re: 2017-18 NHL Season Long Thread

Man, I know he's a Flyer, but I love Wayne Simmonds. He's just a hockey player, if that makes sense.

Our top lines did look awful. Defense held up well until the McDavid rush.

Smith looked good i agree. We had too few chances on O. If we dont score on Winnipeg Saturday, ill be considerably more worried.

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his second goal he topped out at 41 km/h. I'm not sure what that is in freedom units

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Thats like 85 mph I believe.

Caps open against a Senators team minus Karlsson, so... we'll lose.

The team said it knew it had to get younger, and then sent its two best young defensemen to Hershey so it could skate the third pair of Ness and Chorney. I... I can't even process that decision. They are essentially skating AHL vets over real prospects and in order to do so, sent the prospects to the AHL.

Did you read this Baloo? From PuckDaddy blog. Your thoughts?

LINK

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THE Anderson asks: “Why do the Capitals overvalue Tom Wilson so much?”

Why does any team overvalue a bad player who actively hurts his team? They love that toughness.

It’s funny, I was watching a Caps preseason game and the delusion that surrounds this player, who by the way picked up TWO suspensions in the preseason, was amazing. They were saying he’d get power play time this year, and that they’d like to see him double his career high for goals, which would put him at 14. And also, they still want him to hit 100 penalty minutes.

I don’t know why on earth you think Tom Wilson being on your power play is a good idea, unless you’re trying to get fired. And I don’t know why getting penalty minutes would be seen as a “good thing.” But hey, they love the guy! He’s so tough!

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First off, I think analytic types hate Tom Wilson WAY out of proportion to his actual sins. That's because they tend to hate hitting and sneer derisively at toughness. I'm not saying traditional hockey types don't have the tendency to overrate toughness (they do, they make it a fetish at times), but there's a happy middle ground that I think both camps wildly miss.

Second, not to defend either hit, but those are literally the first two suspensions of Wilson's career and the second one was pretty much for "being Tom Wilson."

Third, the guy was a first round pick. It's not like he has no skills. We're not talking about Matt Cooke here. The problem is that his development got stunted when the Caps had to keep him on the NHL roster for a full season when he was still 19 due to a rules quirk. And the only NHL level skill he had at 19 was hitting people. It really stifled his development, and put him on the wrong path away from a skill game.


OK, all of those caveats out of the way, Wilson is on the Caps precisely because he is the player everyone says the Caps lack: a tough player who drives to the net. The Caps have a rep of being a bunch of soft Euros, then they have Tom Wilson, who will eat your soul. I don't think the team is as soft as the league says (Ovi loves hitting, Backstrom is a really tough player), nor do I think Wilson is as violent as his rep.

But he HAS failed to develop, and he is what he is: a pretty good bottom six player and penalty killer. He scored 3 even strength playoff goals last year includig a game winner. He's not Ovechkin or anything, but to say he's not a contributor is ridiculous. Every good team has a Tom wilson type in their bottom 6. The key is knowing he's a bottom 6 player.

He's also totally replaceable. The Caps signed Smith-Pelly, who does pretty much the same thing without quite as many PIM. Graovac came over, and he's been on the penalty kill. Of course Beagle is a better version of the player they want Wilson to be (I f'n love Jay Beagle, knowing that he's a 4th line center). They wanted wilson to become what Simmonds is and Tkachuk looks like he will become. He just isn't. He's only 23, so he could still develop, but I think it's time to accept he's a bottom 6 guy who can score a bit and infuriate other teams.

I've heard nothing about him being on the power play. That guy is just making that part up. He didn't play any PP in the preseason, and he barely has done it in the past.

Don't remind me how bad they'll be

I can't believe I thought Howard was going to be the next great USA Olympic goalie at one time.

Eichel got 180? Or was it 100?

How many damn Alternate Captains do the Sabres have? Hell the refs can talk to the whole damn team.

Just saw the new penalty on face offs called

Not sure I like it as it puts the Mickey Mouse PP on the ice.