2017 - 18 Stanley Cup Champion Washington Capitals Thread

[pjfootballer]

Two needed wins over two tough opponents.

[ixcuincle]

Hey, we're pretty good! 

 

In Charlottesville right now after vt uva game, missed most of caps! 

[skinsmarydu]

Whadda yanno?  I'm gonna get to see the Caps tonight on TV!  Woo-hoo!

[pjfootballer]

What a beautiful goal by Ovie. Snapped that mofo.

[GoDeep81]

Wicked wristah from the Captain! Love it when you can hear the crowd start booing him.. It's rare though that he handles the puck that distance and gets the payoff so soon!! "BoooooooooAHHHH****TTTTTT" lol

[pjfootballer]

Ovechkin - 2

 

Toronto - 0 

 

 

[GoDeep81]

And the Wicked Slappah too! 8 looking for a hattrick tonight?

[pjfootballer]

Vrana makes it 3-0. He’s heating up.

[pjfootballer]

We’re turtling in the third period. 3-2.

[pjfootballer]

Alex with a ? trick. 4-2 Caps win.

[Hersh]

Credit to Trotz for seemingly getting the lines right. No more guys totally unworthy of being in    the top-6 actually on the top two lines. Bottom 2 lines are playing well but could use one more line with some scoring punch. Maybe that's Bura on the 3rd line when he returns.

 

Vrana looks to be everything we have wanted Burakovsky to be. 

 

Still gotta get 44 off the ice. 

 

Goaltending has been great. I think sometimes Caps fans forget how stellar Holtby has become. 

[Popeman38]

8-19-43

13-92-77

25-20-65

18-83-91

 

9-2

55-74

29-22

 

I think that will be the best lineup. Grinder on one wing, speed on the other on each line. Skilled center between them. 

 

Spent the last 2 days at Skins and Hokies games, so I missed last nights game. Now I’m gonna go sleep for 12 hours!

 

[GoDeep81]

And the Wicked backhandah for the hatty! 3rd period got hanky again. Thought we'd be in OT on multiple occasions. Needed Vezena Holtby down the stretch and got him! I'll chalk that 3rd period up to back to back fatigue.. Nice that the lines are settling in and they all look pretty good! Hope they keep it up!

[Hersh]

Pretty cool about the kid that read the Caps starting lineup. Look it up if you have the chance.

[ixcuincle]

8 hours ago, Hersh said:

Credit to Trotz for seemingly getting the lines right. No more guys totally unworthy of being in    the top-6 actually on the top two lines. Bottom 2 lines are playing well but could use one more line with some scoring punch. Maybe that's Bura on the 3rd line when he returns.

 

Vrana looks to be everything we have wanted Burakovsky to be. 

 

Still gotta get 44 off the ice. 

 

Goaltending has been great. I think sometimes Caps fans forget how stellar Holtby has become. 

Told you they'd turn it around 

[ixcuincle]

So yeah after the fire trotz bandwagon gained a lot of steam they won three straight, the last two over some pretty good teams. I hate to keep bringing this up but I'm compelled to because of the hypocrisy going on. Nobody wants him fires now but lose a single game and the outrage will pop up again.

Folks it's an 82 game season plus change. Teams go through cold streaks. The caps aren't immune to that.

My theory is that we just got so used and entitled to regular season success that one or two losses seems soabnormal from what we've seen the last two years. How else can you explain the fanbase melting down over a brief coldstretch? It's a long season and there's bound to be tough periods. Doesn'tmean anyone should be fired yet. It'smuch top early for that.

[GoDeep81]

2 hours ago, ixcuincle said:

My theory is that we just got so used and entitled to regular season success

 

Since you're compelled to bring it up. I've been on the fire Trotz bandwagon since we exited the playoffs early for the 3rd consecutive year. He's about as slow as Orpik when it comes to adjusting. He still hates to put youth on the ice. He and GMBM could be fired today and I'd not be upset. He's a good coach and seems like a nice individual, but I still think they're just delaying the inevitable with the guy.

[Warhead36]

I think Trotz is being saved by Ovechkin who's having a bit of a renaissance year. I think he's motivated to kick ass in the Winter Olympics, dude probably doesn't care anymore about the Cup and will check out in the spring.

[ixcuincle]

32 minutes ago, GoDeep81 said:

 

Since you're compelled to bring it up. I've been on the fire Trotz bandwagon since we exited the playoffs early for the 3rd consecutive year. He's about as slow as Orpik when it comes to adjusting. He still hates to put youth on the ice. He and GMBM could be fired today and I'd not be upset. He's a good coach and seems like a nice individual, but I still think they're just delaying the inevitable with the guy.

 

Hates to put Youth on ice

 

Bowey and other kids see significant time

 

Makes you think

[Hersh]

3 hours ago, ixcuincle said:

Told you they'd turn it around 

 

Winning 3 games does not represent a turn around yet but hopefully it continues. Let me clear something up, I'm not on the fire the head coach bandwagon, I think the GM should be fired. He did a terrible job of filling out the lines this year in favor of the really terrible Brooks Orpik. Orpik is one of the main reasons the Caps have lost the last two playoffs. (-3 in 6 games, -7 in 13 games respectively) while GMBM let Schmidt (-3 in 10 games, +6 in 11 games). This season is no different. We see him getting beat and taking penalties early in games which negatively impacts the Caps time and again. There are some other moves that have been very questionable along with him throwing out some big long term contracts which will really tie the Caps hands for the next few years. 

