it's the team speed, it's lacking.
I do agree on the defense though. Chara was washed in BOS, hell Schultz leaving the penguins was freaking addition by subtraction. In general the Caps should never pick up old penguins players. I just doesn't work out....looking at you Hags, Sheary, Sprong. FFS they made a team out of cast offs and thought they would win with them. That was not a wise decision to make.

But this team needs to get faster.

Did you just say the Caps shouldn't re-sign Ovechkin because you think he isn't as good as Crosby? By that standard, half of the teams in the NHL should not employ anybody, and should just give up playing.

Ovechkin is a superstar. The Caps should keep negotiating with him and try to work with him and his agent to draw up the kind of contract that lets them keep building a contending team around him, so they can keep winning championships together.



Vegas made the finals with, like, six Pittsburgh cast-offs? Doesn't seem like such a bad strategy, after that.

Schultz was our best D man before he got hurt and Sheary has been scoring a lot 6 points in 15 games but hes signed for league minimum. Hags looks average at best and Sprong looks good also they just need ice time.

they either need to get faster or buy in on the dump and chase and work the corners.... Capitals are slow and dont play defense and you can be one if you have the other but if you dont do either its not great. When Kuzy is one of you best advance analytics guys you are in trouble. Carlson and Orlov are terrible this year. i would love to see them play some AHL/Nhl fringe guys like they did when the Russians were on the COVID list, those guys played like there was no tomorrow. Penguins at least will play there prospects all 3 they have lol. Washington could have drafted Mcdavid and he would be in the AHL still. they would keep signing aging vets over him lol

no. i suggested they dont sink 10mx5years into a p layer thats not dedicated to winning. the priority should be to win not to have fun and play with your buddies.... that comes with success

Yeah, that's a pretty high cap hit, especially if the cap likely stays flat again. If he wins another Cup this Spring, I could see giving it to him the very next morning as a thank you gift, but I agree that it's hard to see a 34 year old adding that much on ice value to the franchise over the remainder of his career.

This could be kind of like another Jerry Maguire year for Ovi, if he really wants to still be paid that much.

Hall is gonna be a UFA again next summer, and signed at 8M last summer, without that much term. Fewer MVP trophies, but younger.

i honestly wouldn't invest too much money into anyone. i would begin to start my rebuild or see how the prospects play. capitals if they dump assets they could quickly rebuild. they have a lot of big assets

Yeah. That was so easy, last time.

And, if this is what they are with their up and down play, I (actually Bmac) wouldn't invest in them at the trade deadline this year either. It would be a waste of assets. They should strongly consider retool/rebuild starting this offseason if this is who they are, and I think they are.

I don't know, he seems a bit uninspired or like his mind is on other things (Ovi). We don't know the behind the scenes but maybe he knows he won't be getting the big, long contract and he's bummed. ?
Or maybe he himself is facing the truth about the Caps chances and his own abilities. The Caps are certainly 'entering a crossroads'.

dump and chase doesn't really work well anymore though. You are like 3x as likely to retain possession carrying the puck in the zone. A. defensemen are faster and B. goalies handle the puck better. It really is a dying strategy unless you got a whole lot of speed to get the puck and the other team is slow. I don't even like the idea of dumping it in to change anymore. Its just bad puck management that keeps you pinned in your own zone.
They have to get faster. Just my take from watching like 5-6 of their games.

when did the penguins get 3 prospects
we got 2 at best. If they had any will to go all in they would have played Poulin.



no trust me, this is not a good strategy. Sheary is a mop, he can't stay on his feet, he's always face down on the ice and will not fight for the puck on the boards. Schultz can't defend. I'm sorry, I've seen enough of it to know.
Sprong never.....developed? is there a better word there?
Hags just lost his legs. It's just bad strategy. They should have known better, they played them! Like you took the weakest points of their old team.

i mean capitals werent terrible....they need to be terrible to become good

Penguins rebuild vs Capitals 02-06... 5 year period

Penguins (awful)
5oa Ryan Whitney
1st oa Marc-Andre Fleury
2nd oa Evgeni Malkin
1stoa (again) Sidney Crosby
2nd oa Jordan Staal



Washington
13oa Alexander Semin
18oa Eric Fehr
1st oa Alexander Ovechkin
14thoa Sasha Pokulok WHO?
4th oa Nicklas Backstrom best player in the draft

in a 5year period penguins were so bad they were able to draft 2 generational centers another top 6 2-way center and a franchise goalie.....RW was also a top 4 Dman.


