Actually the Avs defense has been a strength, particularly the penalty kill. If that continues they'll be in a lot of games.
Their defense has definitely improved, and their added size has been a boon around the net. But a lot of their good defensive play is a result of Sacco forcing a more defensive, grinding system from their forwards. That's also contributed to their low offensive output against everyone but loltawa. Varly's playing well enough that I think they should open it up a bit more and see if he can manage to keep them in games while they actually score some goals.
Losing battle here posting on the caps board with this. Caps fans are naturally going to root for a Nordiques fail this season.
/common sense.
And that makes perfect sense. But the fact remains that for now we're actually playing not incompetent hockey. Root for the wheels to come off all you want but it's kinda annoying when people rooting for you to fail start claiming the wheels are falling off before they've fallen off is all. Don't mean to be prying on your board...or for that first sentence to read as confrontationally as it appears in text, just saw your post and thought there's a civil way to go about this thing, cause as an Avs fan it's nice to have another teams' fan base to be following your team, even if it's just to see you lose. You get an outside perspective that it's tough to get for a young unproven team so long as people aren't letting their hopes bias their eyes too much.
Huh? Detroit beat the Avs fairly well. Didn't flatten them but the Wings had things in hand for over half the game. How does beating Boston 1-0 with Varly standing on his head in the 3rd not squeaking a victory out? Bruins turned the Avs defense into swiss cheese in the 3rd and Varly bailed them out. Not to mention Boston isn't playing that great at all. 3-2 in a SO against a very bad Columbus team? Avs are not a bottom 3 team unless they need to bring in all Erie's roster for whatever crazy reason, but a bottom 4-10 is just as likely as a fringe playoff team.
See this is the thing that bugs avs fans. Varly didn't stand on his head for that Boston win. He made a number of good saves but no more than Rask did at the other end. Boston had a couple really good chances that Varly stoned, but the Avs had plenty of their own chances at the other end. The Avs didn't accidentally out shoot Boston... *shrug* And while they're not playing their best hockey neither are the avs, it's early in the season, that's what happens.
Against Columbus the Avs had their worst game, again they missed too many chances that they should've buried, and it looked like it was going to kill them again like the detroit game except it was the Avs who rallied and dominate the final 10-15 minutes of play culminating in Lando's first goal to tie things up late.
As for the Detroit game you're right, that the Red Wings took that game over in the third and got those 2 unstoppable goals they needed to win, but that's a very good veteran team that we had a lot of opportunities to run out to a lead against early in the game where Conklin robbed us a number of times.
If some of those pucks bounce the other way do the young Avs still slip up to the more experienced Red Wings. Can't really say because the facts our we were playing really well and then they out played us, what could've happened doesn't really matter so what remains is that the Avs have been playing pretty good defense so far this year, the third line is killing it, Varly's starting well and the Avs have left a lot of goals on the ice. Where things go from here is the fun part.
I'm still confided it will be 4-10 the pick that is. Off the top of my head detroit vancouver la chicago san jose nashville anaheim and then there probably about equal with st louis columbus and minny dallas probably being better than edmonton phoenixl
See this is the thing that bugs avs fans. Varly didn't stand on his head for that Boston win. He made a number of good saves but no more than Rask did at the other end. Boston had a couple really good chances that Varly stoned, but the Avs had plenty of their own chances at the other end. The Avs didn't accidentally out shoot Boston... *shrug* And while they're not playing their best hockey neither are the avs, it's early in the season, that's what happens.
Against Columbus the Avs had their worst game, again they missed too many chances that they should've buried, and it looked like it was going to kill them again like the detroit game except it was the Avs who rallied and dominate the final 10-15 minutes of play culminating in Lando's first goal to tie things up late.
As for the Detroit game you're right, that the Red Wings took that game over in the third and got those 2 unstoppable goals they needed to win, but that's a very good veteran team that we had a lot of opportunities to run out to a lead against early in the game where Conklin robbed us a number of times.
If some of those pucks bounce the other way do the young Avs still slip up to the more experienced Red Wings. Can't really say because the facts our we were playing really well and then they out played us, what could've happened doesn't really matter so what remains is that the Avs have been playing pretty good defense so far this year, the third line is killing it, Varly's starting well and the Avs have left a lot of goals on the ice. Where things go from here is the fun part.
Seeing all but the lolatowa game. The boston game they lucked out when the ref set a pick for the boston defenseman. This isnt a biased opinion this is what happened. Colombus just collapsed in the third probably because they played like 4 games in 6 days. They were just absolutely terrible in the third after more or less wining the first two periods. Obviously the played well in the ottawa and that team I think is going to worst in the league.
Yes we want to see the avs lose.Yes we want to think that the wheels are "falling off" and it probably will cloud our judgement. But so what? The avs records in the last seasons cause the burden of proof is to be put solely on that team to show they aint terrible anymore.
Seeing all but the lolatowa game. The boston game they lucked out when the ref set a pick for the boston defenseman. This isnt a biased opinion this is what happened. Colombus just collapsed in the third probably because they played like 4 games in 6 days. They were just absolutely terrible in the third after more or less wining the first two periods. Obviously the played well in the ottawa and that team I think is going to worst in the league.
Yes we want to see the avs lose.Yes we want to think that the wheels are "falling off" and it probably will cloud our judgement. But so what? The avs records in the last seasons cause the burden of proof is to be put solely on that team to show they aint terrible anymore.
I suppose it doesn't count when Avs lose scoring chances because their players run into the refs to right? And in the Columbus game the avs should've been up 4-1 heading into the third if they could hit an open net that day. The team didn't play great but they generated chances that will go in more often than not while playing strong D yet again. The team's looking solid so far in this early season with things they need to improve that are likely to improve.
