Eastern Conference: (2) Washington vs. (7) Rangers

[lanky]

drury2396 wrote:

Where\'s Lanky? :laugh:

yeah i\'m here. I wasn\'t on last night because i was just absolutely disgusted.

drury2396 wrote:

Despite the Caps\' stars (Ovechkin and Green) having dominCaps couldn\'t find a way to win the one statant games, despite outshooting the Rangers by 14, despite being given seven power-plays, and despite pounding (understatement) their opposition in the face-off circle, the that matters- goals scored.

The caps had trouble winning that one stat not because of their offense, but because of their goaltending (see my opinion of theodore as I address your other comment below).

drury2396 wrote:

It\'s important to note that Drury was clearly missed. The Rangers lacked that dominant second penalty-killing tandem up front, and were also pummeled on the dots.

I\'m sure drury was missed, but it wasn\'t for his penalty killing. It was for his faceoff ability. The rangers actually run 3 different forward pk lines, so they were missing 1 of 6 guys that they cycle. I really don\'t think that was the reason for the capitals\' powerplay goals. Give credit where it\'s due on that one.

drury2396 wrote:

If I were Bruce Boudreau, Theodore would be on a short-leash. He by no means cost his team the game tonight, but that Gomez goal was brutal, and he was two Callahan-post shots away from allowing two more goals of questionable validity.

I couldn\'t agree more.

I said it here that goaltending doesn\'t win championships, teams win championships. What i neglected to mention was that goaltending loses championships.

Last night\'s preformance by theodore was possibly the worst display of NHL goaltending i\'ve seen in months. He was terrible. He didn\'t have to be great, he just had to be a card-board cutout in the net... and he couldn\'t even do that.

If he\'s not on thin ice right now, i don\'t know what else would put him there. At least 3 of those goals were pretty weak goals against, and every time the caps got themselves back in the game and/or got momentum, he killed them by allowing another goal just moments later.

Man... you all proved me wrong on this one. Theodore was absolutely terrible last night. If that shit continues, the caps will be golfing much earlier than I thought this year. I guess that\'s my fault for assuming that he\'d exibit at least an ECHL level of skill in net.

I still maintain that lundqvist wasn\'t the difference in this game (and won\'t be in the series). He made good stops, but he by no means stopped the capitals from scoring. Many nights that the Rangers allow 3 goals, they will lose...

I just can\'t believe they scored 4 goals on 21 shots. That\'s absolutley dispicable. I mean Theodore made the rangers look like mf\'ing detroit or san jose last night. Disgusting. :X

[lanky]

The Comish wrote:

Anyone else think Avery was effective tonight? Helped create a goal by running into (subtle pick) Mike Green at the blueline.

yeah that play was a mess of no-calls, but the capitals did get quite a few powerplays that game, so i suppose they can\'t really complain.

On the same play, antropov creamed fleishman 30 feet away from the puck while fleishman was hustling back on d and antropov was headed to the bench... then avery obstructed mike green creating a mini-breakaway for gomez...

That was just a mess of a play that the refs should have gotten something on.

However, the ensuing gomez goal was one of the weakest, powder-puff goals i\'ve ever seen, so despite all the non-calls, that goal is on theo\'s shoulders... not the refs.

The refs should have probably gotten the interference call on antropov or the tripping call on avery, but theodore DEFINITELY should have had that save. Period.

[lanky]

joos wrote:

Just horrible positioning and reading from Schultz. Once I saw that happen, I was like... this is gonna be a goal.

Schultz is best described as a pylon.

If the caps allow only one goal because of his positioning and reading a game, they should count themselves lucky. He\'s not one of their better defenders.

I\'m frankly kind of surprised pothier wasn\'t in last night. I think he\'s more reliable than schultz is... but i guess i\'m not the coach. :blink:

Interestingly enough, both brashear and chris clark are healthy and ready to go... i wonder if after that game we\'ll see them in game 2?

[mapletreemarty]

joos wrote:

Just horrible positioning and reading from Schultz. Once I saw that happen, I was like... this is gonna be a goal.

I agree, as soon as I saw Schult stumble his own feet and go crashing into the boards I knew there was no chance in hell Theodore was going to make the save.

[mapletreemarty]

lanky wrote:

joos wrote:

Just horrible positioning and reading from Schultz. Once I saw that happen, I was like... this is gonna be a goal.

Schultz is best described as a pylon.

If the caps allow only one goal because of his positioning and reading a game, they should count themselves lucky. He\'s not one of their better defenders.

I\'m frankly kind of surprised pothier wasn\'t in last night. I think he\'s more reliable than schultz is... but i guess i\'m not the coach. :blink:

Interestingly enough, both brashear and chris clark are healthy and ready to go... i wonder if after that game we\'ll see them in game 2?

