Bad performance; lack of energy; and listless is a good description of our play.
Today is the trade deadline. It is doubtful we will do anything big as we do not want to alter the core of our team and trade away developing and fine young players for players that can be considered rentals.
The angst around the deadline is overblown and I am hopeful that this pending decision making hasn’t been the root cause of the state of play of late.
I think it is a simple issue, just determination and hard work. The teams we are playing are fighting for playoff standings points. They are desperate and they need the wins. We have lost some of our edge mostly from a psychological standing. It is a long season. We are having a harder time getting up for games.
This is dangerous as we can’t fall into the trap of thinking we are better than we are and that we can turn it on and off at will. We have a great coaching staff and talented vet players in the locker room. We will turn it around ASAP as there is still a lot of hockey left to play this season.
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Yeah, I’m not going to break out the calculator like my man up there.
I’ll just say that losing streakes happen in sports. Im sure the Caps will get over it and get back to winnning.
Also, good call on not trading anyone. It aint broke in Hershey and it certainly aint broke here.
40-20 is pretty good, better than we could have hoped for at the beginning of the year. At the same time a lot of the top teams added players without giving away the farm. I like the team and the current roster, but someone in the locker room needs to step up when Florida and Carolina make you look like slackers. It looks silly when people celebrate a goal after your competition, with old, creaky Rod Brind’amour score five in a row against you. Everyone should watch Semin in highlight reviews.
The last time the Capitals had a day off after a bad game was (drumroll, please)… 2/25, the day after the Flyers game where the visitors scored three times in just over three minutes to steal away a 2-0 lead. The result of the “day off”? Nearly the same thing happened to the Caps on Thursday night — but against the _Thrashers_.
Previous to that, the 2/20 Avs game, the players were subjected to an extremely strenuous practice on Saturday morning… and the game following that was the Penguins romp on NBC.
And James, I thought the same thing about how hard it was to come back from Boston and play again the next afternoon… but then I realized that the Panthers had played Saturday in New Jersey (with a bad loss); so much for the two-games-back-to-back excuse.
I’m hoping it was a fluke. If Theodore wasn’t feeling well, then it’s possibly some others are feeling a bit under the weather as well. Maybe they aren’t feeling so poorly as to be scratches, but it could explain the listlessness on the ice last night, and the passes and shots and clearing attempts that were all just a tick “off” all evening.
I agree that the players seem to be down a bit. But the blue line hasn’t been great all year. The Caps are 21st in the league in goals against. The goatending has been average at best. Theodore is 32nd in the league for goals against and 34th in save %. I feel that by not making move this year that it will be another 1 and done playoff run. I think the young players will develop but how can you ensure that all of your players will be healthy? Ovechkin is healthy now and minus the last two games is playing great. I feel that by not making a move will cost the team in the 1st round. My expectations this year are to make a good run into the playoffs. Now, I am not so sure. I sincerely hope I am wrong because I am a huge fan.
I just mentally noted this was the type of performance the team returned after being given a day off. (For future recall/comparison to the game after the next time they’re given a day off)
Semin is a notable exception. Semin had a great game last night in an otherwise forgettable game against the Hurricanes. So I started looking into just how well Semin is doing so far this season, and here’s what I found.
Amongst players who have played in at least 12 games this season, and who have recorded at least 1 point, Alexander Semin is, BY FAR, the most productive player in the entire NHL.
ESPN keeps track of a stat called PROD. This is the average number of minutes of time on the ice per point scored. So, unless you’re at 0:00, the idea here is the less PROD you have, the less ice time elapses between each point you get, and hence the more productive you are.
Alexander Semin’s PROD is at the top of the list and is currently 14:19. That is 8.50% better than the next most productive player Parise, 8.85% better than the third-most productive player Datsyuk, and 10.59% better than the fourth-most productive player and current points leader Malkin. Semin’s productivity is 21.30% better than 9th place Ovechkin.
Just for fun, I took a look at the top 50 players in terms of total points at even strength only, and divided their numbers by total time on ice at even strength. Again, the player at the top of the list is Alexander Semin, who has 4.16% more even strength points per even strength minute than second-place Malkin, 14.15% better than third-place Parise, and 26.98% better than 13th-place Ovechkin. (I took my numbers from the NHL’s website.)
And Semin is +27, which is 8th in the NHL, but if you take the top 25 in total +/-, and break it down per game, Semin is #1 on that list too, and, again, no one else on that list is even close. Semin is 6.39% better than 2nd place Duncan Keith and 13.83% better than 3rd place David Krejci in the +/- stat when broken down per game.
Numbers don’t always mean everything, but these kinds of numbers are insane. And clearly, by any measure, he was the best Capital on the ice last night.
I think that we played horribly over the past two games. However, coming off a great win over Boston in Boston and then having to come back to Verizon the next afternoon was tough. I am not making excuses, but that was a tall order. Also, the game last night had a twist as well. If it had been known the day before (during the day off) that Theodore was not going to play that would have helped the goaltending situation last night – more preparation – mentally, etc. But, sicknesses do come about and we need to be able to handle adversity much better.
I do not think that the fans should be booing or showing such disgust. Yes, we played terrible hockey, but we have played so good over the course of the year. Letdowns are part of any game. Let us take care of these issues now before the Playoffs and then start playing the hockey we are capable of playing. No team can beat us when we are at our best!
The team deserves are back – through the good and the bad. I guess we just have not had to go through this sort of thing this season until now. If we start to give up on them, then they in turn will start to doubt themselves. We are better than this – come on Caps fans let us always show our support no matter what – this is what being a team is all about – right?