capcrunch98

Loving how awful Pittsburgh is this year. Unlike the Caps, who were simply hoping to squeeze a little more juice out of their aging core (wrong bet), the Pens went all in with the Karlsson trade. Now they're just a dumpster fire, and there are a ton of rumors circulating that Crosby may want out.

1 hour ago, PokerPacker said:

We shouldn't be pursuing 30+ "finishing piece" type players, but why would you oppose a 27/28 year old (around Dylan Strome's age) who can step in immediately and still be very effective in 5 years when our new young core is taking the reins?  If Sam Reinhart, who's 28 and currently sitting on 45 goals this season, hits free agency after this season, would you not be interested in adding him to the team?  Or the previously mentioned 27-year-old defender Noah Hanifin who would shore up our D now and into the future.

Good points, but there are all kinds of risks in signing guys to big money, long-term contracts.  Some guys get injured.  Some guys don't age well.  Some guys have a style of play that isn't conducive to certain systems.  Kuzy is only 31, when's the last time he was an effective player??  Signing a big name free agent now doesn't buy us much - we're not close to competing, and one or two guys isn't going to change that.  But the potential downside is huge - what happens in 3 - 4 years when maybe we have a good young core ready to break out, and we're stuck with a dud of a player who is taking up 10 - 15% of our cap space for several more years?

Again, I'm in the camp of doing a rebuild the right way - by taking your licks, stocking up on young talent, and staying the hell away from bloated contracts until you know what you have.  But of course we're not engaging in a real rebuild because the Ovi situation complicates things.  So maybe they'll try to reel in a big fish after all, but I hope they don't.

38 minutes ago, PokerPacker said:

I don't think we'll be opposed to opening the wallet in Free Agency, just needs to be for a talented player on the right side of 30.  If Noah Hanifin reaches Free Agency, I'd hope the Caps would be in on trying to sign him.

 

IMO, this team has no business bidding on top-end free agents.  We're not even close to being "a player or two away" from competing.  I know things are complicated because they're still trying to field a competitive team in Ovi's final years, but even if management won't commit to a full rebuild, they can't be foolish enough to jump into free agency.

I expect them just to fill out the corners with low-risk FA signings this summer, and allow for the prospects to earn roster spots and develop.  And I am fine with that.

Overall, a decent trade deadline for the Caps. Got a couple good draft picks for Mantha, who they couldn't give away for free at the beginning of the season, got back basically the same return for Edmondson as we gave up to Montreal last summer to acquire him, and we even found a taker for Kuzy which none of us thought was possible. Eating salary doesn't mean much right now because we're not signing any significant free agents anytime soon.

In what was clearly a buyer's market, we did okay.

Really glad they didn't trade Dowd and Lindgren in this down market. Giving either of them away for a 3rd round pick or whatever crappy return GMBM was offered would've sucked.

2 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

Shutout from Lindgren the night before the trade deadline can't hurt his trade value.

On a related note, I tuned in to the game after it started, and I didn't realize Kuemper was injured. When I didn't see him on the bench, I was practically doing cartwheels and moonwalking across my living room, thinking some desperate GM took him off our hands.

No such luck.

Granted, Pittsburgh sucks harder than we do this year, but if we could show this kind of fire more regularly we'd be in a much better spot in the standings.

As bad as this season has been, beating the Pens (assuming we hold on) and Flyers in the same week is very cool.

Solid return for Edmundson. Always sucks to be sellers, but they're doing the right thing.

I am sure Max, Dowd, and Jensen are being shopped around as we speak.

That being said, it seems to be a buyers market this year. If we can't get much back for Dowd, who is our last valuable trade chip, I am sure they'll keep him, and I think we'd all be fine with that.

2 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

Return is okay.

In this years market (where the best d-man available - Tanev - couldn't even fetch a 1st round pick or top prospect) I think a 2nd and 4th is a decent haul for Mantha. 10 years ago, when contenders threw around draft picks and prospects like candy, a big winger who scores 20 goals would've gotten us more, but these are different times.

So long, Anthony. You were quite a disappointment for most of your time here, but you ended on a high note.

