PokerPacker Posted January 19 Share Posted January 19 25 minutes ago, capcrunch98 said: Fun game to be at tonight with the country music theme. Of course winning and scoring 5 goals helps too. Lindgren is terrific. Every year, there's an average team which rides great goaltending to a playoff berth, sometimes even a first round upset. I feel like that's the best-case scenario with this club, and Chucky could make it happen. That certainly feels like where we're at, but I don't think we've seen what the team can do at full strength yet. Now we've got Patches, Oshie, and Ovechkin all playing, it could be interesting to see how if that does anything for our scoring. And there's always room for some trade-deadline moves. Even last season when we were sellers at the deadline we picked up Rasmus Sandin; another move like that could give us a boost while not sacrificing the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoDeep81 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 GMBM re-signed Protas to $3.4m for 5 years. (was making 789k) Love his improved game, but that's quite a bit of coin on a team with minimal cap space. Wonder what they'll give McMichael? 4-5m?? (He's also a RFA after this year) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinsfan1311 Posted January 20 Share Posted January 20 On 1/18/2024 at 9:34 PM, PokerPacker said: Oshie completes the hat-trick on the empty net. Mrs. Skinsfan & I went to the game and it was the first time that either of us have seen a hat-trick in person. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinsmarydu Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 damn double damn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capcrunch98 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 Proud of this team for competing the first half of the season, but the wheels are starting to come off. I guess it's for the best it's happening now, so management won't do something stupid like be buyers at the trade deadline. Hate to bring it up, but Ovi now has 3 goals in his last 27 games. I've never seen a player of his caliber fall off so fast, less than a year after being a 40 goal scorer, and less than 2 years from a 50 goal campaign. He's doing other good things, like racking up assists and dishing out hits, but that goal record - which we all thought was a sure thing just a few months ago - is looking like it may not happen for another 3 years, if at all. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoDeep81 Posted January 24 Share Posted January 24 I think Ovi lost his piss when his pops died. Hasn't been the same since. I also think Carbery's system isn't working for Ovi. He's always been a transition goal scorer 5v5. Now, every time he/they enter the zone they wrap the boards. Not sure if it's lack of speed or lack of a play maker on his line, but wrapping the boards and trying to forecheck their way into goals has rarely been successful. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hersh Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 They lack high end talent. Maybe they expected Ovechkin would never slow down but they haven't added a true top-6 player in years. They are old and slow and have mediocre talent. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PokerPacker Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 6 minutes ago, Hersh said: They lack high end talent. Maybe they expected Ovechkin would never slow down but they haven't added a true top-6 player in years. They are old and slow and have mediocre talent. Strome seems to be a legit top-six player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capcrunch98 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 It's pretty much over for this season. I would never root against them, but any loss from this point forward (there will be a lot of them) is a silver lining because the best thing we can do is draft well and build from the ground up. A trade or free agent signing isn't going to fix this. Everyone over the age of 25 should be available for trade at the deadline. Exceptions are Ovi (obviously), and I don't see them trading Wilson (last player from our championship core who still has some good years left) or Strome (good young first/second line player on a reasonable contract). Sadly, we don't have much that anyone would want. Mantha - one of the few good stories for us this year - should be good for a 2nd rounder, give or take. I could see a team taking a flyer on Pacioretty, although he'll need to do better than 1 goal in 10 games if we want anything beyond a late-round pick. We'd be lucky to get a can of Spam for Kuzy, and even then we'd have to eat salary to make it happen. As much as I'd love for Carlson to finish out his career as a Capital, I think they need to move him if they get a decent offer. I know he's lost a step (as has the rest of this team), and he's signed for another 2 years at $8 mil/per (ouch!), but not too long ago he was a top-pairing d-man playing upwards of 25 min per night. Guys like him have value to contenders at the deadline. As far as everyone else - maybe we'll get lucky (we're due) and Kuemper goes on a bit of a roll and we can dish him off to a playoff team having goaltending issues/injuries down the stretch. Very sad it's come to this. Between Backstrom stepping away, Ovi's gigantic decline in production, and the team just sucking with no end in sight, this will almost surely end up as the worst Caps season in almost 20 years. 