Alexander Ovechkin and the collapse

[Dobber]

After reading the Toronto Sun story yesterday on how Ovechkin is to be blamed for the first-round loss, I was filled with something that could only be described as anger. Ovechkin is to blame? "Ovechkin is Russian for "no heart""?
Stupid.
I will grant you this - Ovechkin can be blamed for the Game 1 loss. That is all. And I guess that means, since they lost by one game, then technically the Caps would have moved on had Ovy been Ovy in Game 1. In that sense, the idiots are correct.
But I would not blame him or Bruce Boudreau for the series.
Ovechkin produced 1.51 points-per-game in the season and 1.43 in the playoffs. His playoff shot total would pro-rate to 349 over 72 games. In 72 games in the season he had 368. Prorated plus/minus is plus-51 vs. plus-45 in the regular season. He did everything that could be expected of him and more.
Who you should blame is the supporting cast. If you want heads to roll, sharpen the guillotine for Mike Green and Alex Semin. Green had 1.01 points-per-game in the season, but 0.43 in the playoffs. Had he managed just five points in seven games, the Caps would have won. And five points for Green would still be a disappointment. Alex Semin ZERO goals and TWO points in seven games? Again, had he managed just five measly points the Caps win the series.
Tomas Fleischmann was so bad (one point in six games) that he was scratched for Game 7.

Look a the team and be smart about how you judge it.
Ovechkin, Backstrom, Knuble, Fehr, Carlson, Pot, Bradley, Belanger all performed up to snuff.
Semin, Green, Fleischmann, Corvo, Morrison, Theodore were absolutely brutal.

Laich and Varlamov were "okay".

If I'm a Caps fan, I encourage the team to let some of those free agents walk. I encourage the trading of Semin, and as for Green I would encourage them to keep Green for three or four months until we see that Carlson is ready to take over (he will be) and then I move Green for a King's Ransom. Next year you enter the playoffs with support around Ovechkin and you'll go all the way.
An offensive coaching system can work. You just need heart.
I saw a lot of bragging coming from Washington backers about how this team is more than just Ovechkin. And so it's annoying to see those same backers actually blaming him for not getting them out of the first round. What garbage.

[mister_mcgoo]

That's all purely by the numbers Dobber but where's the heart? He's got that C on his jersey for a reason, it means he's supposed to lead his team, he's supposed to drag them up when their spirits sag, he's supposed to lead by example and be the ultimate teammate. I saw a guy trying to do it all himself most of the time and jawing at his teammates for not getting him the puck, you'll never win a cup with that attitude I don't care how gifted you are. Sure there's lots of blame to go around, it wasn't just OV, it looked like a group of talented individuals playing a pickup game where they all agreed beforehand that the guy with the most goals didn't have to pay for beers afterwords...there was very little chemistry and flow to their game and only Backstrom seemed to be playing as a teammate. The point I'm trying to make is that when OV hits a wall of adversity he tries to skate thru it (or shoot thru it), he hasn't learned that you can't do it all yourself and that there are about a dozen more important things to being a Captain than how many goals you score

[Big Ev]

Who's gonna give a King's ransom for Green now that they know he can't produce when it really matters? And you're not gonna blame Boudreau at all? He didn't adjust when their gameplan wasn't working, and he made some terrible decisions (like having Green on the PK, not putting Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Knuble on the same line for Game 6, etc.) Boudreau is not a playoff coach.

[ericdaoust]

I would never say lack of heart. Ovechkin played hard. He tried. But he did it all wrong. The issue is more about maturity than heart.

Although if the Caps had put in a goal or two extra all would be forgiven and we'd be writing about why we think Semin and Green will snap out of it next series.

[mister_mcgoo]

I would never say lack of heart. Ovechkin played hard. He tried. But he did it all wrong. The issue is more about maturity than heart.

Although if the Caps had put in a goal or two extra all would be forgiven and we'd be writing about why we think Semin and Green will snap out of it next series.

yeah maybe heart is not the word I'm looking for, he's obviously got a lot of that...maybe 'leadership' is a better way to put it...true leaders pull their team up when they need it most, haven't seen much of that from OV so far, not in the Olympics, not in the playoffs

[germant]

Hey Dobbs, I somewhat agree with you.

OV played, well, like OV. The arguments of him lacking heart, to me anyways, seem ridiculous and likely coming from those who are looking for anything to knock him.

I do think Green was a disappointment (again) which brings me to the point that was argued in the ramblings about whether or not Green is a Norris Trophy winning d-man and this playoffs showed, yet again, that his deficiencies are many. He makes bad decisions (going for the hit on the game winner in game 7) rather than sweeping the puck away and sometimes he's even lazy in his own end.

One thing I have to say is that Boudreau didn't do a great job of coaching, at least from where I'm standing. It seems his team was locked into shoot from anywhere mode and even when there were 2, 3, 4 Habs players standing in front of them, they still shot. I remember a play where Semin had the puck 10 feet inside the blue line and there were 4 Habs skating out to him and he tried shooting!

There was no East-West game and Boudreau did little to break his team out of a system that just wasn't working against Montreal. It might have worked against another team, but it wasn't and there was no change to that.

Step one though is to get a no.1 goalie, let Varlamov grow up being a backup for another two years and then let him take over. Giving the reins to a kid goalie is rarely a good idea even though he played well.

