thecoffeecake Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 (edited) This series just goes to show how much different regular season and playoff hockey are. Looking at the Rangers shooting percentage, it's just not possible to sustain low numbers like that over 82. You can use speed to skate around teams all season, but when you're locked in a matchup with a group eliminating the stretch pass and keeping them on the perimeter the way the caps have, you can skate until you're blue. It's not necessarily going to win hockey games. It really is a totally new ball game come playoff time. Not as if that's news to anyone. I heard people calling the orpik contract one of the worst in history. Obviously the terms are garbage for the Caps, but how important has he been? He just puts their physical game over the hump. Edited May 7, 2015 by thecoffeecake Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Leeds Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Honestly, they all talk about bounces. It's true. Couple, just a couple, go the other way and the series is reversed. Simplistic, I know. Caps need to win Game 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Eco Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Honestly, they all talk about bounces. It's true. Couple, just a couple, go the other way and the series is reversed. Simplistic, I know. Caps need to win Game 5 Yup... Bounce here or there is the difference between Devils being up 2-0 on the Kings in 2012 after 2 OT games vs. being down. Same with the Rangers last year actually lol... Bounces are everything in the playoffs. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Eco Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 I heard people calling the orpik contract one of the worst in history. Obviously the terms are garbage for the Caps, but how important has he been? He just puts their physical game over the hump. If they can get to the Finals and win (or next year), it will have been one of the best in history. His play has been a difference maker (as has Holtby's). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roomtemp Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 (edited) You say "holtby, shot blocking, and timely goals" like it's no big deal, but 1) great goaltending, 2) suppressing chances or quality of chances, and 3) clutch scoring is a trifecta of qualities that can win the Stanley Cups. Tortorella's Rangers had the first 2 in 2012. We had 1 and 3 and won out, but they weren't far off. They could've easily made the Finals if not for Martin Brodeur's "scorpion save", and that's a fact. That was the momentum shift. The Rags scored to tie soon after the scorpion save to the point where the replays you here their sickening song and they went to take the lead in the game a little later on. Plus that was game 2 and they won game 3 so how was that save the momentum shift? Anyway yeah the Rags have been the better team but not to the point where the bottom is going to fall out for the Caps. Edited May 7, 2015 by roomtemp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek21 Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Eh I think you're being hard on them because they're your team. Yes the caps have played good D in their own zone but the Rangers have had quite a few odd man rushes and breakaways that Holtby has been big on. I'd also argue 3 of the Caps goals were pretty fluky- Ward's, Beagle's and Burakovsky's second. Caps really haven't been able to get many quality opportunities 5v5. Rangers are out shooting the Caps this series, plus the Caps are blocking shots like crazy these last two games. That tells me NY has had the better of the possession. The third pair of Yandle and Boyle is a disaster. Overall, Washington's team defense is better. Orpik, Carlson, Niskanen have all had huge impact. Even Mike Green is playing defense under Trotz. Alzner is solid. Their worst D is Gleason and Trotz manages his minutes with Green. He's a smart coach. The Caps support guys have stepped up. Those goals they scored were due to hard work. Give them credit. Beagle, Brouwer created that Burakovsky tying goal. Probably the worst Lundqvist has given up. Unscreened. The shots aren't that much of a discrepancy. 126-113. Of course, the attempts are much higher for the Rangers. But if you can't get them through from primary areas and find the second chances, it doesn't matter. Not the way Holtby is seeing the puck. He was underrated all season. But you can see why he had such a good year. Orpik and Niskanen were great additions by the Caps. They severely overpaid but it solidified their back end. They're coached much better by Trotz because he's a real coach unlike Oates and Hunter. The Rangers can still win tomorrow but that requires scoring more than a goal. After that, I don't know. It isn't last year. They are without their most valuable forward which means playing MSL too many minutes, His legs are shot. He's given a good effort the last two. But he looks done. Nash has given a great effort. They're just not going in. They never do for him this time of year. I'm most disappointed with Stepan and McDonagh. They've been no shows. Hard to win when your best don't show up. A final point. What you're seeing is why it's so hard to succeed in the cap era. Very tough to be consistent