581 replies to this topic

[Pedro Cerrano]

Dominated 95% of OT, but tell me more about how they choked

Not this game necessarily but a 3-1 series lead.

[DuffMan]

Not this game necessarily but a 3-1 series lead.

I'm too tired and too bummed to debate any more right now. 

 

Where's that teams I hate thread because The Rags go to the top of the list for the time being, ugh.

[bnickle]

Im as sincere as sincere  can be. I feel for you guys. Brutal stuff. 

[Dupin]

Same story, different year.

[JeremyStrain]

Im as sincere as sincere  can be. I feel for you guys. Brutal stuff. 

Thank you for not trolling this morning.

[You Play to Win the Game]

Caps were good enough to win it all this year. Rangers were just a little better though. Holtby was incredible. The secondary forwards stepped up but were also incredibly quiet for long stretches of time. Another year of experience for guys like Kuzy, Burakovsky and Wilson will be huge. May be time to sell off some of the other secondary vets who just can't hold up in a playoff series anymore... Chimera and Brouwer... I'll probably get blasted for saying that but they just didn't hold up and add much in the playoffs this year. Get another solid C and one more D guy and I think we're poised to finally get over the hump. One issue that crept up all year was allowing tying or go ahead goals within 5 minutes remaining. Gotta fix that. Losing game 5 was a choke job. Losing the series wasn't.

[JeremyStrain]

Caps were good enough to win it all this year. Rangers were just a little better though. Holtby was incredible. The secondary forwards stepped up but were also incredibly quiet for long stretches of time. Another year of experience for guys like Kuzy, Burakovsky and Wilson will be huge. May be time to sell off some of the other secondary vets who just can't hold up in a playoff series anymore... Chimera and Brouwer... I'll probably get blasted for saying that but they just didn't hold up and add much in the playoffs this year. Get another solid C and one more D guy and I think we're poised to finally get over the hump. One issue that crept up all year was allowing tying or go ahead goals within 5 minutes remaining. Gotta fix that. Losing game 5 was a choke job. Losing the series wasn't.

 

Yeah this was far less crushing than say 2010. For a team that played 3 guys under 23 major minutes this season, I think they did really well.

 

I think they'll end up coming back even more balanced next year. Letting Green walk will take care of the offensive heavy defensemen problem, and whether he's replaced with Orlov or another physical, defense first guy like Orpik, something will change there. There's a LOT of salary coming off the books, but we'll need a big chunk to resign Kuzy, Holtby and MoJo. Should re-sign Fehr too, and I'm guessing he knows this is his best fit, and he'll sign something reasonable, but time will tell there. Ward played a good physical role down the stretch but he's in no way worth that kind of money. I dunno...hard to say, but they've got about 20m in cap space right now, but half the roster is either RFA or UFA so there's going to be some change. Ideally they'd have had one or two more guys trying for some roles, I think the Latta idea was to replace Beagle, but we'll see.

 

First thing is first, sign the RFA to long term deals, starting with Holts, then see where we are come next year. Like the coach. Like the system. Like the top line stars and goalie, and I'm really digging the youth (Burk, Kuzy and Wilson).

[DuffMan]

Caps were good enough to win it all this year. Rangers were just a little better though. Holtby was incredible. The secondary forwards stepped up but were also incredibly quiet for long stretches of time. Another year of experience for guys like Kuzy, Burakovsky and Wilson will be huge. May be time to sell off some of the other secondary vets who just can't hold up in a playoff series anymore... Chimera and Brouwer... I'll probably get blasted for saying that but they just didn't hold up and add much in the playoffs this year. Get another solid C and one more D guy and I think we're poised to finally get over the hump. One issue that crept up all year was allowing tying or go ahead goals within 5 minutes remaining. Gotta fix that. Losing game 5 was a choke job. Losing the series wasn't.

Definitely agree with the bolded,  under 2 minutes (ugh that's tough to type) from the ECF gotta close that one out.  Game 6 and 7 the effort was certainly there  no way can I say they choked.

 

http://www.hockeybuz...am.php?team=WAS

 

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/cap-central/  Caps are in decent shape Cap wise

 

Brouwer has another year left on his deal (ugh), but I would look to move him if possible.  Chimera at 2 million dollars is a good deal I would hold onto him.  Just looked again Laich is the real albatross now, 4.5 million ouch.

 

As far as our UFA's and RFA's go, I would bring back the following.  Listed in order of importance:  Holtby, Kuznetsov, MoJo, Ward, Fehr and Beagle.

 

Guys I would let walk include Glencross, Gleason, Erskin and Green (I don't know WTF he was thinking taking those two terrible penalties last night)

[You Play to Win the Game]

Good stuff guys. Thanks. I don't follow their cap situation as close as I should. Didn't realize we had that much movement this off season. Sounds like it will be really interesting. A huge test for Mac to see how he handles all this.

And Jeremy - yes - it can't be overstated how comforting it is to have our coach.

[JeremyStrain]

Good stuff guys. Thanks. I don't follow their cap situation as close as I should. Didn't realize we had that much movement this off season. Sounds like it will be really interesting. A huge test for Mac to see how he handles all this.

