Good post strung and may I add, that anyone that wanted Semin gone should be elated at our chances now. We are the same team otherwise. While they may have expected GMGM to land another top flight(y) scoring winger to fill the void, they should also accept this is life without Semin, exactly what they wanted.
Many argue cups are won with strong center depth. And I see us stronger than ever, maybe even without Laich in the lineup. I assume Ribs will be > BMO.
Good post strung and may I add, that anyone that wanted Semin gone should be elated at our chances now. We are the same team otherwise. While they may have expected GMGM to land another top flight(y) scoring winger to fill the void, they should also accept this is life without Semin, exactly what they wanted.
Many argue cups are won with strong center depth. And I see us stronger than ever, maybe even without Laich in the lineup. I assume Ribs will be > BMO.
I'm just not totally convinced that the door has been completely shut on Alex Semin ever wearing a Capitals jersey again. In light of GMGM willing to bring Fehr back, and a lot of ifs come into play, but if Semin's experience with Carolina doesn't work out and at that same time he's seeing how the Capitals play under Adam Oates, along with Ribeiro's play and resigning for next season, well anythings possible, including Semin wanting to rejoin the Caps and play along side Ribeiro.
He had the same number of shutouts as Brodeur, in half as many starts
Does anyone care how many shutouts a goalie has? Are shutouts an indication of a goalie's performance? Or the team's? Or dumb luck? Or a combination of the three?
Neuvirth's save % ranked among qualified starters:
I'm just not totally convinced that the door has been completely shut on Alex Semin ever wearing a Capitals jersey again. In light of GMGM willing to bring Fehr back, and a lot of ifs come into play, but if Semin's experience with Carolina doesn't work out and at that same time he's seeing how the Capitals play under Adam Oates, along with Ribeiro's play and resigning for next season, well anythings possible, including Semin wanting to rejoin the Caps and play along side Ribeiro.
Anyone worried about our chances this year because we have a noob coach, don't.
Bruce, had well documented over night success. Dale, first year without trying to score, not using his best players much, opposite style of Bruce, ignoring all players, got as far as Bruce in less than a year. Oates certainly will fall somewhere in between those 2 in terms of what he wants to do.
GMGM can go behind the bench if things don't work out.
We have Ovi, when used to his max RGIIIidness can carry the team himself.
Anyone worried about our chances this year because we have a noob coach, don't.
Bruce, had well documented over night success. Dale, first year without trying to score, not using his best players much, opposite style of Bruce, ignoring all players, got as far as Bruce in less than a year. Oates certainly will fall somewhere in between those 2 in terms of what he wants to do.
GMGM can go behind the bench if things don't work out.
We have Ovi, when used to his max RGIIIidness can carry the team himself.
Just as long as the guys that handle the ice at the Verizon Center are not the same guys that are responsible for turf management at FedEx.
1. Bryzgalov had a good March, but was underwhelming the rest of the year. Don't argue this point if you don't want to look stupid. He admitted as much. His teammates admitted as much. His management admitted as much. Philly did not sign him to that contract for him to have the year he had last year. If he has a repeat of that year he gets bought out this summer. Save this post if you don't believe me.
Of course there was higher expectations on him. Why wouldn't there be with that contract? However this still leaves the fact that Holmgren overpaid to get Bryz on the team. That was his fault, not Bryz. If we are going to make assumptions based on higher cap hits equaling higher performances then we just need to look on names like Gomez, Komisarek and Connolly to know large contracts doesn't necessarily equal better production.
Don't get me wrong, Bryz was far from impressive last season. However judging him based on one below expectations season, including the injury of Pronger and the bad play of their bottom pairing before Grossman was acquired, would be a mistake. Many players have had a bad year compared to what has been expected of them. Let this season pass, and then we will see if you are right. Maybe he underperforms and Philly buys him out. Maybe he plays well and they don't.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Halpysback
2. His performance against Pittsburgh absolutely counts as a valid argument. Varlamov had no better defense with him when he shone against Pittsburgh. Bryzgalov was hung out to dry on many goals but his lateral movement was Ray Emery bad and he let in a lot of easy, stoppable goals. I look at stats and all but in the end I let my eyes cast the final vote, and Bryzgalov was not playing good hockey no matter what his Save % was (which it was probably bad but I don't need to know to see that he was bad). Same with Fleury.
Which really just comes to show the mentality of that playoff series. Neither team did come out to play any defense, but instead went all in on offense. In those situations you always end up with lots of goals against, regardless of who is in the net.
