Is Vatanen really what we need though? He's a smooth skater and puck mover, but he's undersized and that's exactly part of our problem. A lack of physical toughness and tenacity on the D. Someone like Orpik who is a big stay at home defensive defenseman that hits like a tank and protects the crease. We have no one really like that. Vatanen is just a better (more expensive) version of what we already have twice with Jensen and Kempny. Even if we acquired him, I'm still not sure it solves our problems on D.

It may also be a systems problem, in that the Caps play a run and gun look for the homerun pass type of offense. The opposite of a team like the Islanders. It didn't work well for us last April against a young fast aggressive forechecking team, and it seems like the Metro has caught on and are filled with that style of play.

The physical aspect is an interesting conversation. I don't see that as a super pressing issue right now. Obviously it's something that can be improved upon, but I'm not overly concerned with the physicality. Being able to break the puck out under pressure against heavy forechecking teams is going to nullify a lot of their strengths, so having someone less turnover prone will go a long way towards winning a seven game series. Vatanen can also activate more offensively, and he's very good at picking his spots without being burned in transition.

I also worry that Jensen is going to be a player that opposing teams target in the playoffs. They'll forecheck against him specifically and force him to turn the puck over. I believe that replacing him with Vatanen avoids that possibility. I see him as a huge upgrade to the back end, and the physicality aspect is something that can be addressed by Gudas. That's just how I see it though

We already have Gudas and it's still a problem. Gudas is a lesser Orpik physically.

I think Vatanen is better, but he's not really what we need. We already have D that play his style. He plays the same game as Jensen. I guess you can get him and hope he can pass that much better, but if he gets forechecked hard, I suspect he has similar issues to Jensen as he's smaller and weighs less still.

I think our D is pretty soft. Carlson is fine, Siegs seems solid under pressure. Fehevary is still a bit of a question mark for me. Kempny and Jensen are liabilities right now. Orlov is probably our best actual defender.

For example, check where those goals were scored on us vs the Flyers. It's pathetic. Our crease was essentially their picnic area, I think I saw some of their forwards having a sandwich at one point down low. That can't happen in the playoffs. Not to mention the forechecking problems.

Agree to disagree then. I definitely think that the physical aspect is something that can be improved upon, but it's not my greatest concern as of now. As opposed to just trying to out muscle the opposition, I find it wiser to be better on the breakout and not create the turnovers that lead to these net front chances.