Series Thread: Second Round: Pittsburgh Penguins vs. Washington Capitals

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[forty_three]

I've of the belief that the first round is usually the toughest round to win especially if expectation are high. I think now that the Caps have survived round 1, they can relax somewhat and just play their style of game. Also, Holtby didn't look like his usual self in round 1 (he was much better in the last two games against the Leafs), if he finds his game and continues his strong goaltending play, the Caps will be a tough out.

As a fan of a team that didn't learn one valuable lesson until game 4 of their series and then had forgotten it by game five, IMO the achilles heel that the Caps need to watch out for is their tendency to chase hits. The Pens speed and open space game will kill them like it killed the Jackets. You take 2 or 3 extra steps to finish your check and the Pens are odd man rushing the other way. They are fast on the puck, make strong passes and practically dare you to chase them.

If the Caps can avoid that, they can be successful.

 

[forty_three]

And Patric Hornqvist. They need to figure out something to handle that son of a bitch.

 

[ritari330]

As a fan of a team that didn't learn one valuable lesson until game 4 of their series and then had forgotten it by game five, IMO the achilles heel that the Caps need to watch out for is their tendency to chase hits. The Pens speed and open space game will kill them like it killed the Jackets. You take 2 or 3 extra steps to finish your check and the Pens are odd man rushing the other way. They are fast on the puck, make strong passes and practically dare you to chase them.

If the Caps can avoid that, they can be successful.

Definitely agree with this. Finish your checks, but don't get in the mindset of making the Pens pay to make a play, because they'll make the play more times than not.

 

[forty_three]

Definitely agree with this. Finish your checks, but don't get in the mindset of making the Pens pay to make a play, because they'll make the play more times than not.

Hey, are you looking for a job as a head hockey coach in a small cow town in the midwest?

 

[pixburgher66]

Wait until you find out he's actually become good at hockey as well as face punching

He was a 1st rounder, ya know. Although he shouldn't have been. His line has been pretty good, but you can definitely sense the idiot under the surface. I was cracking up in game 6 (I think it was) when he went into the crease looking to stir shit and Holtby blocked him.

 

[ritari330]

Hey, are you looking for a job as a head hockey coach in a small cow town in the midwest?

As long as it isn't in Ohi.....


actually, never mind.

 

[pixburgher66]

As a fan of a team that didn't learn one valuable lesson until game 4 of their series and then had forgotten it by game five, IMO the achilles heel that the Caps need to watch out for is their tendency to chase hits. The Pens speed and open space game will kill them like it killed the Jackets. You take 2 or 3 extra steps to finish your check and the Pens are odd man rushing the other way. They are fast on the puck, make strong passes and practically dare you to chase them.

If the Caps can avoid that, they can be successful.

I was also cracking up right after game 6 when they went to the studio. They started prepping for the Pens-Caps and Mike effing Rupp goes "OV really needs to get to his physical game more vs. the Pens, hardest hitter I've ever faced, etc." Dude. Rupp has done a decent amount of work with the Pens this year and last, did he not learn a damn thing?

 

[pixburgher66]

And Patric Hornqvist. They need to figure out something to handle that son of a bitch.

Hornqvist will be dancing in Valhalla before he is stopped in front of the net.

 

[ritari330]

He was a 1st rounder, ya know. Although he shouldn't have been. His line has been pretty good, but you can definitely sense the idiot under the surface. I was cracking up in game 6 (I think it was) when he went into the crease looking to stir shit and Holtby blocked him.

Regardless of anyone's opinion on him, its widely agreed upon that he was severely mismanaged with Oats. as a 19 year old he played less than 8 minutes a night on the 4th line so he could be an enforcer when that role was already out of fashion, when he could have played Juniors to develop the offensive skills that he is just now starting to show. He still was smart enough to get Matt Martin to take an extra minor to get a full 2 minute 5 on 3 though (that may not be a great benchmark for smarts now that I say it....).

 

[pixburgher66]

Regardless of anyone's opinion on him, its widely agreed upon that he was severely mismanaged with Oats. as a 19 year old he played less than 8 minutes a night on the 4th line so he could be an enforcer when that role was already out of fashion, when he could have played Juniors to develop the offensive skills that he is just now starting to show. He still was smart enough to get Matt Martin to take an extra minor to get a full 2 minute 5 on 3 though (that may not be a great benchmark for smarts now that I say it....).

The penalty thing is...it's a tricky game. If you find the right dance partner and the stars align, yeah you can help your team. But it's just as easy to put your team in a hole with the same actions. With NHL refs it's risky to expect them to do what makes sense. He'll annoy the hell out of me, and probably plenty of Pens, but they're not the Pens of Bylsma and generally speaking they behave. Just don't touch Geno. He's feisty.

 

[elocomotive]

The Caps need to play like they have nothing to lose. They didn't against the Leafs. I watched large chunks of that series and the Caps were easily the better team, IMO. That being said they didn't look very good (for their regular season standards).

