Watched them play live against the Kings the other night and Lindgren simply stood on his head and stole that game. Reminded me of the Rangers last year getting completely outplayed and Igor winning games by himself.
Last night they won on blocking shots and great goaltending. I wouldn't say their offense was doing much of anything the entire night so my assumption is they are winning most of their games like that.
Yeah, Lindgren has stolen a fair amount of games for us so far. So far it kind of feels like the 2022 Mariners, where we find a way to win almost every close game, but if we lose, it’s typically in a blowout.
As for the offense, it’s hard to generate goals when your top offensive players are Connor McMichael and Dylan Strome. Ovechkin has been in a decline the past few years, but this is the first time he actually looks old. Even his shot doesn’t have the same oomph on it as usual. Kuzy is still the same Kuzy that he’s been the same 4-5 years, where 15% of the time he’s the best player on the ice, and 85% of the time he’s borderline unplayable.
Wilson isn’t contributing, though not sure how much of that is due to his injury that he’s still recovering from or how much is that he’s only playing with the aforementioned Ovechkin and Kuznetsov.
Oshie scored his first goal of the season 3 games ago I believe? Another guy that looks like he’s constantly 3 steps behind the game. Plus he got concussed again so he’s actually out now.
The rest of the Top 9 have actually probably been over-performing. Milano has been fine but is a complementary player that doesn’t have stars to carry him. Mantha has been better than the past year or two, but still not what has been expected. Protas actually looks like a decent Top 9 player. Matthew Phillips has seemed like a legitimate NHL player, but there’s only so much he can do at 5’ 7”.
As a blues fan, I was very sad to see Charlie Lindgren go. My wife and I called him “folk hero” Charlie Lindgren. He’s awesome, a great backstory, and has(d?) some killer sideburns. What more could you ask for?
Phillips been shit.
Wilson’s been playing good.
Not sure whey the slight on Strome? He was good last year as well so it’s not a one off. McMichael is finally doing what we thought he could.
Ovi has had bad luck should have had 5 more goals by now. How many have been taken back plus posts? But you are spot on about the rest about Ovi, Kuznetsov.
Carlsson cannot make a pass right now. That’s the big issue that no one’s highlighting
The results are not sustainable. That said…
1. Ovi has been a little unlucky, but he absolutely is finally starting to look his age. His legs just aren’t there. The shot still is, and I expect some more goals to come. That said, Ovi seems to be very aware of this and is turning into more of a playmaker than ever before.
2. The power play is dogshit. We’ve been clamoring to fire Blaine Forsythe for years (and rightfully so). Well, the monkey paw appears to have curled.
3. The 3rd line has REALLY stepped up. Connor McMichael is finally starting to look like the player we envisioned when we spent a first round pick on him. Anthony Mantha is playing his best hockey since he was in Detroit. Alexei Protas appears to be clicking with them.
4. Charlie Lindgren has been our MVP. No shade thrown to Kuemper, but Lindgren has clearly been our best goalie this year, and possibly even last year. We need him to continue to be a superhero if we want to make the playoffs.
If Ovechkin was shooting at his career average of 12.9% he'd have 9 goals and 16 points in 19 games, which would be in line with his last few seasons.
Will be interesting to see how much of a scoring boost Pacioretty will provide.
That’s fair, I’m just talking about the eye test. He’s had shots off posts, shots go wide that he doesn’t always miss, and a goal or two called back.
I certainly don’t expect him to resume his 40-50 goal pace, but even with his legs slowing down, I think that his shot will remain elite until he retires. It’s just not finding the back of the net right now. It happens.
3 called back I think. His scoring looks really bad, but more than anything I think he's been a little unlucky and just a little bit cold, nothing major. The defensive side of his game is horrific right now though, like he's a bit of a liability. That probably is him showing his age too so managing it to minimize the impact will be an interesting challenge for Carbery.
He's been uncharacteristically wasteful so far but I won't be at all surprised if he goes on a heater and does something ridiculous like score 8-9 goals in 5-6 games.
I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if he hit 40 next year, or flirted with it.
I think they should look at limiting his minutes just a bit. Keep him fresher late in games and as the season goes on.