 

 

[ixcuincle]

The point is everyone freaked out about the Caps when they went cold 3 out of 4 games. But I always said, teams go through tough stretches in an 82 game season so you aren't going to see them go 82-0. It honestly seems people are just so fed up with all the "choking" and it's really seeped into the fanbase. GoDeep even complained just now that he can't even bear to see Trotz on the sidelines anymore after they lost a hard fought 7 game series. I'm not saying he's th e right coach to take this team over the 2nd round hump. But firing him now does nothing and is largely pointless. Especially now that they've figured things out.

 

I just think that firing Trotz after they lost 6-1, 6-1, won, and 4-1 is kind of stupid. Bring that up, but also bring up the fact that they were 6-4 before that stretch, and now have won 3 straight. Do you see how the regular season shifts up and down? I think Springfield put it best when he said the Metro is stacked. Yes, the Caps are a few points out of the cellar in the Metro. But they're also a few points out of first place. If you honestly think this team is worse than Philly and Carolina you need to be checked. This at worst is a 4th or 5th place team right now. We'll see what happens when they play the Devils or Columbus again and see if they're worthy of being a top flight club in the East. But encouraging results so far beating two pretty good Atlantic teams.

Listen I'm not against negativity. But bring it up when it is warranted. If this team is awful and in the cellar then you can be as negative as you want and I won't give a ****. But when this team is middle of the pack when they were largely expected to be middle of the pack, and you all on Reddit and this here forum whining about WE'RE NOT GOOD well A> What did you expect after the offseason and B> Are you that fascinated with regular season success that a team that is suddenly mediocre is NOT GOOD ENOUGH and we have to fire Trotz to bring in some magical wizard who can turn a mediocre roster into a Stanley Cup champion? Again, Trotz may not be the right guy but he's being let go at the end of the year. Right now is NOT the right time to fire him, especially when they are in the middle of the pack as we speak and getting better by the day.

[ixcuincle]

8 minutes ago, Hersh said:

 

Winning 3 games does not represent a turn around yet but hopefully it continues. Let me clear something up, I'm not on the fire the head coach bandwagon, I think the GM should be fired. He did a terrible job of filling out the lines this year in favor of the really terrible Brooks Orpik. Orpik is one of the main reasons the Caps have lost the last two playoffs. (-3 in 6 games, -7 in 13 games respectively) while GMBM let Schmidt (-3 in 10 games, +6 in 11 games). This season is no different. We see him getting beat and taking penalties early in games which negatively impacts the Caps time and again. There are some other moves that have been very questionable along with him throwing out some big long term contracts which will really tie the Caps hands for the next few years. 

 

 

 

GM who built two straight Presiden'ts Trophy clubs and had one bad offseason rebounding from "putting all the chips on the table" should be fired? Or to put it more succintly, guy with one bad offseason (which was bound to happen after salary cap struggles) should be fired? Fired is too strong a word. Wait a few years.

 

What's with the lack of patience in this city?

[Hersh]

16 minutes ago, ixcuincle said:

 

GM who built two straight Presiden'ts Trophy clubs and had one bad offseason rebounding from "putting all the chips on the table" should be fired? Or to put it more succintly, guy with one bad offseason (which was bound to happen after salary cap struggles) should be fired? Fired is too strong a word. Wait a few years.

 

What's with the lack of patience in this city?

 

LOL, he didn't build those teams. He added a couple of players and I give him full credit for the Oshie trade. Niskanen is a solid player and Orpik's contract was immediately terrible. Williams was a good player too. However, many of the depth players that played well during the regular season didn't do anything in the playoffs .

At the end of the day, 2nd round exits are second round exits but hey, if that's what you are happy with. 

 

We have self inflicted salary cap issues cause of the current GM. 

[ixcuincle]

10 minutes ago, Hersh said:

 

LOL, he didn't build those teams. He added a couple of players and I give him full credit for the Oshie trade. Niskanen is a solid player and Orpik's contract was immediately terrible. Williams was a good player too. However, many of the depth players that played well during the regular season didn't do anything in the playoffs .

At the end of the day, 2nd round exits are second round exits but hey, if that's what you are happy with. 

 

We have self inflicted salary cap issues cause of the current GM. 

 

Cause of the current GM who tried to load this team for the playoffs and lost a crapshoot series to the Pens?

 

McClellan is one of the last people Caps fans should be trying to fire. I would fire him after 3 more years of disappointment. They don't even have a losing record.

 

As you can tell I am averse to gung ho firings. I understand firings come quickly in the NHL but at the same time you need to be able to show loyalty and trust when the times get tough instead of just threatening to sack everyone as if it were a magical solution to all the world's problems. Then again, Pittsburgh makes no qualms about firing people when they don't get the job done and doing so has won multiple championships for the Penguins.

[Hersh]

51 minutes ago, ixcuincle said:

 

Hates to put Youth on ice

 

Bowey and other kids see significant time

 

Makes you think

 

I think Trotz has done a good job this year playing younger players. I expect the young defensemen to have ups and downs. I think the criticism is largely around 74 playing big minutes and 44 playing in the playoffs and this season at all.