DC give San Jose two first round picks and a good prospect I don’t care.

 

[max21]

Islanders win both their back to back, lame

 

[max21]

I will take one (1) Timo Meier please. Short-term and long-term solution in the top 6. Provided he is extended in DC give San Jose two first round picks and a good prospect I don’t care.

He looked awesome tonight, his asking price keeps going up

 

[DWGie26]

He looked awesome tonight, his asking price keeps going up

We can’t afford a contract like that until post-OV And Backstrom. Might as well embrace it. There will be three more of those when we can.

 

[Hivemind]

We can’t afford a contract like that until post-OV And Backstrom. Might as well embrace it. There will be three more of those when we can.

Post-Backstrom could be any moment.

 

[twabby]

I don’t know that Meier will come in at more than 8 x $9 million. They could easily make that work if they aggressively shop the dead weight on the team now.

 

[Langway]

I will take one (1) Timo Meier please. Short-term and long-term solution in the top 6. Provided he is extended in DC give San Jose two first round picks and a good prospect I don’t care.

Interesting thought exercise: should we value '23 & '24 first round picks more than CMM/Lapierre? I think SJS would given uncertainty re: the core's age/health so the Caps should likewise. The Caps could put some protections on those but...I don't know. I tend to think this team is cooked either way in the near-term as a contender even after adding a Meier and clearing out some dead weight.

Meier would very likely assure that they make it in this year but beyond that and a slight increase in Puncher's Chance I don't know that it's enough. Their center play would still be pretty mid and they'd be locked in to the point where it's hard to see how that changes any time soon. At some point they will need to go all-in on a move. Meier is very good but I'm not sure that's it for them.

 

[HTFN]

What indication do you have that the Capitals determined it was "unfixable" or that it was even an issue while he was with the Capitals? We don't know what's going on with him, nor do we know how long it's been going on. Until we know more, claiming the Capitals had it figure into their logic is purely speculation.

Because of his struggles with a variety of coaching here on multiple levels and the way they punted him

 

[twabby]

Interesting thought exercise: should we value '23 & '24 first round picks more than CMM/Lapierre? I think SJS would given uncertainty re: the core's age/health so the Caps should likewise. The Caps could put some protections on those but...I don't know. I tend to think this team is cooked either way in the near-term as a contender even after adding a Meier and clearing out some dead weight.

Meier would very likely assure that they make it in this year but beyond that and a slight increase in Puncher's Chance I don't know that it's enough. Their center play would still be pretty mid and they'd be locked in to the point where it's hard to see how that changes any time soon. At some point they will need to go all-in on a move. Meier is very good but I'm not sure that's it for them.

If they didn’t have Ovechkin and Backstrom then I think I’d agree about your valuation of those picks from Washington’s perspective. But as is those picks will almost surely be non-factors in the Ovechkin era so I don’t know that I’d value them that highly.

As you hinted the Capitals could have a leg up on teams such as New Jersey and Toronto also bidding for Meier’s services due to where each team is in the standings and in their contention windows. Toronto is likely picking in the high 20s for several years, and probably NJ too with the emergence of Hughes and company. Of course both of those teams probably have more intriguing prospects as trade chips, but at least with the draft picks if I were San Jose I’d value Washington’s higher right now.

Reasonable minds can differ on how they’d like to see the Capitals proceed in the medium to long term. I’m on record saying that I want them to do all they can to get Ovechkin another Cup. Even if that means sacrificing further in the future.

I agree their centers are quite weak compared to contenders but I’m struggling to find a way to remedy that by the time Ovechkin’s career is over, so I think the next best thing they can do is just load up on talent elsewhere. If there’s a more impactful move to make than a guy like Meier then yeah I’d say hold off.

 

[PlushMinus]

A couple of weeks ago people were saying "I'm not worried about the Pens and Isles overtaking us - I'm more worried about Buffalo".

Unless our team pulls it's collective head out of it's ass - we can now worry about ALL of them overtaking us.

Edit: ouch. In the last 10 games we have the equal LEAST points (8) with CBJ in the entire Eastern conference. Even Montreal and Ottawa have gotten 9 points in their last 10 games. Sigh. We really suck.

 

[YippieKaey]

I really don't know why people are talking about this team as having a punchers chance to win the Cup. We have a punchers chance to make the playoffs but we have no chance to win the Cup. The only part of a cup winning team currently on the roster is (maybe) goaltending. All other areas are subpar for a succesfull playoff run.

Then again i haven't watched a game since January.

 

[hb13xchamps]

I don't care that it's "impolite to discuss." I care that it's speculative BS.

I want reporters to do digging on the issue, not random forum posters to spin whatever narrative is convenient for their perspective on the team. I think that's fairly obvious.

Reporters know, they just aren’t airing it out and writing about it. Which makes it seem that it’s a personal issue as opposed to a bad attitude or something along those lines.

 

[Hivemind]

Because of his struggles with a variety of coaching here on multiple levels and the way they punted him

I think that's speculatively fitting a narrative to the circumstances, not any true evidence. It's the same type of post-hoc justifications we've seen for all sort of coaching decisions lately. "He's in the coach's doghouse, therefor he must [bad at X/have issue Y/etc]."

 

[g00n]

I think that's speculatively fitting a narrative to the circumstances, not any true evidence. It's the same type of post-hoc justifications we've seen for all sort of coaching decisions lately. "He's in the coach's doghouse, therefor he must [bad at X/have issue Y/etc]."

Would you be willing to bet your house or your life that whatever troubles he's had started entirely in Detroit?

I think you're set on the idea that it was a bad trade and MGMT sucks, and anything that threatens that narrative has to be attacked.

I don't believe the Caps had to even know there was a problem to determine the entire package of symptoms or behaviors were undermining the value of the asset, and that made him a chip to move.

We can all have sympathy for the guy without the need to tie it all into some general YOY theme about mgmt competence.

 

[shtorm2005]

I don't know much about Vrana's problem. Did he drink too much in the Cup celebration and have had an alcohol problem since?

 

[g00n]

I don't know much about Vrana's problem. Did he drink too much in the Cup celebration and have had an alcohol problem since?

I'm not aware of any public disclosure regarding the reason he was in the player assistance program, which covers more than just substance abuse. It could be something else entirely.

 

[John Price]

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

So that drops them from the TM race….

 

[tycoonheart]

This is massive.