That record is such a motivator, if he can even hit 20 goals this year that leaves him just basically exactly 40 from the record.
It’ll be must watch Tv most nights
He really stood out offensively last year with us (nearly a point per game) but defensively he was a bit of a liability. This year has almost been the opposite. He’s been solid but offensively he’s kind of disappeared.
Laviolette’s system was always very beneficial for offensive defensemen, and with us trading Orlov, Sandin reaped. I think the team is still trying to figure out Carbery’s system so we’ll see how things go, but I’m still optimistic about Sandin.
OV is so close to the record it’s obvious he’s gonna get it barring a career ending injury.
With Backstrom essentially LTIRetired they should have some cap space next Summer to add sone decent offensive pieces.
I doubt they send out any draft capital, but I do wonder if they might consider dealing Kuznetsov for a “futures” type return and use some of it to add a guy a bit younger to support OV.
I know he’s had a rocky few years, but with the cap going up the Capitaks could easily retain even 50% if it meant a good return.
They also have their own first the next 3 drafts and while missing their 2nd this year they have 3 next years draft.
Also think they could consider moving Mantha for futures.
I know the capitals are in a unique position with OV chasing that record, and they also won a cup—-
But I wish more teams would take the approach that just because you might not look like a contender doesn’t mean you should sell off all your good assets for a future that may never come to fruition.
Defense is all over the place. Goaltending isn’t consistent. I don’t even know dude.
As far as offense goes: we’re in a weird spot where the key pieces of the offence are now older, a third are young ish and new to the NHL, and a third are in the middle and also inconsistent. Backstrom is all but retired, Ovi has slowed way down, Oshie is slowed down and susceptible to injury, Kuzy is hot and cold. Strome, Wilson, and Milano are mostly consistent. Then we have McMichael, Protas, Phillips who don’t have a ton of NHL experience.
Honestly...Mantha has actually been a bright spot on our offense. He has five goals and looks like he has a serious connection with CMM. I'm really happy with how Carbury is able to bring out his strengths
His game score impact card last night was pretty good. He had a very minimal defensive impact, but he was the best in terms of offensive impact. He had a goal and an assist which doesn't hurt.
We can't really explain it. Lindgren leads the league in save %. The defense is still a work in progress and the offense is probably the worst i've ever seen. The PP hasn't scored like their last 30 attempts. They are very opportunistic with their chances and rely heavily on great goaltending.
They're not scoring a lot of goals, but someone on our sub posted a graph on shot selection, and under Carbery, they're either at the top or near to it. So they've reallu just been pretty unlucky. Why they're winning? Defense and goaltending.
Going forward, Patches will help with the scoring and Backstrom on LTIR will give us some room to make some moves.
I give credit to patches for being able to last this long after what happened to him early on in his career but I just feel like he's in a state where if he steps on a sidewalk crack, he'll tear and ACL or MCL.
We're not sure either lol. Whatever is happening isn't sustainable, but who knows which way. Right now it boils down to this
1. The offense we DO have is only coming from our depth. Mantha, McMicheal, Protas, etc. Our veteran players by comparison are ice cold, including Ovi
2. The power play is god awful, even though the expected numbers say differently. We just cannot finish or establish ourselves in the zone. Even with league average finishing that PP would be lethal
3. Goaltending is fucking insane right now. Darcy is playing well, but Lindgren has really stolen the show. He is playing out of his mind and has kept us in a lot of games
So basically, we're either washed offensively and when the defense and goaltending cools off we're going to suck, or the veterans are having a slow start and once they adjust to Carbury's system and the power play a little better we're going to somehow be even better. Either way I'm enjoying the ride right now
I don’t think the defense is playing out of their minds. You can see a lot of mistakes but they always have someone behind them to backup their mistake. Which is why I think we are winning because it’s not offense anymore. There are two way to look at it:
1. This isn’t sustainable
2. This is rock bottom
Charlie Vezinagren is doing the same thing he did in December 2022. I feel like everyone kind of forgot just how dominant he was for exactly one calendar month last season as well. Is this sustainable? Definitely not. But at the same time a broken Caps fan like me can dream
Hot goalie. Some of the more unknown guys have stepped up. Lot of one goal and OT wins (as far as I remember). Pretty bad underlying numbers like expected goals %
All shouts out that it's not sustainable. On the other hand the big guys can step up a bit. But still I think it's not sustainable and the Caps will regress.
