Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

yea and honestly it could've been both, the way his left arm was extended when brooks hit him was awkward

i was surprised at the amount of defensive breakdowns chicago had, especially when sid was on the ice, very uncharacteristic

was nice to see the pens cash in on those considering the hawks played a good game otherwise

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Caps really looking like they wanna play some golf

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

WTF is wrong with that team? They should be better than this anyways, but especially in a year where the East sucks this much.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

They're just terrible defensively. Too late to do anything about it this year, but McPhee has shown a real lack of ability to obtain and develop strong defensive defensemen throughout his tenure in DC.

And I hate to harp on Ovie all the time, but his bad attitude and unwillingness to participate leads to regular disappointment. I mean the guy hasn't scored an even strength goal in like 3 weeks, so that whole "he carries the Caps on his back" argument holds no water now. Not that it ever did in my opinion.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

A couple years he was doing it but I think people have caught onto him 5on5. Scary to think what he could do if he was scoring 5on5. He seems even worse defensively too. Maybe it's just that we're seeing his flaws more but it sure seems worse.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

I like this:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...iacontentstory

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

It's worse than ever before with him. I know +/- can be an overvalued stat, but yikes. Often during his shifts I'll only watch him and not the puck, especially in the d zone. It's dismal. Constantly just floating around the blue line hoping one of his teammates can cause a turn over and spring him, back turned to the d zone the whole time. The thing is with Ovie though, he's terrible at carrying the puck through the neutral zone. He's best when he's on the finishing end of a play, obviously, but as a playmaker he's virtually ineffective entirely. Makes terrible passes regularly. Throws the puck blindly into a group of opposing players all the time. The 48 goals is a total smokescreen. This has been a really bad year for Ovechkin in my eyes. He doesn't even try defensively these days. Like literally does not participate while the other 4 Capitals on the ice at least try.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

NBCSN was dogging him badly during one of the intermissions last night. Not sure what they can do. Yeah they need some help in other places but it won't fix things until he's more engaged all around. Can only change your coach so many times.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Yeah the Ovechkin problem is deep, and very serious. There's his mega contract (so rarely do those work out), plus the whole face-of-the-franchise thing. Most Caps fans couldn't fathom why removing Ovie could be beneficial. And because he equals so many ticket/jersey/random bullshit sales, Leonsis would never give the okay to try and trade him. And you're right, until HE decides to change, nothing will help. Dale Hunter had AO playing better D than I've ever seen from him, but he was only getting about 12 minutes of ice a game (!) and wasn't scoring at all. Now Oates has reinvigorated his goal scoring, mostly due a fantastic power play set up that is specifically designed to get Ovie one timers from his spot, but his defense is at an all time low. There's only so many coaching changes one can make before you've gotta hold the actual problem accountable. But that's real tough since it's OMG OVIEEEEZZZ and the fanbsse would revolt if they tried to move him. So it's a bad spot. But I think we can all agree that Ovechkin leading a team to a Cup, be it the Caps or anyone else, is a fairy tale

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Yeah he was great defensively under Hunter but yeah he was nothing offensively, and needs to be much better overall. I don't know of a coach who could get him to work other than Scotty Bowman, and he's not coming back so....He got Fedorov and Yzerman, two of the most offensively gifted players ever, to become two of the best 2-way players ever. They both wanted to win badly. Ovie is gonna need to figure out if he wants to win too.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Nice! :thumbsup All three were cool?
CHI fans - have you seen this as a recurring problem this year? I don't mean to pile on the Hawks (although maybe I should since it's all but cemented that they're playing the Avs in the first round), but I remember seeing the same thing during the Avs game. As soon as guys like Duchene or MacKinnon put on some speed, it seemed like they were blowing past Chicago's D... even Keith got caught flat-footed on at least three occasions. I chalked it up to the overall team speed of the Avs, but maybe there's something more to it? Just curious.
One of the biggest problems is that management enables him to play that way, constantly sticking up for him and saying it's his "role" and shit. "Look, it's Alex's role to go out and score goals for us, and he does that." Like I've said before, it's too bad because he's got the pure talent to be so much more if he'd just apply himself.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