As for the Avs previous record I don't really agree. If you look at the past 2 years we've been playoff caliber for 1.5. Before then we didn't have any of our current players outside of Staz, Hejduk, Galiardi, McCleod and Ryan Wilson. So everyone except for our 1b center, one of our top 6 wingers, 2 4th liners and our worst defensemen weren't part of the team 3 years ago. Granted the Avs tank was epically successful last season, but for most of Duchene and Radar's tenures this has been a .500 and up team. The sample size too small to say definitely but I definitely disagree with the notion that the onus is on the Avs to prove they don't suck moreso than on any other young team that didn't make noise in the playoffs last term.
Just looking to have some good hockey talk with fans of a team I like that have a reason to keep tabs on my team.
Seeing all but the lolatowa game. The boston game they lucked out when the ref set a pick for the boston defenseman. This isnt a biased opinion this is what happened. Colombus just collapsed in the third probably because they played like 4 games in 6 days. They were just absolutely terrible in the third after more or less wining the first two periods. Obviously the played well in the ottawa and that team I think is going to worst in the league.
Yes we want to see the avs lose.Yes we want to think that the wheels are "falling off" and it probably will cloud our judgement. But so what? The avs records in the last seasons cause the burden of proof is to be put solely on that team to show they aint terrible anymore.
Genuine questions, please don't take as trolling:
1. What do you think of the avs offense after the Habs game? Admittedly, both teams' defense were terrible at times, and Price looked very shaky.
2. What happened to you guys in your Ottawa game? Was there some circumstance that I'm not aware of (top scorers playing badly, consecutive games, etc.) that made it a one-goal game?
3. How does Ovi look (not his statline; his actual play)? I'm really pulling for him this year to reinstate himself as equal to or better than Crosby.
He gave a lot of blood (literally) for this organization and stood up for alot of players and took beatdowns because of it. I wish we had room for him on the team and he was nothing but a good trooper here.
I think he is a classy guy who just said things he regretted.
looks like the malkin is a monster this season has hit a solid bump in the road already. it takes at least a full year if not 18 months to recover fully from that surgery.
re brads: who knows. he might have hit the wall with his ability to deal with being asked about it at every stop he makes in the nhl. maybe this was an attempt to nip the questions in the bud coming for the game tomorrow. maybe he simply was smarting a little bit that he was not retained in washington when he said what he said and realizes he built some real good friendships in washington that he wants to keep after hockey. that includes a relationship with the team. up to his comments brads might have been considered highly for a scouting or coaching job when he left his playing days behind.
looks like the malkin is a monster this season has hit a solid bump in the road already. it takes at least a full year if not 18 months to recover fully from that surgery.
yeah I thought it was a little crazy to come back so soon. Would have thought it was in Pens best interests to keep both 87 and 71 out til Jan. Obviously unless they cratered and needed their production. But if they could just hang into the race, they'd be better off waiting.
1. What do you think of the avs offense after the Habs game? Admittedly, both teams' defense were terrible at times, and Price looked very shaky.
2. What happened to you guys in your Ottawa game? Was there some circumstance that I'm not aware of (top scorers playing badly, consecutive games, etc.) that made it a one-goal game?
3. How does Ovi look (not his statline; his actual play)? I'm really pulling for him this year to reinstate himself as equal to or better than Crosby.
Thanks
'
The avs games i missed (sens habs(watching the caps game)) but the habs are a quality team. Probably their highest quality win. Even with the bruins usual lack of scoring shutting them out at home is impressive from a west coastish team. Ill probably watch tonights avs game.
We scored 2 goals, and called it a game halfway through the first. Caps are the best at backing into victories. Soo many mistakes + soo much talent.
Ovy has looked bad, real bad. He's making bad decisions and starting to get frustrated. A lot of people think that once he reigned in his physicality his game dropped off massively (myself included). I think hes frustrated with that and maybe he will go back to the dominate physical force he used to be.
I still think (hope) that some adversity will unravel them hard.
1. What do you think of the avs offense after the Habs game? Admittedly, both teams' defense were terrible at times, and Price looked very shaky.
2. What happened to you guys in your Ottawa game? Was there some circumstance that I'm not aware of (top scorers playing badly, consecutive games, etc.) that made it a one-goal game?
3. How does Ovi look (not his statline; his actual play)? I'm really pulling for him this year to reinstate himself as equal to or better than Crosby.
Thanks
1. Didn't see the game. Just the highlights. Avs are playing pretty well in the early going so it seems, but they are a very young and fragile team and those kinds of teams (the Caps pre Boudreau) tend to have things fall apart at the seems when there is a downturn and can't recover. The flood gates open.
2. Caps did not play well vs Ottawa and in fact have yet to play a full 60 minute honest game. That said they are 4-0 and if they start playing 60 minute games not sure there is a team in the league that can beat them.
3. Ovechkin needs to produce and play more consistently. He, like the team, has struggled to play a 60 minute game. But again..we are 4-0 with Ovechkin only registering 2pts. Caps are a very deep and talented team. Crosby is the best player in the world but who knows if he will be the next Lindros?
He should have stuck by what he said. Chicken ****.
I don't think so. He is buddies with lots of the guys on the team and were I him I would have apologized too no matter how convicted I was in my beliefs..in other words IF he felt that way truly then he should have kept those thoughts to himself.
But beyond that...sometimes we all say things we don't mean which we regret and wish we could take back within a minute of saying it. I think this is one of those cases.
Not surprised at all. Taking shots at former teammates is poor form usually, no matter how true.
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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.
And in the Columbus game the avs should've been up 4-1 heading into the third if they could hit an open net that day. The team didn't play great but they generated chances that will go in more often than not while playing strong D yet again. The team's looking solid so far in this early season with things they need to improve that are likely to improve.