I couldn't put my finger on it until game 6 when the perfect example came. Brian Boyle came into the Caps zone in the third period with the puck. All four other Leaf players went off for a change. All 5 Caps were back. He went in and stop on the half boards. No Cap did anything except restrict his access to the net. They all hesitated. So much so that Boyle had enough time to wait for a player to leave the bench and skate with speed to the weak post where he almost connected.

In the regular season (I watched about 10-12 Caps games this year) the Caps would have pounced on a 3rd liner like Boyle and been looking to quickly turn the puck back the other way to take advantage of the change.

They were afraid to lose and were basically paralyzed with thought. It wasn't the only time I saw that during the first round but it encapsulated a nice portion of the Caps play for a lot of the series.


All that being said I think the pressure lifts after winning that first round. I think the Caps will be looser after beating the Leafs. There is no shame (for the Caps) in losing to the Pens. There would have been (perceived at least) against the Leafs. Backstrom's "underdog" comments speak to this. I think we see the Caps come out and just play.

Caps in 6.

I think that does a little disservice to the forechecking pressure the Leafs were providing. They did a great job applying pressure in our defensive zone and defensive zone exits were difficult for the Caps. And overall, in games 1-4 I think the Caps were out of rhythm with some of the defensive structure that had served them so well all year long. On top of that, I think we were being too fine leaving the zone. I think that is less "playing it safe" and more a lack of willingness to just dump the puck to neutral (or into the offensive zone) and trying to get too many clean exits and then entries. Adding Nate Schmidt (who led the Caps in +/-) to the mix was very helpful with that as the series went on because his speed let him get by guys and get the puck to neutral. Orlov did that as well and played better and better as the series went along.

At the opposite end, I thought the Caps were also very aggressive on the forecheck and created problems for the Leafs and a lot of scoring chances (in game 6 especially) because of it. So i didn't see a team sitting back or playing not to lose - if anything, I thought the series was tremendously entertaining because neither team was playing that way. I more saw a team struggling with zone exits and keeping it's structure. Credit to the Leafs they have a lot of young, aggressive, fast forwards.

But I'm happy that as the series went on the team adjusted and got better. I think that helps the players going into the next round mentally and having some momentum. It also shows that Trotz can make the changes needed to find success.

The Leafs played a great series and made it interesting. But they also never beat the Caps over 60 minutes, something most teams struggled with during the season, and I hope that continues with Pittsburgh.

 

[pixburgher66]

I think that does a little disservice to the forechecking pressure the Leafs were providing. They did a great job applying pressure in our defensive zone and defensive zone exits were difficult for the Caps. And overall, in games 1-4 I think the Caps were out of rhythm with some of the defensive structure that had served them so well all year long. On top of that, I think we were being too fine leaving the zone. I think that is less "playing it safe" and more a lack of willingness to just dump the puck to neutral (or into the offensive zone) and trying to get too many clean exits and then entries. Adding Nate Schmidt (who led the Caps in +/-) to the mix was very helpful with that as the series went on because his speed let him get by guys and get the puck to neutral. Orlov did that as well and played better and better as the series went along.

At the opposite end, I thought the Caps were also very aggressive on the forecheck and created problems for the Leafs and a lot of scoring chances (in game 6 especially) because of it. So i didn't see a team sitting back or playing not to lose - if anything, I thought the series was tremendously entertaining because neither team was playing that way. I more saw a team struggling with zone exits and keeping it's structure. Credit to the Leafs they have a lot of young, aggressive, fast forwards.

But I'm happy that as the series went on the team adjusted and got better. I think that helps the players going into the next round mentally and having some momentum. It also shows that Trotz can make the changes needed to find success.

The Leafs played a great series and made it interesting. But they also never beat the Caps over 60 minutes, something most teams struggled with during the season, and I hope that continues with Pittsburgh.

The Caps will be successful with one key thing:

Forecheck the hell out of the Pens. Their zone exits were absolute shit in the Columbus series, they were successful because they're opportunistic and Bob was below average. The Pens defense as it's currently constructed is filled with issues. Dumolin, Schultz, and Cole are +s, and Olli is sorta there, but his skating is still awful. Hainsey is average, and Daley is awful. I wish we'd get a look at Streit over Daley. And I'm hoping that Alzner gets healthy quickly so he can replace Schmidt...that's a downgrade and hockey guys will lean toward experience.

 

[ritari330]

The penalty thing is...it's a tricky game. If you find the right dance partner and the stars align, yeah you can help your team. But it's just as easy to put your team in a hole with the same actions. With NHL refs it's risky to expect them to do what makes sense. He'll annoy the hell out of me, and probably plenty of Pens, but they're not the Pens of Bylsma and generally speaking they behave. Just don't touch Geno. He's feisty.

If Willy wants to mess with Geno, go for it. I'll take that tradeoff and play 4 on 4 all series long.

 

[ritari330]

The Caps will be successful with one key thing:

Forecheck the hell out of the Pens. Their zone exits were absolute shit in the Columbus series, they were successful because they're opportunistic and Bob was below average. The Pens defense as it's currently constructed is filled with issues. Dumolin, Schultz, and Cole are +s, and Olli is sorta there, but his skating is still awful. Hainsey is average, and Daley is awful. I wish we'd get a look at Streit over Daley. And I'm hoping that Alzner gets healthy quickly so he can replace Schmidt...that's a downgrade and hockey guys will lean toward experience.

