Washington Capitals 2011-2012

I love the daily updates of Ovechkin drinking vodka and pepsi in Russia. Haha

 

Interesting to read Matt Bradley commits about the Caps and about Semin who many know is very talented hockey player but doesn't have the drive mentally to take his game to the next level when needed.

Link

 

He said what we are all thinking.

 

I wanted them to trade him for Bouwmeester several years back when he was still with the Panthers. That might not have been a great idea after all. Then I wanted them to trade him for Vokoun or Bryzgalov (although I doubt the Coyotes would have taken on his salary). Now the Caps have Vokoun anyway, and despite the fact that I think Semin's trade value is almost nil. I'd still trade him.

 

However, I don't think he's the sole reason for the Caps tanking each year. Personally I think your defensive corps has been, and still is frankly, kind of crap. Alzner is good, but he was kept in the minors for years by cap problems and instead you had freakin Tom Poti, Morrsson, Jurcina etc. who are crap. When your best defender by miles is John Carlson, (who I love but still...) you're going to have trouble matching up with the cup winners like Lidstrom, Chara, Keith, etc. Mike Green does what he does, although apparently not in the playoffs, but the guys behind him were just not good enough.

Goalkeeping wasn't great either. I think Vokoun answers that this season. I like him.

 

Well, you're likely to have a top 10, possibly even top 5 (I really can't force myself to say probabl...... there is another letter there, but I really, really can't type it, it hurts too much) pick in next year's draft. Which according to early scouting reports is deeper than last year's draft which was considered kind of weak.

But I really think the team is going to continue to struggle with the current defensive corps and the middle of the forwards.

The Capitals put out a superstar at LW, but they can't even come close to putting out a matchup like the Penguins had in their championship year with Malkin, Crosby and Staal. Backstrom is good, but he can't be the **** he was last year again. I like Brooks Laich and all those other guys, but nobody in their right mind would say they match up like Crosby, Malkin and Staal. And when Alex Semin disappears again and only Ovechkin can score, well you have a problem.

As I said before, the Defensive corps doesn't look good enough to me. Boston had four good lines and it had Chara. Washington has neither and is a long way from Chara. They don't have the defensive corps to match up the way the Blackhawks did either, with Keith, Seabrook, Campbell etc. Sure they can score like Toews, Hossa, Kane, Sharp etc, but Chicago had BOTH.

I like the Caps. I would be very happy if they won the Cup this year (and then forgot to claim their draft picks at the end of the season because they were hungover MAKE THAT HAPPEN!), but I think it's unrealistic.

 

my question is when are we going to have organized support in the stands, I know it was attempted before but didnt really stick, but I feel like now days it would be easy to convert one of the 400 sections into an organized support section... just sayin.

 

That'd be something new.

 

Sadly, the Caps are in Sharks territory. None of it matters until the playoffs.

 

Nick Backstrom is quietly off to a very nice start this year. At this pace, 90-100 pts could be possible.

 

Yeah, are you concerned about him at all?

I Know it sounds silly to say that he may be declining when he's still putting up big offensive numbers, but I guess the question is valid.

 

I didn't realize that Boudreau benched him last night until I read that a couple of hours ago. I'm not even sure what he did wrong--trying too hard, not enough production, whatever...--but maybe this will be a wake up call for Ovi.