God how I'd love to have Scotty Bowman work with Alex Ovechkin for a couple seasons. But that ain't happening. And I'm honestly not 100% sold that Ovie really wants to win all that badly. Ever since the Vancouver games I've questioned his desire to win. He has done nothing to change that since. He makes his millions, has his rock star status, is engaged to his beautiful Russian tennis star girlfriend...not sure a Stanley Cup is very high on his priority list

Just saw that he did not record a single even strength point in the entire month of March. Not a single one. I knew it was bad, but I wasn't aware it was quite that bad :lol

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Honestly the whole league kinda gives him a free pass in that regard. I see him being talked about on NHL network constantly and it's always "without Ovechkin the Caps have nothing", "Ovie carries the Caps on his back nightly", etc. It's hogwash

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

This is true. But I do find it encouraging that he's not getting his balls washed as frequently as he used to. The talk about him seems to be geared more to what you said (he's the Caps' one saving grace), and less towards him being the "best" player in the league.

I'm with you, the more I watch Backstrom the more I like him.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

I really think it's cause he's playing even worse defensively. Before you could put it aside because he was ok and he was doing so well offensively. You don't need him to be a Selke winner but you can be better. Hell I watch Nyquist every game. He's leading the league in goal scoring since January 20th and he still makes plays defensively. He's not Datsyuk or Bergy but he helps out everywhere.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

:thumbsup And what's encouraging about today's NHL is that type of play is being lauded more and more. The big names that people are talking about are the ones who play a responsible two-way game.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Backstrom's been the best player on that team for a while now. Backstrom is a top 3 passer in this league. One of the best power play quarterbacks I've ever seen. Plays that half wall like he's Peter Forsberg

:thumbsup exactly. The Caps don't need Ovie to be a defensive stud, just accountable

And jeez, Nyquist. Every time I've watched the Wings the last couple months it's been the Gustaf Nyquist show. He's been incredible for you guys

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Exactly on Ovie. Don't be so soft. It's how Bure was late in his career. In FLA, everyone let him do it cause they needed to scoring, but they never won anything.

Yeah he's been great. I think I read he's scored 29% of their goals since January 20th or something like that. I know it's a streak right now so tough to make a judgement on a kid's career by something like this but, I thought he'd be good but not this good. The goal yesterday against Tampa was amazing. He's a little guy and was able to fend off Matt Carle who's probably bests him by 25 lbs. He's not gonna win the MVP, but he's is by far the Wings MVP.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Guys (and Gal) please send some good vibes my way. Not only do I cheer for the Oilers ( :lorraine ) but today, after a month on the unemployment line I finally have a job interview this afternoon!! Really f-ing excited...sounds like a great gig that hits a lot of marks for me - - aaaaannnnd it's for a toy company :) Wish me luck!

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Good luck! You'll be great, can't be any worse than the Oilers, right? ;)

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

I also took your advice and kept an eye on Alzner. The Caps did not play a great game, so I didn't get a perfect sampling, but I see all the potential that is there. I like him. :thumbsup
Vibes sent. You deserve a break, rooting for a team like the Oilers ;)

Good luck at the interview!!!

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

You say toy company and I think of the movie Big. You get to play with toys all day? lol Good luck!

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

What company? I work for Toys R Us, curious if I'm familiar with them

:lol I wish that was what it was like to work in a toy store

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Duchesne out 4 weeks. That's basically the first round so that's a huge loss.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

The Blackhawks have, while under Q, always been a VERY streaky team. You all saw it last year at it's best when they came out of the gates at full speed, but every year has extreme ups and downs. That kind of comes with a puck possession team like the Hawks. When it goes wrong, it goes very wrong. Not to make excuses, but it's even worse when they lose 88...then toss in losing 19 too?

I would argue that Kane is the most important member of the Chicago Blackhawks for multiple reasons, but one is his ability to move the puck through the neutral zone and sustain pressure in the offensive zone. Whenever he's on the ice, the Hawks pull back and try to make sure he's the one with his stick on the puck leaving the defensive zone. They play a different brand of hockey when he's gone. He's been very, very healthy over his career, and rarely ever misses time, so we don't see it often, but when we do, it's rough. It's a lot less of the north and south team most people know the Hawks as, and a lot more of a grind-it-out type team. They just all look lost out there right now.

