I thought you were allowed infinite name changes on here. Oh well.
I missed the first two games, but from the little I've read it seems both Holtby and the team have been pretty bad. Are people lashing out at Oates yet?
Caps need to keep their attacking distances smaller. The D needs to be closer to F when the puck has been moved to the offensive zome. The forward who has the puck, the other two F need to stay closer to him, and stay under the puck, at least one of them. We need more zonal pressure on the puck, whether it's a Caps player holding it, or the enemy.
The puck control, it's all about zonal 3 vs 2's and 2 vs 1's, not like so far when all the three F are too far away from each other, sometimes all of them above the puck, and when the Jets put pressure on the Caps player with the puck...we lose it and the Jets and the Bolts got 3 vs 2 and even 4 vs 2 counter attacks...
Oh yeah and I don't really get why Caps try to get the puck up so fast, even when we have defensemen who are good with the puck...and when we see the opponent has already more players on the side where our guys throw the puck...I'd be happy to see some reverse passes and comfortable, relaxed puck moving...
I don't remember the last time the arena was that quiet. No horn guy last night either, which seemed weird.
I don't see many bright spots with this team. Nothing looks good.
I like the additions of Crabb and Wolski. Hendricks seems to play harder than anyone but he just doesn't have the skill level.
Beagle is still playing hard.
They continually leave people wide open in the slot, or let someone skate to it to shoot. I don't get that. That's just poor defense.
I am not giving up on Holtby because I know you can get down on yourself if the guys in front of you play horrid.
I liked your analysis in this post. The slot is a real issue. The D... has problems with every pairing.
Our son had the tickets last night, so I watched via DVR... but still not so sure they're so bad as to make me want to walk out. And I think we're being too hard on AO... I think he's trying hard, but 2-way play is the square peg in the round hole to him, and much of the reason why is conditioning.
Maybe if we couldn't get Dale, we ought to get a Keenan?
Caught your comment on Green's conditioning (or lack of it being nearer the mark, methinks), and wonder if it's conditioning, or his using that puck drag across his body so much?
I thought he might be doing this because he's a bit gun-shy after his injuries of late, and he uses this to avoid contact.
One thing I saw over and over was Ovechkin expecting a stretch pass from Backstrom, then Backstrom carrying the puck the whole way and Ovechkin having to slow down at the blue line as a result. This was happening with a bunch of other players as well, where they were expecting passes but falling victim to the puck carrier trying to go coast to coast. They need to figure out how to enter the zone with everyone having speed quickly, be it dump and chase, stretch passes or everyone rushing from the same point at the same time.
Ovechkin and Backstrom need need need to be split up.