The caps are at their best when they are able to get a team to pinned in their own zone and wear them down after a long shift. All 4 lines are very good at the cycle and all of our D-men (even Orpik) will pinch in to keep the play alive. If the Caps can prevent clean zone exits by the pens, they'll get a lot of chances.

An idea floating around is that when Alzner is healthy that we dress 7 defensemen and sit Connolly. I don't love the idea, but it's better than a straight swap of Alzner for Schmidt.

 

[pixburgher66]

The caps are at their best when they are able to get a team to pinned in their own zone and wear them down after a long shift. All 4 lines are very good at the cycle and all of our D-men (even Orpik) will pinch in to keep the play alive. If the Caps can prevent clean zone exits by the pens, they'll get a lot of chances.

An idea floating around is that when Alzner is healthy that we dress 7 defensemen and sit Connolly. I don't love the idea, but it's better than a straight swap of Alzner for Schmidt.

I want an Orpik own goal this series so badly. I'm greedy of course, since his idiocy was a big reason the Pens won game 4...or was that 6? But oddly enough, the Pens are also at their best when they forecheck well, and they are good at it. The forwards are tenacious and annoying, but on the D end just lacking the ability to move the puck up ice at a high level.

 

[elocomotive]

Holtby had a .917 save percentage against the Pens this year.

If you are a Pens' fan, don't look up what the save percentage for either Murray or Fleury was. It ain't pretty.

The Caps will be successful with one key thing:

Forecheck the hell out of the Pens. Their zone exits were absolute shit in the Columbus series, they were successful because they're opportunistic and Bob was below average. The Pens defense as it's currently constructed is filled with issues. Dumolin, Schultz, and Cole are +s, and Olli is sorta there, but his skating is still awful. Hainsey is average, and Daley is awful. I wish we'd get a look at Streit over Daley. And I'm hoping that Alzner gets healthy quickly so he can replace Schmidt...that's a downgrade and hockey guys will lean toward experience.

I think both teams are clearly very deep and very prolific at the forward position. Both have top flight scorers and guys on every line that can get it done. And while I certainly favor Holtby over Fleury, you never know how goalies are going to play over such a short span as 4-7 games.

But I think the big advantage in this series is certainly the blue liners. Caps have good depth there. I don't see them sitting Schmidt based on how he's played. I'd give Orpik the hook at this point, though Shattenkirk is probably the worst actual defender on the team. Either way, those two and Alzner should be on bottom 2 in minutes, because Schmidt and Orlov are your speedy puck carriers and have done a great job on defense, Niskanen is the best defender on the team, and Carlson is the best all around player who can contribute in any area you need him to.

 

[pixburgher66]

Holtby had a .917 save percentage against the Pens this year.

If you are a Pens' fan, don't look up what the save percentage for either Murray or Fleury was. It ain't pretty.


I think both teams are clearly very deep and very prolific at the forward position. Both have top flight scorers and guys on every line that can get it done. And while I certainly favor Holtby over Fleury, you never know how goalies are going to play over such a short span as 4-7 games.

But I think the big advantage in this series is certainly the blue liners. Caps have good depth there. I don't see them sitting Schmidt based on how he's played. I'd give Orpik the hook at this point, though Shattenkirk is probably the worst actual defender on the team. Either way, those two and Alzner should be on bottom 2 in minutes, because Schmidt and Orlov are your speedy puck carriers and have done a great job on defense, Niskanen is the best defender on the team, and Carlson is the best all around player who can contribute in any area you need him to.

Orpik should get the hook, but won't. Because LEADERSHIP AND HITS AND STUFF. At least Mike Weber won't be passing the puck to Hornqvist this year.

 

[elocomotive]

Orpik should get the hook, but won't. Because LEADERSHIP AND HITS AND STUFF. At least Mike Weber won't be passing the puck to Hornqvist this year.

The caps are at their best when they are able to get a team to pinned in their own zone and wear them down after a long shift. All 4 lines are very good at the cycle and all of our D-men (even Orpik) will pinch in to keep the play alive. If the Caps can prevent clean zone exits by the pens, they'll get a lot of chances.

An idea floating around is that when Alzner is healthy that we dress 7 defensemen and sit Connolly. I don't love the idea, but it's better than a straight swap of Alzner for Schmidt.

Wilson stays on 3rd line and you get Ovechkin and MoJo some extra shifts with the 4th line?

Not sure about that either. That 4th line has been really good and even though neither Beagle or Winnik stood out during the Leafs' series, I still think those guys will be key in a few games. Though Connolly was certainly the most disappointing of the forwards in round one.

I'd rather see them rotate Alzner, Orpik, and Schmidt in different games. Keep them rested and fresh.

 

[Duke of Douchington]

If you aren't for the Caps, you're anti-American and a terrorist and you can get the fuck out.