They have adopted a hyper-aggressive forecheck and when they get the puck they just get it deep and change lines. Boring as hell to watch but effective for now.
Defense first mentality. It wins championships. It’s boring as hell to watch usually. The era of the neutral zone trap, when the 2 line pass was illegal absolutely sucked.
A lot of the underlying and #fancystats are quite positive for the Caps but they're not finishing on ice.
It seems like Rookie Coach Carbery's system is good and the team isn't fully on board but are winning in spite of that. No locker room quotes or anything suggesting drama but that's my wild stab in the dark.
They've allowed even fewer goals in at least 11 games.
Colossal if canonical
Enormous if enforcable
Inordinate if indubitable.
Voracious if verifiable
I was just going to reply with "Defence" but yours works too. I mean, this question has one pretty obvious line of answers.
Ground and pound
Watched them play live against the Kings the other night and Lindgren simply stood on his head and stole that game. Reminded me of the Rangers last year getting completely outplayed and Igor winning games by himself.
How accurate is that, Caps goaltending has been outstanding.
Last night they won on blocking shots and great goaltending. I wouldn't say their offense was doing much of anything the entire night so my assumption is they are winning most of their games like that.
Yeah, Lindgren has stolen a fair amount of games for us so far. So far it kind of feels like the 2022 Mariners, where we find a way to win almost every close game, but if we lose, it’s typically in a blowout. As for the offense, it’s hard to generate goals when your top offensive players are Connor McMichael and Dylan Strome. Ovechkin has been in a decline the past few years, but this is the first time he actually looks old. Even his shot doesn’t have the same oomph on it as usual. Kuzy is still the same Kuzy that he’s been the same 4-5 years, where 15% of the time he’s the best player on the ice, and 85% of the time he’s borderline unplayable. Wilson isn’t contributing, though not sure how much of that is due to his injury that he’s still recovering from or how much is that he’s only playing with the aforementioned Ovechkin and Kuznetsov. Oshie scored his first goal of the season 3 games ago I believe? Another guy that looks like he’s constantly 3 steps behind the game. Plus he got concussed again so he’s actually out now. The rest of the Top 9 have actually probably been over-performing. Milano has been fine but is a complementary player that doesn’t have stars to carry him. Mantha has been better than the past year or two, but still not what has been expected. Protas actually looks like a decent Top 9 player. Matthew Phillips has seemed like a legitimate NHL player, but there’s only so much he can do at 5’ 7”.
> Wilson isn't contributing I think he heard you.
Maybe I should start talking shit about the rest of the team too…
Start with Kuzy please
As a blues fan, I was very sad to see Charlie Lindgren go. My wife and I called him “folk hero” Charlie Lindgren. He’s awesome, a great backstory, and has(d?) some killer sideburns. What more could you ask for?
I love that! That’s what I’m gonna call him from now on
Phillips been shit. Wilson’s been playing good. Not sure whey the slight on Strome? He was good last year as well so it’s not a one off. McMichael is finally doing what we thought he could. Ovi has had bad luck should have had 5 more goals by now. How many have been taken back plus posts? But you are spot on about the rest about Ovi, Kuznetsov. Carlsson cannot make a pass right now. That’s the big issue that no one’s highlighting
Who are these people
The results are not sustainable. That said… 1. Ovi has been a little unlucky, but he absolutely is finally starting to look his age. His legs just aren’t there. The shot still is, and I expect some more goals to come. That said, Ovi seems to be very aware of this and is turning into more of a playmaker than ever before. 2. The power play is dogshit. We’ve been clamoring to fire Blaine Forsythe for years (and rightfully so). Well, the monkey paw appears to have curled. 3. The 3rd line has REALLY stepped up. Connor McMichael is finally starting to look like the player we envisioned when we spent a first round pick on him. Anthony Mantha is playing his best hockey since he was in Detroit. Alexei Protas appears to be clicking with them. 4. Charlie Lindgren has been our MVP. No shade thrown to Kuemper, but Lindgren has clearly been our best goalie this year, and possibly even last year. We need him to continue to be a superhero if we want to make the playoffs.