[L2TG]

I agree with alot of the things being said here. I feel like coach Boudreau has to be cut loose as well as Semin. They should definitely patch up their goaltending as Varlamov isn't quite there yet. As well as that they should take a long look at Green and strongly consider finding a solid stay at home defensemen as Carlson is developing into a solid talent. I feel the Caps lost this series because they took the Habs lightly in the begining and they got unlucky with Halak catching on fuego. But the main reason why the Caps lost this series is because of their PP. You can't be the best powerplay unit in the regular season and then go into the post season and go 1 for 39 or whatever it was. That is absolutely inexcusable and Boudreau really shit the bed there. Why did the Pens beat Montreal yesterday? Because their PP was fantastic and that was the difference, scoring 4 of the goals on the PP. The caps thought they could win the series playing pickup hockey, when the reality is to beat Halak you have to get bodies infront and make some noise.

As for people saying Ovy doesn't have heart, I completely disagree. I'm a diehard pens fan and I would take Crosby over Ovy any day when building a franchise but Ovy had a solid series and it was his supporting cast as Dobber sais that let him down. Add in horrible coaching and shaky goaltending and you got an upset.

- L2TG

[honduranhockey]

The Caps should send Halak an offer sheet!

[JagrBomb]

i said it at the trade deadline, the caps did not improve their main weakness: defence. they went out and got joe corvo, when instead they should have gotten a stay at home dman. the caps have more then enough scoring weapons, but their defence is terrible. ovechkin is to be blamed-to an extent. there were many times where he tried to do things all himself (i.e rushing into the offensive zone and trying to dangle through 2 guys). but i definitely agree with dobber that the supporting cast was terrible. semin had some close chances, but how he wasn't able to bury even 1 goal is pathetic. what washington needs to do:

1) let theodore walk
2) varlamov and neuvrith split starts
3) sign/trade for a stay at home shutdown dman (atleast 1)
4) trade semin for a dman + forward

[Dobber]

Who's gonna give a King's ransom for Green now that they know he can't produce when it really matters? And you're not gonna blame Boudreau at all? He didn't adjust when their gameplan wasn't working, and he made some terrible decisions (like having Green on the PK, not putting Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Knuble on the same line for Game 6, etc.) Boudreau is not a playoff coach.

By February, Green's 60 points in 55 games will have all the shortsighted GMs in the NHL forgetting about this postseason and believing that it was a one-off

[Dobber]

That's all purely by the numbers Dobber but where's the heart? He's got that C on his jersey for a reason, it means he's supposed to lead his team, he's supposed to drag them up when their spirits sag, he's supposed to lead by example and be the ultimate teammate. I saw a guy trying to do it all himself most of the time and jawing at his teammates for not getting him the puck, you'll never win a cup with that attitude I don't care how gifted you are. Sure there's lots of blame to go around, it wasn't just OV, it looked like a group of talented individuals playing a pickup game where they all agreed beforehand that the guy with the most goals didn't have to pay for beers afterwords...there was very little chemistry and flow to their game and only Backstrom seemed to be playing as a teammate. The point I'm trying to make is that when OV hits a wall of adversity he tries to skate thru it (or shoot thru it), he hasn't learned that you can't do it all yourself and that there are about a dozen more important things to being a Captain than how many goals you score

Put Ovechkin on a team with five other talented players, and then a bunch of dummies who mail it in, and I don't know if this is fair. Put Crosby in the same situation and the Caps would have still failed. Half of this team didn't show up. I guess he could have inspired his teammates more with a passionate speech or two...but how do we know he didn't try that? I dunno...

[Dobber]

i said it at the trade deadline, the caps did not improve their main weakness: defence. they went out and got joe corvo, when instead they should have gotten a stay at home dman. the caps have more then enough scoring weapons, but their defence is terrible. ovechkin is to be blamed-to an extent. there were many times where he tried to do things all himself (i.e rushing into the offensive zone and trying to dangle through 2 guys). but i definitely agree with dobber that the supporting cast was terrible. semin had some close chances, but how he wasn't able to bury even 1 goal is pathetic. what washington needs to do:

1) let theodore walk
2) varlamov and neuvrith split starts
3) sign/trade for a stay at home shutdown dman (atleast 1)
4) trade semin for a dman + forward

Belanger was a good acquisition and helped with the defense (he won so many draws!). I think this team blew it more for their offense. Semin and Green were terrible.

[SeaDawg]

A lot of people can be blamed for the Caps failure, including Ovechkin and Boudreau. But they are certainly not at the top of the list. You are correct, imo, in putting the majority of the blame on players like Semin, Green, and Fleischmann. The only player, imo, who deserves no blame was Backstrom. If anything, this kid's stock only increased with this series. He was the best player (besides Halak) in many of the games.

[delaney8]

I agree with most of the points made but I don't think you blow it up now. I still think this team can win the cup with a little more seasoning (most of the prime guys are still very young). They came pretty close last year to making it past the Pens and it did take most of the 'dynasty' type teams a couple of playoff trips to figure it out too.

[BlackGold]

Belanger was a good acquisition and helped with the defense (he won so many draws!). I think this team blew it more for their offense. Semin and Green were terrible.

Yet he turned over the puck on a bad pass or lost so many fights for the puck along the boards, that I think it negated every draw he won. He sounded like a good acquisition, but watching the games I think the caps were better off without him.

The caps also got Jurcina back who I think would have helped them, but I think he ended up not playing at all due to a hernia injury.