This team has been incredibly lucky with injuries the past couple years. 88 has played almost every game since he came into the league, 19 only really missed time one season, Keith has played in almost every game (besides suspensions) since he came in the league...etc. etc. I know injuries are a poor excuse, but right now, that's the issue. I think the Blackhawks lean harder on the shoulders of 19 and 88 than any other team leans on their stars (aside from maybe Pitt and Crosby).

The other rare occasions can just be chalked up to a random down Q night. Overall I believe this is the best blue line in the NHL led by the best defenseman in the league, and 99% of the time you see that. Keith should be as close to a unanimous Norris winner as we've had since Lidstrom, Seabrook has been good (certainly not great, but he's been a lot better than most give him credit for), Hjalmarrson is a rock 99 out of 100 shifts, etc. They're also a lot better against teams like the Blues or the Kings than they are against teams like the Avs. Hell, their biggest problem team was the Oilers for years. For some reason, the quick, young teams are the best answer for the Chicago Blackhawks. I've been saying it all year, but Colorado is the absolute worst matchup for the Hawks in the first round of the playoffs.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Injuries aren't a terrible excuse...trust me. The thing is the Hawks, like the Wings have now, could probably be ok with missing the bodies. It's just it takes a lot of time for everyone to figure out their new roles, different guys to step up and to get the lines right. A big blow this late in the season. You'd rather have it earlier to be able to get everyone back and on the same page by the time the playoffs start. As someone who does not care about the West anymore, unless my team goes on a miracle run, so here's hoping Kane and Toews are both back and relatively healthy, since you know they prolly won't be 100%, once the playoffs start.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Everest Toys.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Obviously next few games will be tough without Kane AND Toews. But over the recent stretch, the Hawks have just been a little lazy probably. Like Matty said, the D like to get active in the offensive zone and if the forwards don't quite get back to help quick enough or if the d-men make a bad pinch or two, you might have an odd-man rush the other way, and lately other teams are just scoring every time on these.

If you look at the rest of the numbers, the possession has still been strongly in favor of the Hawks in many of these games that they have lost.

Colorado will be a tough matchup because they have a bigger home ice advantage than most teams IMO. The elevation in Denver is something they are used to. Will be tough for the Hawks. That said, on the ice the Hawks have been doubling the Avs in shots in just about every match-up this year. It's just really tough to believe that Colorado can win a series playing in their own end so much.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

Totally agree. I'm fully on board with Keith getting the Norris this year, just interesting some of the breakdowns I've seen.
This is the case with just about every upper-echelon team, and believe me, it bugs me to no end. The Sharks put up 50 on them the other night.

But I'm telling you guys, that's where you're getting it wrong. Varlamov thrives when he has to keep working and is forced to stay in his groove. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but a graphic on the game the other night showed he's below .500 (I think 8-10) when facing 29 shots or less, but something like 11-1 when facing 40+.

The key to Varly? Shoot when it matters. Don't let him make the easy save and get into a groove. The Sharks were taking any shot they could, and they couldn't solve him.

I still contend and harbor no illusions that the Hawks have the advantage in the first round, even if the Avs hold on to home ice. Even so, I'm cautiously optimistic.
This hurts so so so so so so bad. I'm grateful we've already got the playoff spot locked up, but as we've talked about how the Avs can beat the Hawks with speed, you can see why his loss hurts. Like I've said before, MacKinnon is probably faster in terms of north-south, putting-your-head-down-and-skating speed, but Duchene's quickness and agility at getting out of tight spaces is so valuable.

Chris mentioned Kane and how he takes pressure off the rest of the team by drawing defenders to him. Duchene does the same thing, and his secret is out... I've seen guys start to give him cushions - they hold off taking the body because they think they'll get beat. You give a guy like Duchene a cushion though, and you'll be watching his celly not long after.

Re: The NHL 2013-14 Thread
 

So far so good, 2nd interview tomorrow.


Looking forwards to the playoffs so I can be a hockey fan again.