Sad ending for a guy who at one point looked like he was gonna be a legend for this franchise.  Really reminds me of Semin - top-20 talent but just didn't have his head in the right place.

We'll always remember the bird after scoring the clincher in OT versus the Pens.  One of the top 5 goals in club history. 

Tough one tonight, but I'm not going to get too upset about losing on the road to a good team after playing the night before.  But it sets up Friday night as the biggest game of the season for us.  4-point contest versus Philly.  If we lose in regulation, we're a mile back of both 3rd in the Metro and the wildcard, and management will need to make the responsible decision to stop jerking off about being potential buyers at the deadline, and sell off players like Mantha, Dowd, Pacioretty, and Edmundson to the highest bidder, and maybe take on a bad contract in exchange for a good draft pick or prospect.

Great game, but we better be careful.  A few more wins like this and GMBM will be putting a package together of Ryan Leonard, Miroshnichenko, and a couple 1st rounders for some 2 month UFA rental in the hopes of locking down the last wildcard spot! 

As I was watching the Stadium Series games this weekend, I realized another one of the many downsides to our inevitable slide into irrelevance over the next couple seasons is a lower chance of getting to play in one of these.

In the interest of ratings, the league usually doesn't like to include bottom-feeders in these marquee events.

Ovi getting close to the record would probably be the only reason we would be considered.

The exception to this is the Blackhawks, who get to play in one of these every other year.

On 2/15/2024 at 6:37 PM, PokerPacker said:

Did you see Pat Sajak there?  I saw him at the bar the first time I went.

Nice.  I've seen Pat Sajak over the years on the concourse, seems like a good guy.

Other celebs I've seen at Caps games are Lynda Carter, John Kerry, Dan Quayle, Chris Cooley, and Michael Jordan.  But the best was Bill Clinton, sitting in Abe Pollin's luxury box during the '98 Cup Finals run.  A fan stuck his head over the glass of the suite and yelled at Bill for a good 5 seconds about Monica Lewinsky, before walking away.  He was no more than 10 feet from Clinton, and nobody did anything.  I'm guessing in today's world he would've been tackled by secret service before he even got a word out.

16 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

If you ever get tickets to the front two rows from a friend, 7 beers is free

Feels weird to say anything in a pro sports arena is free (the booze and food for VIP seats is surely covered in the $300 - $400 a person/company paid for the ticket), but yes I have been in the Etihad Lounge before and I too have gone a little too far with the "free" beer there.

17 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

It's also worth taking public statements with a grain of salt.  You think the players want to hear him give up on them?

Very true, but previous statements and actions by GMBM and ownership make me believe they really would do something short-sighted like buy at the deadline and try to squeeze one more drop out of this dried up lemon of a team, all in the hopes of sneaking into the last wildcard spot so they can get crushed in the 1st round by a superior team (I know upsets happen all the time in the NHL playoffs, but this is the Caps).

17 hours ago, ixcuincle said:

I was at the game but I had like 7 beers so I slep through the first two periods lol

 

Was shocked to see it 3-3, remember very little

 

Do not drink

7 beers at Capital One Arena???  That's an expensive buzz.  You must be walking around with no shirt right now and a tin cup in your hand begging for food and rent money.

3 hours ago, PokerPacker said:

Well I guess GMBM did say that that the next few games would decide if we're buyers or sellers.  

I'm proud of how this team showed up over the past week.  Playing arguably the 4 best teams in hockey, I think most of us assumed we'd get blown out of the water.  Instead, we won one, we went to OT in another, and we were right in the other two up until the end.

That being said, if GMBM is delusional enough to think we should be buyers at the deadline based on a small sample of games, he should be fired on the spot before he pulls a Forsberg for Erat deal version 2.0.  Unreal that he can't see the writing on the wall that after 15 mostly great seasons, the core of this team is well past its expiration date, and it's time to rebuild.  Unless ownership is forcing his hand, which is entirely possible.

2 hours ago, skinsmarydu said:

That next home game is tomorrow (1:30) against the Canucks.

Yes, I'm aware if that (have tickets actually). I didn't mean literally their next home game.

