I know they were at least briefly, but I can't recall how long they were together. I don't remember it being for very long.

Stevenson to the NHL, Protas to the AHL, looks like Lindgren is getting the start tonight, as well as both Mantha and Phillips.

Starting the season out with our backup goalie in - Caps hockey is so back! Lets go...lol

I will say, I'd be interested if this a sign of how highly they view Stevenson or simply the team not wanting Shepard up so that he can start in Hershey tomorrow (or perhaps a mix of both).

I like what I see so far

From the rink observations:

neutral zone transitions so much better than last year
in-zone coverage awful
they need either sandin or fehervary to step up and take some of orlov's role and they both look very far away
johansen was borderline unplayable
mantha continues to not make any case for being an nhl regular
mcmichael, wilson, and the 3rd line looked good
really disappointed with the cap one crowd tonight -- not very loud and tons of people leaving with 10-15 minutes left
special teams really really really bad

i think that they will be what pretty much everyone expects them to be. not as bad as last year but pretty comfortably out of the playoffs. an 80-90 point team

Yeah looks pretty spot on

I will say - Sandin looked pretty horrible imo. Small, easily knocked off the puck, bad passes, etc. I'll chalk it up to first game.

Very curious to watch tonight. Hopefully Caps get the first win

if ovi was on the same line as milano and strome. do u think ovi would kill there line

Johansen and Mantha scratched today. Carbery talking today seems he's far from giving up on Mantha. His comments suggest he realizes using Mantha on a defensive line isn't the answer (something Lavy didn't figure out at all last year).

Edit: also Lindgren hurt ALREADY!?!?!?!??

Milano Strome Oshie Miro Sandin power play

out with the old in with the new

Happy for the first win of the season. A few observations from my end:

1) Keumper was outstanding. Enough said.
2) Jensen and TVR are amazingly consistent. You know what you are going to get each game - really great pickups from Bmac
3) Milano and Phillips looked fantastic together - I really like their speed together.
4) Speaking of speed (or lack there of), that first line (Ovi-Backy-Oshie) needs to be broken up. Countless times they were hemmed in the zone for long stretches, and they really lacked any offensive pressure. Individually, they each look fine, I'd say. But together - too slow, too old, not enough sustained offensive pressure
5) Special teams will come - only the second game of the season. Already the PK looked better than Game 1 (still out of sorts at times) and the PP had some zone time
6) It is still so noticeable that the Caps need a TRUE top-6 forward.
7) Random thought: Glad we won, but really interesting pick to have Ovi go 3rd in the shootout. Woulda thought Backy or Milano before Ovi.

Don't want to overreact but Carberry's system does not look good!

I hate this team

getting really tired of three mishandled passes in a row only to finally have someone carry the puck into the zone before pulling up right at the blue line and turning it over for a clean break the other way

It’s the same sh*t and doesn’t even make me wanna watch them. It’s frustrating af and rlly sad cause I tell myself we are so much better than this and we still are elite somewhat. I’m losing that belief. We ate fu*king cooked lmao

the team's not good enough and carberry's system isn't going to work with this group. the most disappointing part is that they don't even hit/block shots/grind it out, just kind of turn the puck over and fail the breakout over and over and over again. would love to see one forward make a hockey stop instead of a ten foot turn at literally any point in the game

Remember that insane transition game, in ur face, fast pace hockey that we use to play. At least we got one

Really tough game last night. Like others have said, just miserable to watch. I keep telling myself "its only game 3", but wow, we look horrible.

A few thoughts:
1) The top 6 needs to show up. Fourth line needs to get back to grinding / winning the board battles. The only forward who looked good last night was Milano imo. Kuzy looked decent too I thought. Joe B and Locker kept saying out great Oshie looked last night, but I didn't see it.
2) Ovi will turn it on. If you go through a 3 game goal drought in the middle of the season - no one blinks. But since its at the start, everyone panics. I don't believe Ovi is an athlete who shuts down when on a bad team - I think he will score (first) on Saturday and have 4+ shots.
3) Sandin has looked horrible. Soft on the puck, out of place defensively, and just invisible honestly. Caps fans will always use Carlson as the scapegoat, but to me, Sandin has looked terrible.
4) LuJo should not be playing
5) Protas - you are 6'6, use your body and be physical
6) Carberry's system - what is it? Seriously, I don't know what it is. There is no identity, no speed, no set plays, no consistent breakouts - it reminds me of just free-for-all hockey, aka just run out there and play. People talk about "his system not working". I don't even see a glimpse of a "system"...

Edit: The main question on my end is how are we going to convince either Backy or Oshie to retire at the end of this year. Need one of them (or both) to hang it up so we can get younger / fresh bodies in there

Interesting trade suggestion I read today:

TBL Receives: Kuzy, McM, 2024 1st, 2025 2nd
WSH Receives: Stamkos (with an extension - somewhere around 4 years)

I'd prefer to take out McM and add in Lapierre, as well as changing the 2024 1st to 2025 1st, but overall thought it was interesting.

Caps definitely lack a) a top 6 forward and b) a true 1st center

hard pass. stamkos is definitely a top 6 forsard but nowhere near enough to get this team to contention, might not even be enough to get them to the playoffs. that 24 1st is too valuable, i think it's more likely to be top 5 than not at this point

I thought Kuzy, McM, and Oshie all looked solid enough, they were the only group that could actually generate any sort of offense

As for Carberry's system -- it's clear he wants to play man on man in-zone which this team does not have the legs or defensive awareness to do. On the breakouts he's also asking the forwards to stretch super high, and the forwards don't have enough speed to really get up or get back if it doesn't work, leading them wide open in transition. The puck-movers on defense (Carlson, Sandin, TVR, Jensen) have all been various levels of disappointing in terms of actually making those passes. On the rush, we are pulling up and looking to make passes to the middle every single time we cross the blue line with possession. I don't know if Carbery is asking them to do this or if the players are doing it themselves. Either way, this isn't 2016 and our guys don't have the high end skill anymore to make those plays consistently. It also leads to turnovers in really dangerous parts of the ice with a lot of guys standing still while the other team is moving. Not even asking them to play chip and chase, but have to have some balance between dumping, carrying wide, carrying to the middle, and pulling up. The forecheck just isn't working, although it also could very much be an application problem.

Hope this makes people realize (once again, especially on a certain popular Caps blog) that coaching is a whole lot more than "play your young guys/most skilled players." Lav's connection to this group clearly had worn out, but he is a very good tactician and his system for the majority of his tenure got more out of this team than the sum of its parts.

qc14


you just gave us the template of how to build this team the right way.


Explains why Milano has been so good this year already.

Can’t rlly get around this with the structure we have but Alex wennberg, Sam Bennet, pinto , would be perfect,

unfortunately i'm not actually a coach so i have no idea what would make this team look better lol, but i feel like i can at least tell why things currently aren't working.

fundamentally the players are just not good enough

Edit: this isn't to say carbery's system can't work, but with how the players are performing right now its not doing any favors

I think what we saw in preseason is a totally different team. we suck ass right now. its the players not the system