Lanky... easy now, don\'t discredit the pylon so much... at least with a pylon you know it\'ll be able to stay in the play and in position and won\'t end up crashing into the side boards

[lanky]

mapletreemarty wrote:

I agree, as soon as I saw Schult stumble his own feet and go crashing into the boards I knew there was no chance in hell Theodore was going to make the save.

you knew long before schultz stumbled on his own feet that theo wasn\'t going to be making that save... everyone knew after that gomez goal that theo wasn\'t going to be making any timely saves last night. :angry:

I say put varlamov in next game. Don\'t give theo a chance to lose another one. Put the kid on at home and hope he doesn\'t trip up.

It\'d be one thing if this was miller or brodeur or something, but theodore has been bad for STRETCHES this season... i\'m incredibly worried that he\'s at the beginning of such a stretch. I really don\'t think the caps want to go down 0-2 (while losing both games on home ice) to start this series.

[drury2396]

Yeah, I agree with your assessment, Lanky. You echoed my same sentiments.

When I said Drury was missed on the pk, I wasn\'t inferring that the Caps wouldn\'t have scored their two goals...they actually moved the puck very well compared to most of the Rangers\' opponents...not surprising as they have one of the best power plays in the league. But the pk would have been better had Drury been taking draws, blocking shots, etc.

Game two should be interesting. AO attempted 28 shots! 28 shots! If that happens again, I doubt he comes away empty handed.

[lanky]

drury2396 wrote:

Yeah, I agree with your assessment, Lanky. You echoed my same sentiments.

When I said Drury was missed on the pk, I wasn\'t inferring that the Caps wouldn\'t have scored their two goals...they actually moved the puck very well compared to most of the Rangers\' opponents...not surprising as they have one of the best power plays in the league. But the pk would have been better had Drury been taking draws, blocking shots, etc.

Game two should be interesting. AO attempted 28 shots! 28 shots! If that happens again, I doubt he comes away empty handed.

yeah Ovechkin was just a wrecking ball out there... especially in the first period. I think he had all of his 6 hits in the first period alone! The one play, he absolutely turned rozsival inside out, and got a clean look at the net. 75% of those, he\'ll put in the net, but Lundqvist stoned him, and bailed Roz out.

That\'s the difference so far this series i suppose. The rangers d had their mistakes, but lundqvist somewhat bailed them out when they had breakdowns. Theo did absolutely nothing to help the caps\' confidence in him.

I mean you can have an amazing game defensively, but you can\'t stop everything from getting on goal... you have to hope that the few things you do let through, your goalie can stop. That just wasn\'t the case last night.

I wonder how detroit will fair? I think they have a very similar makeup to the caps (albeit their defense is a little more steady) in terms of offensive skill and minimizing shots on their shaky goaltender.

[lanky]

... all things considered, i think the caps played as i expected last night. Their powerplay was great, they were absolutely dominant (still probably putting it lightly) in the faceoff circle, and they did a pretty good job at minimizing scoring opportunities and staying out of the box.

I just completely underestimated how badly theodore would play lol.

[Pete]

AO :

- 2 assists
- 26 min
- 12 on the PP
- 13 shots

WOW !!!

[lanky]

Pete wrote:

AO :

- 2 assists
- 26 min
- 12 on the PP
- 13 shots

WOW !!!

yeah. i said it before, and i\'ll say it again: staal will not be able to contain him this series. SOOOO few defenders can... I don\'t put staal in that category yet.

[Pete]

Yeah sure he won\'t be able to contain AO all the serie ...

For Theo ... I really think he will bounce back in this serie but the Caps won\'t win a Cup with Theo !

[playmaker26]

lanky wrote:

drury2396 wrote:

Where\'s Lanky? :laugh:

yeah i\'m here. I wasn\'t on last night because i was just absolutely disgusted.

drury2396 wrote:

Despite the Caps\' stars (Ovechkin and Green) having dominCaps couldn\'t find a way to win the one statant games, despite outshooting the Rangers by 14, despite being given seven power-plays, and despite pounding (understatement) their opposition in the face-off circle, the that matters- goals scored.

The caps had trouble winning that one stat not because of their offense, but because of their goaltending (see my opinion of theodore as I address your other comment below).

drury2396 wrote:

It\'s important to note that Drury was clearly missed. The Rangers lacked that dominant second penalty-killing tandem up front, and were also pummeled on the dots.

I\'m sure drury was missed, but it wasn\'t for his penalty killing. It was for his faceoff ability. The rangers actually run 3 different forward pk lines, so they were missing 1 of 6 guys that they cycle. I really don\'t think that was the reason for the capitals\' powerplay goals. Give credit where it\'s due on that one.

drury2396 wrote:

If I were Bruce Boudreau, Theodore would be on a short-leash. He by no means cost his team the game tonight, but that Gomez goal was brutal, and he was two Callahan-post shots away from allowing two more goals of questionable validity.