another example

Toronto3 year rebuild 2014-2016
8th oa William Nylander
4thoa Mitch Marner
1stoa Auston Matthews
17oa Timothy Liljegren ......they draft 2 elite players and Nylander and signed 1 big UFA and they went from lottery team to contenders....3 years

capitals need to either suck or be great.... doesn't make sense to be middle of the road

Backstrom is still Elite but the rest look really bad.... keep backy around for the kids and move whatever we can....i would try like hell to move Carlson

i was talking baout playing to their strengths... capitals are a big physical team and they do well working from the corners out.... poj and......Marino? i guess hes not a prospcet. im a caps fan we dont get to see young players play....i think Vrana who was drafted in 2014 and hes the youngest drafted player they capitals have.....7 years ago he was drafted

Oh, because Neal, Fleury, Engelland, Reaves, and Perron were all models of quick skating and consistency when McPhee picked them up? Nobody changes teams unless they had a bad year or two. Some guys bounce back.

Sprong hasn't proven much defensively or in terms of assists, but he scored a decent amount of goals in little ice time in Pittsburgh. The Caps got him for Christian Djoos, who is four years older, would be the Caps' 6LD this year when everybody's healthy, and got waived out of Anaheim this year. Good trade. I like that one, for Washington, even if I don't think Anaheim loses any sleep over it. They got rid of a guy who didn't fit their plans, and they got to audition another young player who seemed to fit their needs.

Schultz' cap hit is a little high, but if Carlson gets injured, he can QB the power play, and his defensive game seems to be improving. He had one great postseason for the Pens, but other years he's been really average, so I agree he's not a superstar. Still, 4M isn't that much for a top four D these days. It's average. For a guy who can either be average or be really good, it's fine. This offseason when I posted a suggestion that the Caps trade him for Ceci, it was because I had doubts about Schutz' defensive commitment, but he's had a strong start in his own end. No worries, there, even if I can see why the Pens were delighted to open up his cap space and ice time to their future #1D.

Sheary as a top liner, asking for a multi-million dollar deal in Pittsburgh, was not a guy the Penguins should have kept. I agree with them letting him walk, and in Buffalo's middle six he did nothing. But if the Caps have an injury to any of their top wings, Sheary or Sprong can step right in and score a few goals, as needed. Given that both, together, are making just slightly more than the Penguins are paying Jack Johnson this year to play for the Rangers, I don't think you can fault MacLellan for overpaying them.

Hagelin came over from LA and I thought he'd be too much cap space for not enough offense, but the switch from playing 4th line and no PK on a rebuilding team to playing 3rd line and top unit PK on a contender really seemed to bring his best effort out of him. He played like he did with the Pens back when he was good. He's been banged up a bit, and early this year Panik has been having a bounce-back year and seems to have taken that third line ice time from him, but there's no shame in that. Until last year, Panik had a streak of three years above 30 points. He should be in some team's top nine forwards. He's got a high of 22 goals, just three years ago. It was impressive that Hagelin earned more ice time than Panik last year. Both are good depth wings who can play in any situation, and chip in a few points. If you're going to criticize the Sheary's for being small and not physical, then you have to also appreciate a decent-sized guy like Hagelin or Panik who gets a couple of hits on the scoresheet each game, and still scores some points when he can.

I don't think any of the former Penguins that the Caps have is a can't miss superstar, but I didn't think any of the ones Vegas picked up were, either, and something about having all come from a team with perennial Cup expectations and ending up on an underdog seems to have brought out something good in Vegas.

So, in conclusion, what would you offer to take Jarry's contract?

yeah I don't view Marino as a prospect, no one who plays a full year and is a starter is a prospect to me. They are NHL players.
POJ, OConnor. that's like it. all we have. Poulin but they won't play him. We got nothing, penguins farm system in WBS is a joke.

Yeah WSH is a big physical team, but all the stats show it's impossible to dump and chase. The goalies play it up the wall, or the defense men today are so fast they get the puck and clear it. It's really hard to play that game which is why you have 3x more success carrying the puck in. That's a league wide stat from like last year or two years ago I forget which. Modern teams have to carry the puck in. Otherwise it's going right back out. That's why the defensemen are all so much smaller today. They can move faster. I think they have lost like 2 inches on average. They use to be average size like 6'4 and heavy now they are like 6-6'2 and 180-200lbs. Part of the game changing. But if they carry it in and grind it down low and play a cycle game slowing the pace down that probably helps them. But it's almost mandatory today that you have to carry the puck in. The stats show there is a huge difference in success rate.