unless you boast incredible talent (ie Hawks, Kings). Last summer, Sather let Stralman walk and replaced him with graybeard Boyle. A total bust. Boyle joined Stralman in Tampa. Those are experienced and valuable players who know how to get it done. No coincidence Tampa is a game from the Conference Final. Pouliot was a great fit on the 3rd line. He left for greener pastures. Richards was bought out and now gets to star on the Hawks. Not easy to replace what they brought. Puts a lot of pressure on kids (Hayes, Miller, Fast) to perform. I will say that half our fanbase expected to win this year. There's a sense of entitlement. I admit I thought they would. I took them. But understand how hard it is to win this time of year. I said all year the East is better. If they don't come back, it's a total bust. Sad to say. But that's what happens with increased expectations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Eco Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 The Rags scored to tie soon after the scorpion save to the point where the replays you here their sickening song and they went to take the lead in the game a little later on. Plus that was game 2 and they won game 3 so how was that save the momentum shift? Anyway yeah the Rags have been the better team but not to the point where the bottom is going to fall out for the Caps. Oh sh!t you're right hahaha... I feel dumb now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dmann422 Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Eh, I'd say 60/40 Rangers at most. They really haven't done anything special; seriously, what have they done? Rick Nash can't generate squat, Martin St. Louis forget it (he's too small and old for playoff hockey), Chris Kreider's been outmuscled and neutralized, McDonaugh's even making mistakes, Yandle and Girardi are almost certainly injured. You say "holtby, shot blocking, and timely goals" like it's no big deal, but 1) great goaltending, 2) suppressing chances or quality of chances, and 3) clutch scoring is a trifecta of qualities that can win the Stanley Cups. Tortorella's Rangers had the first 2 in 2012. We had 1 and 3 and won out, but they weren't far off. They could've easily made the Finals if not for Martin Brodeur's "scorpion save", and that's a fact. That was the momentum shift. We are agreeing- My argument was not that the Caps don't deserve to win (of course goaltending and timely goal are important to win a 7 game series), it was simply that their goals in this series have been against the run of play. The rangers have not been outplayed, they just haven't had the bounces go their way. It's not like we're talking Hawks/Wild or Tampa/Habs where for the most part one team didn't even look like they belonged in the series. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadDog2020 Posted May 8, 2015 Author Share Posted May 8, 2015 Montreal stays alive. Tampa pretty much took the night off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zubie#8 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 (edited) HOLY GOD what a finish to that series. Wild down 4-1 with 2 mins left, got two quick goals, Towes hit the post on the empty net then a late powerplay gave the Wild three CLOSE chances to tied it up. Edited May 8, 2015 by Zubie#8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek21 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Wild fans rock. Great comeback try by their team. Almost tied it. One of the coolest endings to a series that resulted in a sweep. Odd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecoffeecake Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Wild fans rock. Great comeback try by their team. Almost tied it. One of the coolest endings to a series that resulted in a sweep. Odd.Speaking of their fans, it's cool that the team didn't push the wear one color thing on them. In some places it works, but it's overplayed a bit. It's cool to see a packed stadium rocking with fans in all kinds of jerseys and colors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HellOnICE Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Probably cause they've had 383848202 jerseys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewarkDevil5 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Probably cause they've had 383848202 jerseys. I wonder what portion of the crowd still wears Northstar jerseys to games..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevsMan84 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 I wonder what portion of the crowd still wears Northstar jerseys to games..... From what I understand, next to nothing. They were pretty pissed/heartbroken about how things went down with them leaving so I doubt a lot of them would even dare to wear the jerseys again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevsMan84 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Speaking of their fans, it's cool that the team didn't push the wear one color thing on them. In some places it works, but it's overplayed a bit. It's cool to see a packed stadium rocking with fans in all kinds of jerseys and colors I think the main reason is because of what HOI mentioned which is they have changed their jerseys around at least a couple times in their 15 years of existence. I think the 1 color thing looks more