And Jeremy - yes - it can't be overstated how comforting it is to have our coach.

 

Yeah that's what Ovi was talking about the other night saying that this was their chance and they didn't want this to end. He was talking about all the FA and the inevitable turnover this offseason.

 

I agree with Duff on the order except I'd flip Ward and Fehr, and be completely ok not signing anyone past Fehr. I think Ward will want close to what he just made, and he's not worth that. If he wanted to sign for 2m sure, but not 4m. Laich 4.5m, Brouwer 3m and Chims 2m are what we have to work through this year, but they get to rework their roster right now, and it might not be a bad thing. The major pieces are still here once we get Holts and Kuz signed more long term.

[Matt_P]

Ward got a contract for 4 and $12 or 3M. How much cap room will the club have after signing Holts, Kuz and MaJo? Lots of holes to fill also, no? Maybe not at defense or at goal (once Holtby is resigned) but certainly on offense.

 

I feel like this team needs the hockey equivalent of a Paul Pierce. Someone over the hill and therefore won't cost much but knows how to win. We've gone 3-6 in Game 7s over the Ovechkin era and in a number of those series we gave up a 3-1 series lead.

 

Shame the Caps didn't amnesty Laich when they had the chance.

[JeremyStrain]

Ward got a contract for 4 and $12 or 3M. How much cap room will the club have after signing Holts, Kuz and MaJo? Lots of holes to fill also, no? Maybe not at defense or at goal (once Holtby is resigned) but certainly on offense.

 

I feel like this team needs the hockey equivalent of a Paul Pierce. Someone over the hill and therefore won't cost much but knows how to win. We've gone 3-6 in Game 7s over the Ovechkin era and in a number of those series we gave up a 3-1 series lead.

 

Shame the Caps didn't amnesty Laich when they had the chance.

 

I think the 3 youngsters will cost them something like $8-10m, which should leave them with 10m to spend. They are probably looking for a top 6 RW, a 3rd/4th line C, and some depth.

 

To your veteran point, guys like Brad Richards, or Justin Williams could make sense, especially Williams who is famous for his game 7 heroics. Lots of people think Ward resigns here for 2 years, but I would hope that includes a little pay cut, cause I don't know if I'd eat up a 1/3rd of our cap space on him. Same for Richards and Williams, it's going to depend on value I have a feeling.

[DuffMan]

Something I read about the Caps-Rags over the weekend, that was only the 2nd time ever that a 7 game playoff series has seen every game decided by 1 goal.  The only other time that happened was in 2012 during the Caps-Bruins series.

[JeremyStrain]

Something I read about the Caps-Rags over the weekend, that was only the 2nd time ever that a 7 game playoff series has seen every game decided by 1 goal.  The only other time that happened was in 2012 during the Caps-Bruins series.

 

Even crazier is all 13 games the Rags have played in the playoffs have been a 1-goal game.

[bnickle]

The 1 goal games thing for the Rangers goes back to last year. I think I heard that they broke the record for consecutive 1 goal playoff games after GM 2 with the Caps. They've added 6 more to that record. Pretty crazy.

[JeremyStrain]

The 1 goal games thing for the Rangers goes back to last year. I think I heard that they broke the record for consecutive 1 goal playoff games after GM 2 with the Caps. They've added 6 more to that record. Pretty crazy.

 

Yeah it's pretty nuts. Even when I was growing up watching it, there was a totally different offensive environment, much more low scoring games like this, and even then you never saw anything like this streak.

 

Case of a goaltender carrying a team completely. Any other goalie and they lose in the first round.

[PatrickDougherty]

Great so next year all we have to do to beat the Rangers is to be the Lightning.

[FlavaDave10]

Great so next year all we have to do to beat the Rangers is to be the Lightning.

 

That kind of system would never happen under Barry Trotz. 

[FlavaDave10]

The Washington Capitals have re-signed two of their restricted free agents:

 

Philipp Grubauer http://starsandstick...hilipp-grubauer

 

Nate Schmidt http://starsandstick...-for-two-years/

 

Details of their deals:

 

Grubauer gets $650,000 in 2015-2016 and $850,000 in 2016-2017. Cap hit is the average annual value of the contract, which is $750,000. He will be a restricted free agent after the 2016-2017 season.

 

Schmidt gets $750,000 in 2015-2016 and $825,000 in 2016-2017. Cap hit is $812,500. Like Grubauer, he will be a restricted free agent after the 2016-2017 season.

 

The Washington Capitals have $19,671,541 of cap space remaining according to General Fanager. My conservative estimations (Holtby $6M, MoJo $4.25M and Kuznetsov $2M) have the Capitals with roughly $7,000,000 of cap space left after those signings.

[FlavaDave10]

The Washington Capitals, according to Pierre LeBrun (ESPN Insider), would be a great fit for Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Sharp. The Caps and Hawks had discussions about Sharp before Patrick Kane's injury. http://www.todayssla...harp-are-a-fit/