I don't really think the vegas example is a good one. Neal was still a productive player with NSH at the time. To be honest I think it's more to the point that WSH should have known. It's not like WSH wasn't one of the teams that was always shoving Sheary face down into the ice and watching him stand there scared next to the boards. Or that they pounced whenever they had Schultz in the Dzone.
I mean they knew, they had to have known. They also had to have known that Hags was no real threat with the puck anymore. They were playing them consistently enough to know these things. Not just regular season but playoffs too. Which is more the point.
It's like the rangers and Jack Johnson or even the penguins and Jack Johnson. Like crap we knew, we seen enough of him in CBJ that when he was signed it was like awww **** wtf are you doing.
But yet these GM just keep on keeping on with moves like that. So there he goes to the rangers for some incredibly bad decision making.
Which is more the point really. Of all teams, WSH should have known what they were getting on those guys. You can justify the move but all I'm saying is, I've seen enough of them to know it's not one bad season and WSH should have too.
The teams you have the biggest rivals with are the teams where you should know the weak spots and know not to sign them. That's really it. It's not like you were swapping out one bad one for another or had to make a choice. aka vegas. WSH actively went out and signed some of their biggest rivals weakest links, guys they use to take advantage of. I personally think that's some really suspect decision making.

Vegas had six Pens cast-offs and they were guys who got traded. Neal was traded. engellend left via FA, Perron was traded for Hagelin. Fleury was exposed. Reaves wasd traded. Wouldn't really call them cast offs.

Exactly

Let's just say this. The Caps are slow. I bet you right now this Washington Team misses the playoffs. Their bottom six is ass. Their Defense... the less said the better. No one will take those contracts. 4 years for Garnet Hathaway, Richard Panik and Carl Hagelin?!?! Hilarious. Chara is old and slow and yet he has more points than half your team! Y

When they signed Hathaway, Panik, and Hagelin, their PK was a bottom ten unit in the league. It immediately became a top ten unit. Those guys also finish checks and can play with the puck, sometimes. Hathawy looked like an enforcer, at the time, to take some of that workload away from Wilson, so he wouldn't be suspended as much. Chara is an ageless giant who holds the record for the hardest shot in NHL history, and always puts up a few points. There's more to hockey than just skating fast.

Obviously the NHL has great parity and any team can make or miss the playoffs. With the new coach, the Caps started out winning a bunch, and then they went on a slide. You can blame their #10, 12, and 13 forwards if you want, but I think a more likely reason would be the injuries to their #1 and #2 goalies, and the fact that a true rookie who barely speaks English yet has been their starter.

Add in the week or two where Eller was injured and Orlov and Kuznetsov were out for Covid protocol? I think most teams would struggle without two of their top three centers and their 2nd best defenseman. Even before missing their best goalie and one of the best goalies of this millennium.

yeah capitals are unable to carry in bc they like to slingshot or deke at the line

lol Panik is one of our best 2 way players ...i assume you only pay attention to box score..... and Washington playing terrible is stilll in a better position to make the playoffs than Pittsburgh atm... lol. Penguins defense is also terrible goalie is questionable and Malkin looks like hes lost. this team goes nowhere if Malkin succks.....

i don't think either team is missing the playoffs for the record. Even a slow caps team is better than the rangers, buf and NJ. and NYI really aren't a better team.

i agree

Look bud. You've played Buffalo 5 times and have won 4 times. You guys look awful vs the Pens. We will see after tonight. If your gonna say our defense is terrible than yours is absolutely awful. Your defense is worse than outs by far. I'd take Jarry everyday of the week over Vitak Vanecek and Ilya Samonov. Malkin has more points than Kuznetsov, if you wanna keep going with that. The Pens have skated circles around this team. I've watched a lot of Caps games and they don't impress me at all. Sorry not sorry bud. Also your saying Richard Panik is one of your best 2 ways forwards???? 2-4-6 and a -5 isn't a good stat line for a two way player. It's like saying Carl Hagelin is your best bottom 6 scoring threat.