6 minutes ago, PokerPacker said: Strome seems to be a legit top-six player. Agreed. Caps management has done little right over the past few years, but getting Strome for free on a cheap FA deal was a good move. He's one of the few guys on this team I wouldn't trade away. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capcrunch98 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Next season is going to be huge for Ovi. If he bounces back (and none of us should bet against it), awesome. But if it's another year of him hitting the all-star break with a single digit goal total, and the Caps being lousy on top of it, I could see him deciding he's done after the season. We know he really wants to catch Gretzky. But he's also a proud guy, and him limping out on the ice in his 40s to put up 15-20 goal seasons - all to chase down a record - does a huge disservice to his legacy. I hope I'm wrong, but next season I may be buying up extra tickets to the last home game, just in case. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hersh Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 1 hour ago, PokerPacker said: Strome seems to be a legit top-six player. On a legitimate contender? I would not agree with that. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hersh Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 1 hour ago, capcrunch98 said: Next season is going to be huge for Ovi. If he bounces back (and none of us should bet against it), awesome. But if it's another year of him hitting the all-star break with a single digit goal total, and the Caps being lousy on top of it, I could see him deciding he's done after the season. We know he really wants to catch Gretzky. But he's also a proud guy, and him limping out on the ice in his 40s to put up 15-20 goal seasons - all to chase down a record - does a huge disservice to his legacy. I hope I'm wrong, but next season I may be buying up extra tickets to the last home game, just in case. Nothing can hurt Ovechkins legacy at this point. I do think he needs to rethink his preparation for a season if he wants to break the record and if he could get 20 goals per season until he breaks the record, I'd take that right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capcrunch98 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 7 hours ago, Hersh said: Nothing can hurt Ovechkins legacy at this point. I do think he needs to rethink his preparation for a season if he wants to break the record and if he could get 20 goals per season until he breaks the record, I'd take that right now. He's the greatest goal scorer of all time, with or without the record. 830 goals in Ovi's era is equivalent to over 900 goals in Wayne's era, where every game was 6-5, every team had at least one 40 - 50 goal scorer, and even 4th line goons lit the lamp 15 times per year. But it would be weird seeing him hanging on for 3 more years, struggling to score 20 goals (he may not even reach that this year). It's like the former heavyweight champ who used to headline pay-per-views, now punch-drunk and fighting scrubs in front of not more than 1,000 fans in a random Indian casino in the middle of nowhere. I personally don't think Ovi would go for that. Remember that Gretzky could've played another 3 seasons, but chose not to because he recognized he wasn't at the level he was accustomed to. And he was still a point-per-game player when he retired. He's Ovi and he'll still be remembered as a legend either way. Curious what you've heard about his pre-season preparation? Over the past couple years, I haven't heard anything to indicate he doesn't work hard and take care of himself. I think it's just age catching up with him. Nobody can out-train Father Time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoDeep81 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Nobody on our roster would sniff "top line" minutes (regularly) on a contending team. Just waiting to see if it's Carbery or GMBM who's seat gets hot, faster. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hail2skins Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 11 hours ago, capcrunch98 said: Between Backstrom stepping away, Ovi's gigantic decline in production, and the team just sucking with no end in sight, this will almost surely end up as the worst Caps season in almost 20 years. Seems like the Caps are roughly where they were last year points-wise. They really fell off the cliff in the second half last season, finishing below .500. That may or may not happen this season. The complaint I've heard from hockey observers is that the team simply isn't nearly as exciting to watch as they were during the decade leading up to the Cup win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ixcuincle Posted January 25 Author Share Posted January 25 Ted released a long email about the move. re Virginia Monumental Sports & Entertainment has always been about the entire DMV. The media market for the Capitals and Wizards spans from Richmond, VA to southern Delaware. Virginia has almost 9 million residents, Maryland has