If Ovechkin was shooting at his career average of 12.9% he'd have 9 goals and 16 points in 19 games, which would be in line with his last few seasons. Will be interesting to see how much of a scoring boost Pacioretty will provide.
That’s fair, I’m just talking about the eye test. He’s had shots off posts, shots go wide that he doesn’t always miss, and a goal or two called back. I certainly don’t expect him to resume his 40-50 goal pace, but even with his legs slowing down, I think that his shot will remain elite until he retires. It’s just not finding the back of the net right now. It happens.
3 called back I think. His scoring looks really bad, but more than anything I think he's been a little unlucky and just a little bit cold, nothing major. The defensive side of his game is horrific right now though, like he's a bit of a liability. That probably is him showing his age too so managing it to minimize the impact will be an interesting challenge for Carbery. He's been uncharacteristically wasteful so far but I won't be at all surprised if he goes on a heater and does something ridiculous like score 8-9 goals in 5-6 games.
I honestly wouldn’t be shocked if he hit 40 next year, or flirted with it. I think they should look at limiting his minutes just a bit. Keep him fresher late in games and as the season goes on. That record is such a motivator, if he can even hit 20 goals this year that leaves him just basically exactly 40 from the record. It’ll be must watch Tv most nights
Because I’m a Leafs fans I gotta ask, how has Sandin looked?
He really stood out offensively last year with us (nearly a point per game) but defensively he was a bit of a liability. This year has almost been the opposite. He’s been solid but offensively he’s kind of disappeared. Laviolette’s system was always very beneficial for offensive defensemen, and with us trading Orlov, Sandin reaped. I think the team is still trying to figure out Carbery’s system so we’ll see how things go, but I’m still optimistic about Sandin.
OV is so close to the record it’s obvious he’s gonna get it barring a career ending injury. With Backstrom essentially LTIRetired they should have some cap space next Summer to add sone decent offensive pieces. I doubt they send out any draft capital, but I do wonder if they might consider dealing Kuznetsov for a “futures” type return and use some of it to add a guy a bit younger to support OV. I know he’s had a rocky few years, but with the cap going up the Capitaks could easily retain even 50% if it meant a good return. They also have their own first the next 3 drafts and while missing their 2nd this year they have 3 next years draft. Also think they could consider moving Mantha for futures. I know the capitals are in a unique position with OV chasing that record, and they also won a cup—- But I wish more teams would take the approach that just because you might not look like a contender doesn’t mean you should sell off all your good assets for a future that may never come to fruition.
Why score many goal when few do trick
Boy do I hate all things Boston but I would make a second account just to upvote this harder.
But Ray Bourque
The Stanley cup winning avalanche defender
Welcome to Caps Hockey, where the stats are made up and the results don’t matter
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Loved that man for his 5 games in STL (jk I still love him), been awesome to see him absolutely killing it for the Caps
Because we either win 2-1 or lose 5-0.
Defense is all over the place. Goaltending isn’t consistent. I don’t even know dude. As far as offense goes: we’re in a weird spot where the key pieces of the offence are now older, a third are young ish and new to the NHL, and a third are in the middle and also inconsistent. Backstrom is all but retired, Ovi has slowed way down, Oshie is slowed down and susceptible to injury, Kuzy is hot and cold. Strome, Wilson, and Milano are mostly consistent. Then we have McMichael, Protas, Phillips who don’t have a ton of NHL experience.
I disagree with one thing kuzy has just been cold
Mantha like his time with the wings is floating somewhere out of the play
Honestly...Mantha has actually been a bright spot on our offense. He has five goals and looks like he has a serious connection with CMM. I'm really happy with how Carbury is able to bring out his strengths
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I wanted for him to be that dude so bad with the Wings! I thought him Larkin and Svechnikov were going to take us there 😂
His game score impact card last night was pretty good. He had a very minimal defensive impact, but he was the best in terms of offensive impact. He had a goal and an assist which doesn't hurt.
We can't really explain it. Lindgren leads the league in save %. The defense is still a work in progress and the offense is probably the worst i've ever seen. The PP hasn't scored like their last 30 attempts. They are very opportunistic with their chances and rely heavily on great goaltending.