I couldn\'t agree more.

I said it here that goaltending doesn\'t win championships, teams win championships. What i neglected to mention was that goaltending loses championships.

Last night\'s preformance by theodore was possibly the worst display of NHL goaltending i\'ve seen in months. He was terrible. He didn\'t have to be great, he just had to be a card-board cutout in the net... and he couldn\'t even do that.

If he\'s not on thin ice right now, i don\'t know what else would put him there. At least 3 of those goals were pretty weak goals against, and every time the caps got themselves back in the game and/or got momentum, he killed them by allowing another goal just moments later.

Man... you all proved me wrong on this one. Theodore was absolutely terrible last night. If that shit continues, the caps will be golfing much earlier than I thought this year. I guess that\'s my fault for assuming that he\'d exibit at least an ECHL level of skill in net.

I still maintain that lundqvist wasn\'t the difference in this game (and won\'t be in the series). He made good stops, but he by no means stopped the capitals from scoring. Many nights that the Rangers allow 3 goals, they will lose...

I just can\'t believe they scored 4 goals on 21 shots. That\'s absolutley dispicable. I mean Theodore made the rangers look like mf\'ing detroit or san jose last night. Disgusting. :X

Drury was missed in every aspect of the game. He had a disappointing season but he is one of the best playoff players in the past decade. He just delivers at this time of year. It wasn\'t just his defensive play, PK play, or face-off ability that was missed, it was the face that the Rangers were without one of their top players too. This team has trouble scoring and I for sure thought they were toast after I saw him going off in the middle of warm-ups.

If Lundqvist wasn\'t the difference in the game AND the Rangers still won, that\'s not good the Caps. I didn\'t watch a lot of this game since the Flyers were on but everyone, including me, was talking about the Rangers chances in the series and it rested basically solely on whether Lundqvist could carry them.

People forget that the Rangers did go 11-7-2 or something like that under Tortorella. This team isn\'t as bad as the bad press they had during the season.

[playmaker26]

lanky wrote:

The Comish wrote:

Anyone else think Avery was effective tonight? Helped create a goal by running into (subtle pick) Mike Green at the blueline.

yeah that play was a mess of no-calls, but the capitals did get quite a few powerplays that game, so i suppose they can\'t really complain.

On the same play, antropov creamed fleishman 30 feet away from the puck while fleishman was hustling back on d and antropov was headed to the bench... then avery obstructed mike green creating a mini-breakaway for gomez...

That was just a mess of a play that the refs should have gotten something on.

However, the ensuing gomez goal was one of the weakest, powder-puff goals i\'ve ever seen, so despite all the non-calls, that goal is on theo\'s shoulders... not the refs.

The refs should have probably gotten the interference call on antropov or the tripping call on avery, but theodore DEFINITELY should have had that save. Period.

Caps will always get the edge in calls this series. Bettman wants Ovechkin and Crosby to move on.

[playmaker26]

lanky wrote:

drury2396 wrote:

Yeah, I agree with your assessment, Lanky. You echoed my same sentiments.

When I said Drury was missed on the pk, I wasn\'t inferring that the Caps wouldn\'t have scored their two goals...they actually moved the puck very well compared to most of the Rangers\' opponents...not surprising as they have one of the best power plays in the league. But the pk would have been better had Drury been taking draws, blocking shots, etc.

Game two should be interesting. AO attempted 28 shots! 28 shots! If that happens again, I doubt he comes away empty handed.

yeah Ovechkin was just a wrecking ball out there... especially in the first period. I think he had all of his 6 hits in the first period alone! The one play, he absolutely turned rozsival inside out, and got a clean look at the net. 75% of those, he\'ll put in the net, but Lundqvist stoned him, and bailed Roz out.

That\'s the difference so far this series i suppose. The rangers d had their mistakes, but lundqvist somewhat bailed them out when they had breakdowns. Theo did absolutely nothing to help the caps\' confidence in him.

I mean you can have an amazing game defensively, but you can\'t stop everything from getting on goal... you have to hope that the few things you do let through, your goalie can stop. That just wasn\'t the case last night.

I wonder how detroit will fair? I think they have a very similar makeup to the caps (albeit their defense is a little more steady) in terms of offensive skill and minimizing shots on their shaky goaltender.

I think the Caps and Red Wings are completely different. I wouldn\'t compare them at all. Only similarity is they have a lot of offensive firepower and subpar goalies...but I\'m more confident that Osgood can turn it around.

Red Wings have a much better defense (as you said) but their forwards are so defensively responsible. Not bashing the Caps forwards but I fail to see how they have the 2 way forwards like Detroit. All 4 of the Wings lines play stellar defense.