My point is that they're talented enough to beat one of the top teams in their own barn, but flawed enough to turn around and no-show in a game they should win. This past Tuesday's home stinker against Montreal is a fine example.

Yup, this team has the talent to pull off wins like these against the top clubs. The problem is they're just not good enough to do it consistently. Watch - they'll lay an egg in their next home game against a bottom-feeder.

But for today, they looked great, so hats off to them.

Who were those guys on the ice today wearing Caps jerseys???

8 minutes ago, Hersh said:

 

If not for the one 9-1-1 stretch early in this season, Caps would be on track for a top-5 pick right now.

Very true, although as a fan I would never lament a 9-1-1 run. We needed that at the time, with Backstrom stepping away, Oshie injured, and Ovi showing signs of slowing down. And it allowed the team to see what they had in Lindgren.

There will be plenty of losing and high draft picks for this team over the next couple years, whether management wants it or not.

All things considered, tonight went perfect:

Ovi scored

Mantha scored (helping his trade value, as he's one of the only tradeable assets we have worth more than bear crap)

We played well, so the game was worth watching and I wasn't embarrassed to be a Caps fan

We lost, which sadly is the best result right now for a team facing the beginning of a rebuild 

8 hours ago, Hersh said:

 

He's just reporting what the NHL trade rumors and reporters have been saying the last few days so there is an outside chance of that given the market. 

I like Dowd. He's a solid player, great team guy, the kind of player who deserves to win a championship at some point in his career.

But that would absolutely blow my mind if we could get a 1st rounder straight up for him (or anyone else on our roster besides Wilson, Strome, or McMichael). 

The only real assets we have going into the deadline are Mantha and cap space, which we should use to take on bad contracts from contending teams with draft picks as sweeteners.

The last time this club had a full on sell-off was 20 years ago, when ownership acknowledged the Jagr trade was an epic disaster and decided to tank for Ovi. It was painful at the time, but it turned out to be a franchise-altering decision.

The thing about that sell-off is that we had assets that were worth something. Players like Gonchar, Oates, Bondra, Witt, and Konowalchuk all brought in returns that helped build the Rock the Red era.  Right now, we don't have dog****. We failed to sell high on ANY of our core players, and now they're just broken down, overpaid has-beens who couldn't get picked up by another club if we offered them for free.

Terrible mismanagement of this team, and we're staring at a long rebuild because of it.

6 minutes ago, PokerPacker said:

Rumor-mill has it that Nic Dowd is a highly-coveted deadline acquisition, and could command as high as a 1st round pick given how effective he is while making only $1.3 mil with another year on his contract.  I think we'd have to take an offer like that.

I like your insight on this thread and it's not often I disagree with you. But I've got a better chance of having a 3-way with Taylor Swift and Margot Robbie than GMBM does of convincing anyone to give up a 1st rounder for Nic Dowd.

Just now, Hersh said:

Fire sale forth coming. Hopefully. 

Caps will be selling, but who will be buying??? Can't imagine a strong demand for any of our players. Mantha should fetch a 2nd rounder. Everyone else (minus Wilson, Strome, and our young guys, who likely are all off the market) are worth Confederate currency right now.

Our best chance to improve at the deadline would be to use our extra cap space to take on salary dumps in exchange for draft picks.

Dark days ahead for this club.

Kuzy out indefinitely after entering the league's players assistance program. Not sure if it's addiction-related or something else, either way wishing him all the best.

Man, can this season get any worse for the core of this team? Backstrom has stepped away and it's pretty clear he's done, Ovi's production has taken a nosedive and it's very possible this is the best he's got for the remainder of his career, Carlson is basically a average #3 - #4 d-man at this point (getting paid #1 d-man money for 2 more years), and now Kuzy - in what we were all hoping would be a bounce back season, if for no other reason than to find another team to take him. Oshie continues to be a warrior, but at this point in his career we all know that next big injury is a matter of when, not if.

Wilson is the last sturdy bridge to the 2018 Cup team, which now feels like 10 years ago.

All things considered, it's amazing we're within pissing distance of a playoff spot, although expect that to change over the next month as we fall further back.