Had the situation been different and one team had simply outscored the other game after game, your argument would IMO have been valid. This series was not one of those cases. Both teams focused entirely on offense, hanging their goalies out to dry.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Halpysback
Teams that have tons of money locked up in a few players:
Pittsburgh (Crosby 8.7, Malkin 8.7, Neal 5, Fleury 5, Martin 5, and they were gonna give Staal 5.5 for life)
LA Kings (Kopitar 6.7, Doughty 7, Quick 5.5, Richards 5.75, Carter 5.3, then a ton of players making 3.5-4)
San Jose Sharks (Thornton 7, Marleau 6.9, Boyle 6.66, Burns 5.75, Havlat 5, Pavelski/Niemi close to 4)
Detroit Red Wings during their dominant post lockout cup runs (Datsyuk 6.7, Lidstrom 7.5, Rafalski 6. Hossa 7 for one year, Zetterberg bumping up to 6. Tons of players in the 3-4 range)
Cup Finals Flyers (Richards 5.75, Carter 5, Briere 6.7, Pronger 6.25, Gagne 5, Hartnell 4.25, Timonen 6.7 I believe)
Cup winning Hawks (Campell 7, Hossa 5.3, Huet 5.5 (total waste) a ton of 3 million + players). Had both Huet and Khabibulin the year before when they want to the WCF.
Cup winning Bruins (Chara, Thomas, Lucic, Horton, Krejci, Bergeron)
Cup finalist Canucks (Sedin, Sedin, Kesler, Hamhius, Bieksa, Luongo)
This year's paper cup winner Rangers (Nash 7.8, Gaborik 7.5, Richards 6.7, Callahan 4.5, Lundqvist 6, Staal, Girardi 4, Drury/Redden buyout like 4). Plus their crappy role players are overpaid since it's Sather.
Neal was not on the Penguins roster that won the Stanley Cup.
The cup winning Hawks got into cap hell following their Stanley Cup title and had to part with names like Versteeg, Byfuglien, Ladd and Campbell. I rather not see that happen to the Caps.
The Canucks roster did indeed reach the final, but failed miserably in the deciding game, coming to show that stars alone does not win games, but players who find their game at the right time does.
Just a few examples.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Halpysback
Either way, I'd think if we did this we'd have Benn signed for 8 years/5.75 cap hit and O'Reilly for 5 years 4.25 cap hit. Very manageable. We have Ward, Schultz and Laich combined making more. Let that sink in.
Laich is a very popular player in DC. That's more than enough to justify his cap hit compared to other contracts around the NHL. That does not mean that both Benn and O'Reilly could become as popular if not more so if acquired.
Dallas is not rebuilding anymore. They need NHL players, not prospects. If we were to acquire Benn, one of Carlson, Alzner or Holtby would have to go back. I would not be willing to part with any of these three pieces to get Benn.
O'Reilly could be had, but would not work out for us. He would just get traded from one team where he has to play third line minutes, because of Duchene and Statsny being above him on the depth chart to DC where he would be behind Backy and Ribs.
I doubt GMGM would like either O'Reilly or Ribs playing third line minutes. That's just a waste of team resources, especially when both players does best at center opposed to the wing.
I do however have a proposition for you to solve our Schultz problem. How about you and me hire a chopper. We kidnap Jeff and drops him in the middle of the forest, where he will be forced to wrestle with hungry bears.
If he vanishes, we don't have to worry about his cap hit. If he returns, well in that case we will actually have a D-man who actually knows how to use his size to his advantage, destroying any opposition that defies us. Are you in?
I don't see Neuvirth regressing. He's played about as poorly as an NHL goaltender can. Any worse and it's AHL time.
Wow talk about exaggeration.....
__________________
George McPhee....The Teflon GM. 15 years of failure and counting....
6 - Number of playoff series the Capitals have won since George McPhee took over as General Manager in 1997 (which makes him the third-longest-tenured GM in the League), three of which came in McPhee's first season on the job.
Save % doesn't stand on it's own either. Guy gives up 1 goal on 9 shots and wins the game, and his save % sucks, but what ends up mattering? The win/loss and that's it.
Save % doesn't stand on it's own either. Guy gives up 1 goal on 9 shots and wins the game, and his save % sucks, but what ends up mattering? The win/loss and that's it.
Does anyone care how many shutouts a goalie has? Are shutouts an indication of a goalie's performance? Or the team's? Or dumb luck? Or a combination of the three?
Neuvirth's save % ranked among qualified starters:
2012 - 37
2011 - 25
Like I said, any worse and it's AHL time.
there are 60 goalies in the league, it unreasonable to expect a backup to be in the top 30. hes one of the better backups in the league and thats all we need him to be
Save % doesn't stand on it's own either. Guy gives up 1 goal on 9 shots and wins the game, and his save % sucks, but what ends up mattering? The win/loss and that's it.
You win or lose as a team. Evaluating a goalie by wins is as stupid as evaluating a starting pitcher by wins.
If you want to evaluate a goalie in a vacuum, Save % is the best way I know of to do it. Is it perfect, no, but it's the best I know of.
You win or lose as a team. Evaluating a goalie by wins is as stupid as evaluating a starting pitcher by wins.
If you want to evaluate a goalie in a vacuum, Save % is the best way to do it. Is it perfect, no, but it's the best I know of.
I didn't say you evaluate a goalie by wins alone did I? You're the one standing on save % alone....I simply pointed out what we all know...that it doesn't stand on its own any more than wins or any other single stat.