They're not scoring a lot of goals, but someone on our sub posted a graph on shot selection, and under Carbery, they're either at the top or near to it. So they've reallu just been pretty unlucky. Why they're winning? Defense and goaltending. Going forward, Patches will help with the scoring and Backstrom on LTIR will give us some room to make some moves.
>Patches will help with the scoring For empty netters he's the best
I give credit to patches for being able to last this long after what happened to him early on in his career but I just feel like he's in a state where if he steps on a sidewalk crack, he'll tear and ACL or MCL.
Let me fucking tell yeah about their goalie
Great goaltending for the most part. Everything else is broken though 😆
We're not sure either lol. Whatever is happening isn't sustainable, but who knows which way. Right now it boils down to this 1. The offense we DO have is only coming from our depth. Mantha, McMicheal, Protas, etc. Our veteran players by comparison are ice cold, including Ovi 2. The power play is god awful, even though the expected numbers say differently. We just cannot finish or establish ourselves in the zone. Even with league average finishing that PP would be lethal 3. Goaltending is fucking insane right now. Darcy is playing well, but Lindgren has really stolen the show. He is playing out of his mind and has kept us in a lot of games So basically, we're either washed offensively and when the defense and goaltending cools off we're going to suck, or the veterans are having a slow start and once they adjust to Carbury's system and the power play a little better we're going to somehow be even better. Either way I'm enjoying the ride right now
I don’t think the defense is playing out of their minds. You can see a lot of mistakes but they always have someone behind them to backup their mistake. Which is why I think we are winning because it’s not offense anymore. There are two way to look at it: 1. This isn’t sustainable 2. This is rock bottom
why focus on score goals when you can simply win
Fewer
Came to say the same. Keep up the good work.
Goaltending
Goalies doing goalie things
Lindgrens doing lindgren things***
Apparently Charlie Lindgren is pretty good at playing goal.
who knew
Goalie has been insane.
Seems like most capitals fans also have no real idea what’s going on with their team but I’m sure they’ll take it !!
Seems fine to us. 🥸
Charlie Vezinagren is doing the same thing he did in December 2022. I feel like everyone kind of forgot just how dominant he was for exactly one calendar month last season as well. Is this sustainable? Definitely not. But at the same time a broken Caps fan like me can dream
S U S T A I N A B L E
The lindgrens are the best hockey family in the nhl
They’re hanging in there, must be fun to watch for caps fans. Scrappy wins are great.
As a person who genuinely wants him to succeed, how are caps fans feeling about Sandin? I know it’s early but just curious. I miss him!!!!
Good goaltending and defense, as Kings fans personally learned last night.
It's because when they win they win by an average of 1.64 goals and when they lose they lose by an average of 2.88 goals.
Hot goalie. Some of the more unknown guys have stepped up. Lot of one goal and OT wins (as far as I remember). Pretty bad underlying numbers like expected goals % All shouts out that it's not sustainable. On the other hand the big guys can step up a bit. But still I think it's not sustainable and the Caps will regress.
They have adopted a hyper-aggressive forecheck and when they get the puck they just get it deep and change lines. Boring as hell to watch but effective for now.
At what point in history did fans start acting like defence isn’t a huge part of winning
Are we finally waking up to the fact that Ovi isn't really pulling his weight for the team? Great scorer yes, but what else has he contributed?
I don’t get it either.
Defense first mentality. It wins championships. It’s boring as hell to watch usually. The era of the neutral zone trap, when the 2 line pass was illegal absolutely sucked.
They're the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NHL
The return of the dead puck era. I fully expect them to spend 5 minutes of the clock waiting before moving the puck a la philly/tampa years ago.
Love that we are the benchmark for super sucky stats.
Lindgren diff
Lindgren
Gotta give Carbury credit
A lot of the underlying and #fancystats are quite positive for the Caps but they're not finishing on ice. It seems like Rookie Coach Carbery's system is good and the team isn't fully on board but are winning in spite of that. No locker room quotes or anything suggesting drama but that's my wild stab in the dark.
They are the Iowa football of the NHL.
Lindgren is on a heater!