2010-2011 NHL season

After watching the Cap game last night a couple things struck me. I am not so sure they can really play the system Boudreau wants. I think at times he is sticking round parts into square pegs. They need a balance but they rarely send in more than one forchecker. They have some of the best offensive talent in the world you need to let it go.

Mike green is still atrocious in his own end and as amazing of a player Ovechkin is it has to be awfully frustrating to play with him at times. From the individual stuff to the 2.5 minute shifts.

I still think the Caps are a very good hockey team but playing a 1-2-2 does not seem right for the talent they have.

 

Leonsis theorized that the players were pacing themselves for the playoffs. I don't buy it. Gotta make the playoffs, first. Caps are only seven points ahead of Carolina and they play 10 of the next 16 on the road, where they've been extraordinarily average.

Vancouver is excellent, but the key goal in that game came off another freaking lazy neutral zone turnover. Laughlin says the entries into the zone are bad on the power play, but from what I'm watching, they're bad on even-strength situations, too. The puckhandling has been poor. Everyone just looks out of sync. I respect what Boudreau's doing. What Washington tried in the playoffs last year just didn't work, and as they say, insanity is repeating the same mistakes over and over, etc. And home ice doesn't mean shit in the playoffs. It just doesn't. So using the regular season to tweak and experiment, I can get behind that.

The big three have to get going if this team is going to get on a run. Ovechkin, Backstrom and Semin have scored a combined seven goals in the last 20 games, and Backstrom's two goals during that run came in the Dec. 1 game at St. Louis. You can't rely on the checking line to bail you out every night.

EDIT: JC, good analysis.

 

Hey, I'm not a Caps hater.

Unfortunately the game on Sportsnet was blacked out here in the East so I only saw highlights--like the Sedin breakaway.

I haven't seen enough of these guys to comment but Mike Green has always been a defensive liability-which is why he was never considered for the Canadian Olympic team. He makes bad decisions on a regular basis.

Boudreau has let these guys freelance since he became coach and now he's trying to reign them in? That will work if the leaders are committed to the new d-first scheme and they haven't tuned Boudreau out.

Vancouver may be the best team in the league right now and I'd put them at the top of my list to win The Cup

 

Uh, no because then they'd be one man short in their own zone. He'd probably be hanging out at the other team's blue line waiting for a pass.

 

Taylor Hall gets lit up by Drew Doughty in Saturday night's game. Terrific hit. Hall had his head down all the way and Doughty lowers the boom. I do like how Hall popped right back up though. Tough kid.

Too bad Weeks' broken record call is part of it. At the beginning he gets stuck on "sets off the fireworks, sets off the fire works." He breaks it up by calling it a head shot, which it wasn't (is every big hit from here on out going to be called a head shot?). The he can't give Penner enough credit over and over again. The he ends with "it was the clavical! it was the clavical!" Spit out your point and move on. And by move on I mean to another profession. please. I beg you.

 

Weekes is beyond awful. What a drop from Hughson and Simpson to Lee and Weekes.

 

Weekes has a really good fashion sense though. Probably the best dressed guy on HNIC.

 

Here's the Hockey News Mid Season Rankings of the Top Ten Prospects for this year's draft:

http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/37755-2011-NHL-draft-midseason-top-10-rankings.html

#1 is Larsson from Sweden. There's a Finn and the rest are all CHL players.

Going to the Top Prospects Game tomorrow night at the ACC with Huggy. Team Orr vs Team Cherry.

 

Nick Lidstrom and Eric Staal picked as captains for the All-Star game.

They'll pick the teams Jan. 28.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news;_ylt=AgRGHI_cRiqRwhoCKvs2mHN7vLYF?slug=ap-all-star-captains

 

Staal was asked whether he'd pick his brother Marc?

He said he's probably have to; otherwise he'd be last picked