Toggle sidebar

Playoff Observations

How many guys on the roster have stepped up their game in the playoffs? Last year, the most notable case was Richards and Stralman. I took a look at career regular season/playoff splits for some key guys on the current roster. It's pretty damning. If you use the excuse that playoff games are checked tighter, then that doesn't bode well for Lundqvist's career splits.

Player | RS PPG | PO PPG
Callahan | 0.57 | 0.40
Richards | 0.91 | 0.90
Nash | 0.82 | 0.57
Stepan | 0.66 | 0.36
Hagelin | 0.55 | 0.20

Player | RS SV% & GAA | PO SV% & GAA
Lundqvist | .922 2.25 | .918 2.31
 
Lundqvist needs a break one of these years. Such a pity to watch Tortorella implement a collapsing system, and not realize he has the best goalie in the world, no need to make things any harder for him by deflecting pucks and blocking shooting lanes.
 
Team finally giving Hank some goal support, would be nice to find a middle ground. Tell Hank, hey we will score 3 tonight and you don't give up more than 2 deal? Deal.

Was a solid game, need to use the middle of the ice and bump Nash down a line or two til he feels like hustling. Richards is still fragile as ever, worse defensively than he is offensively. Hopefully we take 1 in D.C
 
The team has less pressure this year. Nobody expects us to advance or to go much further. this could just be the year when things come together.

I reckon we win the next 2 games, Nash gets 2 goals in the next game , and we get on roll (like LA last year) . Staal comes back and makes us solid at the back......

Time to wake up :loony:
 
I thought we did a better job of pressuring their D-men on the points in our zone last night instead of just doing that total collapse thing. I noticed Clowe several times.
 
So, let's break down the goals scored so far.

Game 1:

Goal 1: Point shot, rebound goal.

Goal 2: Skill goal, nice pass on a breakaway, though Hank usually makes that save.

Goal 3: Worst goal Hank gave up in like 2 years. Doesn't matter how it was scored. He stops that 999 times out of 1,000.

Game 2:

Goal: Point shot, deflected off Stepan.

Game 3:

Goal 1: Point shot, deflected in front

Goal 2: A little closer in but lots of traffic, might have been deflected

Goal 3: Point shot deflected in

Game 4:

Goal 1: Skill(ish) goal

Goal 2: Skill goal, Hank normally makes that save

Goal 3: Point shot deflected

Game 5:

Goal 1: Skill goal

Goal 2: Point shot hits traffic in front and goes right to a Ribiero

So that's 12 goals, 4 of them were skill goals. Most of them were point shots. The Caps have had plenty of skill OPPORTUNITIES, they just haven't been scoring on them. By allowing point shots putting guys in front of Hank, we're basically giving ourselves less of a chance to succeed. Hank is money on the skill pass plays. Best goalie in the league side to side. Amazing on breakaways. Yet we basically diminish our chance to succeed by playing a style that Hank is the most susceptible to giving up goals in. It's mind boggling. Like bizarro world coaching.
 
SnowblindNYR said:
So, let's break down the goals scored so far.

Game 1:

Goal 1: Point shot, rebound goal.

Goal 2: Skill goal, nice pass on a breakaway, though Hank usually makes that save.

Goal 3: Worst goal Hank gave up in like 2 years. Doesn't matter how it was scored. He stops that 999 times out of 1,000.

Game 2:

Goal: Point shot, deflected off Stepan.

Game 3:

Goal 1: Point shot, deflected in front

Goal 2: A little closer in but lots of traffic, might have been deflected

Goal 3: Point shot deflected in

Game 4:

Goal 1: Skill(ish) goal

Goal 2: Skill goal, Hank normally makes that save

Goal 3: Point shot deflected

Game 5:

Goal 1: Skill goal

Goal 2: Point shot hits traffic in front and goes right to a Ribiero

So that's 12 goals, 4 of them were skill goals. Most of them were point shots. The Caps have had plenty of skill OPPORTUNITIES, they just haven't been scoring on them. By allowing point shots putting guys in front of Hank, we're basically giving ourselves less of a chance to succeed. Hank is money on the skill pass plays. Best goalie in the league side to side. Amazing on breakaways. Yet we basically diminish our chance to succeed by playing a style that Hank is the most susceptible to giving up goals in. It's mind boggling. Like bizarro world coaching.
Click to expand...

ding ding ding
 
Bizarro world is right, and I really hope we try out another system with a full training camp next year, I feel Tortorella doesn't get the most out of his players...he sends Richards and Nash out to PK, and then Boyle and Girardi out there on the PP. the guy has no idea how to adjust in game...why keep leaving the points open? Start holding players accountable for bad defensive breakdowns/penalties.