over 6 million residents, Washington, DC has almost 700,000 residents. These are the people we are servicing. The global companies that define our region come from all three jurisdictions. To name a few: In Virginia - Leidos in Reston, Capital One in Tysons, and Hilton in McLean. In Maryland, Marriott in Bethesda, Lockheed Martin in Bethesda, and T. Rowe Price in Baltimore. Danaher Corporation, The Carlyle Group and the largest of them all, the federal government, are all in Washington, DC. Between the Capitals and the Wizards, 44% of fans who attend games are from Virginia, 41% are from Maryland and 15% are from Washington, DC. The teams represent the DMV, and they belong to the entire DMV. This will never change. Additionally, twenty percent of our employees live in Washington, DC, forty-two percent of our employees live in Maryland, and thirty-one percent live in Virginia, with the remaining seven percent distributed across other jurisdictions. I disagree with claims that this project would move the teams in a way that will reduce accessibility for fans. The Entertainment District will be 4.5 miles from Capital One Arena, 2.6 miles from the Washington, DC border, under one mile from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, one of the most accessible major metropolitan airports in the United States, and a couple hundred feet from the newly opened Potomac Yard-Virginia Tech Metro Station. Significant efforts are being made to study and optimize transportation options. The Entertainment District will be in a vibrant and central location for our fans, accessible by Metro, car, with 2,500 underground parking spaces, dedicated rideshare drop off, water taxi, walking, running, and bike tr ail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capcrunch98 Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 48 minutes ago, ixcuincle said: Ted released a long email about the move. re Virginia Ted's had a big hard-on for Virginia forever. Even in the early days of him owning the team, little things he said made it clear that's where his heart is. I don't blame him for moving, and I say that as a longtime season ticketholder who will probably have to let go since this will add an hour to my roundtrip gameday commute from MoCo. Yes, most of this is about money, which is unfortunate. But I have no doubt that exhaustion from dealing with an incompetent DC government plays into this too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@DCGoldPants Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 of that 41% coming from Maryland, how many came on the Red or Green Lines without having to switch trains? How many will if you pull this off? The central location line is a hoot. Look at a Metro map. You are in the center of the DMV right now. He can disagree all he wants. If he pulls this off, we'll see what happens. If Youngkin can't deliver, or the neighborhood wins to block this. He's going to look stupid for making announcements with renderings for the public before that stuff was locked down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capcrunch98 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 8 hours ago, GoDeep81 said: Just waiting to see if it's Carbery or GMBM who's seat gets hot, faster. Carbery absolutely should not be catching any flack at this point. GMBM sent him into a high-stakes poker game with crappy cards and a low bankroll. The coach is just playing the lousy hand he's been dealt. But I will say, if management is going to stay on the course they're on - no real rebuild, trying to put a patchwork team together and pray they overachieve, and put Ovi's goal chase above everything else - then they may need to swap out to another coach and hope a new system will help Ovi's production. Not fair to Carbery at all, but they're putting all their eggs in the Great Chase basket, and Ovechkin has been extremely unproductive since Carbery took over (although I don't believe it's the coach's fault). Tough times in Caps land. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoDeep81 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 They are definitely trying to gun fight with dull knives. Just something about the whole teams decline in goal production that makes you wonder if something in Carbery's system isn't clicking. I love Carbs btw. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoDeep81 Posted January 28 Share Posted January 28 At least Ovi scored. Nice to fight back for OT, but don't think the point will matter much after looking at our upcoming schedule. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
China Posted January 30 Share Posted January 30 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
capcrunch98 Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 (edited) 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. Edited February 6 by capcrunch98 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GoDeep81 Posted February 6 Share Posted February 6 Best wishes for Kuzy. Hope he gets the help he needs! 🙏 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinsmarydu Posted February 7 Share Posted February 7 This is some terrible hockey right now...damn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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