visually impressive than fans wearing whatever they want as that's how it looks like any other game. Devils tried this I think for the home opener for the 2011-12 season and a lot of fans whined about the Devils telling them what to do and that they couldn't wear the particular jersey they were planning to wear. Not only that but they refused to put on a shirt that was handed out for free to them for just 1 single game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HellOnICE Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Devils tried for White Outs at the CAA. But if you look at the playoff run in 2012, everyone had a jersey on. So that was fun. Remember Doc Emrick at the opening night of the Rock, commenting "They sure sold a lot of jerseys didn't they" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevsMan84 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Devils tried for White Outs at the CAA. But if you look at the playoff run in 2012, everyone had a jersey on. So that was fun. Remember Doc Emrick at the opening night of the Rock, commenting "They sure sold a lot of jerseys didn't they" That was also around the same time the Premier jerseys were released to mimic the new Edge jerseys the players started to wear. I wonder how many ran out to get one. I remember the white outs at CAA. They were, for the most part, successful. When the Devils tried it at opening night for 11-12 season it didn't turn out well at all for the reasons I stated above. I guess its a new generation of fans. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derlique Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 That was also around the same time the Premier jerseys were released to mimic the new Edge jerseys the players started to wear. I wonder how many ran out to get one. I remember the white outs at CAA. They were, for the most part, successful. When the Devils tried it at opening night for 11-12 season it didn't turn out well at all for the reasons I stated above. I guess its a new generation of fans. Without looking, I believe 11-12 opening night was against the Flyers. So between the ~10 of Flyers fans with their sh!tty orange jersies, that was to be expected Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NJDevs26 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 That was also around the same time the Premier jerseys were released to mimic the new Edge jerseys the players started to wear. I wonder how many ran out to get one. I remember the white outs at CAA. They were, for the most part, successful. When the Devils tried it at opening night for 11-12 season it didn't turn out well at all for the reasons I stated above. I guess its a new generation of fans. I think the real problem was asking fans to wear white when the team wears red at home and the opposition wears white. Whiteouts at the CAA made more sense cause the team actually wore home whites then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevsMan84 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 I think the real problem was asking fans to wear white when the team wears red at home and the opposition wears white. Whiteouts at the CAA made more sense cause the team actually wore home whites then. All teams now wear their dark jerseys at home yet continue to be able to pull off white-outs for years. The team gave out white Devils shirts to everyone in attendance so really they were just asking for people to put it on for a couple of hours. I saw a lot of complaining at the time that pretty much amounted to "Devils can't tell me that I can't wear the jersey I bought with my money!" and "Devils can't tell me what to do!" It was def not about access to the correct color. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewarkDevil5 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 I think the real problem was asking fans to wear white when the team wears red at home and the opposition wears white. Whiteouts at the CAA made more sense cause the team actually wore home whites then. Yeah, I really hate they switched that. Do that many teams even still rotate third jerseys in to where the initial rationale for that change makes sense? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevsMan84 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Yeah, I really hate they switched that. Do that many teams even still rotate third jerseys in to where the initial rationale for that change makes sense? A lot of teams use third jerseys, but most are terrible. Third jerseys are almost always money grabs. I am good with the Devils just using their retros. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Louismydad Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Caps need to put the nail in the coffin tonight Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2ELIAS6 Posted May 8, 2015 Share Posted May 8, 2015 Caps need to put the nail in the coffin tonight lets hope! i feel like the rangers have been out playing them the last couple of games but they have found ways to pull of the wins ..holtby has been solid as a rock and they have been doing a pretty good job blocking shots etc. Lets hope for a couple softies to find their way into the rags net early to set the pace Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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