We need momentum.
 
First Man In said:
Bizarro world is right, and I really hope we try out another system with a full training camp next year, I feel Tortorella doesn't get the most out of his players...he sends Richards and Nash out to PK, and then Boyle and Girardi out there on the PP. the guy has no idea how to adjust in game...why keep leaving the points open? Start holding players accountable for bad defensive breakdowns/penalties.

We need momentum.
Click to expand...

Nash and richards are never on the PK and boyle and girardi are out there bc our "offensive" weapons havent done **** on the PP all year.. what other choice does Torts have if his main offensive weapons dont do anything and his less offensive creative players and dman score pp goals? Its bc our less offensive players dont over think **** and make plays.. Surprising I kno but the truth hurts!!

our pp sucks bc you have leftys and rightys on the wrong sides and our qb doesn't walk the blue line and distribute the puck to the right person for that one timer thats so effective in the umbrella powerplay all pro teams use.. its a disgrace.. if we had a pp unit wed have won this series already and would be chilling waiting for the next team to play in the next round...
 
I forgot to mention that Lundqvist is average at best on deflected shots because of how deep he plays in net. Torts is playing to Lundqvist's weakness. It's amazing ineptitude.
 
obs

Here are some observations for you:

- Caps turn out to be STILL a very good team that got hot at the right time. We are not playing an "easy" team just because they won the SE for the 3 spot

- Oates is looking like a very savvy and crafty coach to me. Not only did he do a good job of getting buy-in from his players, but his in-game tactics are very cagey, especially on home ice

- One or 2 bounces and/or soft goals and this series could have been over in 4 games. EITHER WAY!

- I would not be shocked if this is the year the caps go to SCF (IF they win this series) and yes I'm a homer but that is still a pretty big IF

Point is, as frustrated as we are because it seems like we could have won one or even 2 more games than we have, we are playing a ECF quality team in my estimation. The only real question mark is Holtby, and does he have the ability to survive teams with much more potent and creative offensive threats?
 
SnowblindNYR said:
I forgot to mention that Lundqvist is average at best on deflected shots because of how deep he plays in net. Torts is playing to Lundqvist's weakness. It's amazing ineptitude.
Click to expand...

I don't really think any goalie is better than others at stopping deflected pucks... they position themselves for the original shot and sometimes they get lucky enough to pick it up and stop it. Also, Lundqvist playing deep in his net makes him less susceptible to rebound goals because there's less open space behind and around him so I'd take that trade-off any day.
 
So yeah, last night's loss was unfortunate. OT was exciting. Unfortunate for John Moore that his man was the one that scored because he WAS doing the right thing and fronting him, but when the puck came to the net he couldn't rotate and force Ribeiro out of the crease. If he did that then the night might have went differently. Just a bang-bang play that was hard to react to for him.
 
Fanned On It said:
I don't really think any goalie is better than others at stopping deflected pucks... they position themselves for the original shot and sometimes they get lucky enough to pick it up and stop it. Also, Lundqvist playing deep in his net makes him less susceptible to rebound goals because there's less open space behind and around him so I'd take that trade-off any day.
Click to expand...

Maybe you're right. I do still think that Hank is great at stopping the skill plays and the deflections are very hard to stop.
 
If there isn't an easy way into the offensive zone they always dump it. While this is the safe play I'd like to see some more high risk/high reward efforts to skate the puck into the zone. I don't know, maybe try a DEKE? That may be a bad word around here, excuse me if I offended anyone.
 
KingWantsCup said:
If there isn't an easy way into the offensive zone they always dump it. While this is the safe play I'd like to see some more high risk/high reward efforts to skate the puck into the zone. I don't know, maybe try a DEKE? That may be a bad word around here, excuse me if I offended anyone.
Click to expand...

Safe is death. But they choose death. They need to TAKE DEEZ RISKS. Seriously.
 
The thing about the Caps that is different from prior years is that they are strong along the boards, and their bottom-9 wingers have a ton of size, strength, and even speed mixed in.

Their defense will be their downfall, though — no team with a bottom-3 defense of Oleksy, Erskine, and Hillen will be making it very far, IMO. Alzner/Carlson/Green are some nice pieces, but they need a deeper defense. Also, Green seems to suck in the playoffs against every team that isn't us.
 
The Caps will get crushed by Boston. They are not as good as the Rangers make them seem.

No cups in NYC with this coach.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Top Bottom