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2016 World Championships Thread


dlbalr

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Tough tourney for Reway thus far - 0 points, -3, and just 3 shots on goal in 3 games despite playing on the #1 line and averaging over 17 minutes a night.

Maybe he feels he isn't being treated like the star he is and is sulking, I haven't seen much of his play, but was not a stand out in what I saw?

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Who is Washington's top dman? John Carlson.

Tell me, is Carlson in the league of Drew Doughty, Duncan Keith, Zdeno Chara (2011 Edition), Nic Lidstrom, Sergei Gonchar (circa 2009), Niedermayer, Pronger, etc....

You need the entire team. That includes multiple good forwards. A top level defenceman, good goaltending, etc..... so rag on Ovechkin all you want, but Washington has never had the defence to win a cup.

Sid had 0 goals this series, but still made a lot of plays to help the team win. Malkin didn't score in game 6 but made a stick check on Ovechkin to save a goal in OT. Would you count on Ovi to make that same defensive play? I wouldn't. If he's not on the scoresheet he's not helping the team.

If you consistently have 50 goals and under 30 assists, you're a hell of a scorer, but you're not good at setting up teammates. Malkin and Kane aren't stellar defensively, but they help their teammates way more than Ovechkin.

As for physicality, I personally view strength and control along the boards as much more valuable than open ice hits. Ovi's goal-scoring and hitting are forces to be reckoned with, but his deficits are significant in multiple other areas. If Malkin was in his place in Washington all these years they have more playoff success. If Ovi was in Tavares' place on the Islanders they're not as good. Ovi's got below average hockey sense in a generational physical package. I'd love to have him on my team, but damn I'd wish he was smarter.

Washington's had great regular season teams that can't get it done when the chips are down, and a lot of that is on Ovechkin's shoulders. You're right their defense hasn't quite been on par with the other recent Cup winners (except Pittsburgh, this year's Caps have a better D corps than '09 PItt for sure. A better goalie too).

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You massively underrate what Sergei Gonchar was in 2009, and that was a top 5 defenceman in the league.

The Caps don't have that.

I also assume you didn't watch the game today, cause Ovechkin carried that team on his back and got the game into Overtime.

Criticizing Ovechkin for that loss, is terrible analysis of the game that was actually played.

Seriously Ovechkin easily outplayed Sid in that game (the Pens damage came from the Bonino-Kessel-Hagelin line), and if you think he made the little plays that help a team win, while Ovechkin wasn't good enough, I have to seriously question what game you watched. Its crazy.

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Ovechkin has worse brainfarts. I've never seen Sid or any other player for that matter drift like his controller is turned off.

As for today, he sat completely still in his shooting spot during the crucial powerplays, seriously no movement letting the other guys move the puck around, and frequently fumbled the puck out of the zone. 2 points in 8:30 minutes of powerplay time, much of it 5 on 3, isn't that impressive. I'd give more credit to Williams or even Backstrom for their gutsy performances in Washington's comeback.

Anyways, this is a sidenote to the overall point I'm making about what type of player is better in the playoffs; a player who is good in all zones with or without the puck and/or can make his teammates better trumps a greater raw talent with deficits in these areas.

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Guest Stogey24

You massively underrate what Sergei Gonchar was in 2009, and that was a top 5 defenceman in the league.

The Caps don't have that.

I also assume you didn't watch the game today, cause Ovechkin carried that team on his back and got the game into Overtime.

Criticizing Ovechkin for that loss, is terrible analysis of the game that was actually played.

Seriously Ovechkin easily outplayed Sid in that game (the Pens damage came from the Bonino-Kessel-Hagelin line), and if you think he made the little plays that help a team win, while Ovechkin wasn't good enough, I have to seriously question what game you watched. Its crazy.

Washington's D has some issues.

There was a play when Niskanen left the front of the net to chase Kessel from behind the net, which almost turned into a goal. Might have been one of stupidest plays I've seen.

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Ovechkin did more in that series than anything I've seen Koivu do in a series for the Habs.

Wait bad example. Dumb Habs fans blamed Koivu for not winning a Cup.

Koivu was a tremendous playoff performer. What a blood and guts player. Remember when he just dominated Thornton despite having cracked ribs? Sadly we never had a team that could help him.

As for WASH, it's ultimately a mystery, and blaming Ovechkin probably is a huge stretch. I believe in D as a crucial component of team-building, so Commandant's explanation that their blueline is problematic is probably the best one - but for crying out loud, Pittsburgh's D isn't exactly the 1977 Montreal Canadiens either. Meanwhile, a team that NO ONE expected anything from (Tampa) is in the Conference Finals for the second straight year. From a GMing perspective it has to be extremely frustrating.

And one thing it goes to show is that you can never assume that once you have all the pieces in place, the team will go all the way. The odds are that you will still have playoffs lost to injury or just plain disappointing results. Therefore, you have to have a very strong, Cup-calibre team over a number of seasons. One of Washington's problems in the Ovechkin era is that they have taken much, much too long to assemble all the pieces (good coaching, strong goaltending, etc.). They've wasted years and years trying to get the right supporting formula.

That's also why MB cannot afford to wait any longer to fix the top-6. Our core may well need multiple cracks at it even after the glaring holes are filled.

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Maybe he feels he isn't being treated like the star he is and is sulking, I haven't seen much of his play, but was not a stand out in what I saw?

I think it's more that he's a top liner and teams are keying in against that line. As much as Reway has a lot of offensive talent, he's not good enough to be shouldering a big chunk of the offensive load. He did get a point today, albeit in a losing effort.

Andrighetto had a nice game against Latvia, 3 points and Player of the Game honours.

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Holy shit. I was asleep or what ?!?!

Almost forgot my annual post about how this tournament is irrelevant since major top world class players don't play in this wannabe "world" championships, yada yada yada.

Edit : I feel good again, can now move on with my life.

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If you think Crosby outplayed Ovechkin in that series just cause his team won... I have to ask if you actually watched the series.

Of the two Ovechkin was clearly the better player.

The difference is the best line in the series was Kessel - Bonino - Hagelin, Murray outplayed Holtby, and the Pens defence was better.

Hockey is a team sport, you win and lose as a team, not based on one player.

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Wow... Lozo went hard on this one...

"You're telling me Crosby had two points and zero goals while Ovechkin was better than a point-per-game player but Crosby's team beat Ovechkin's team? How is this possible? I was taught superstar hockey players decide everything in the playoffs. Were Crosby's two points super-inspiring, leadership-laden, grit assists (gritssists™) that lifted his team while Ovechkin had all empty-net points in mop-up time that somehow prevented winning?

No, you idiot.

Hell, Ovechkin came pretty close to winning Game 5 on his own.

So why? Why do these individual showings go against all I have ever heard about these two players since they faced off in the 2009 playoffs and the Capitals failed to reach a single conference finals with Ovechkin on the roster?

Because all this bullshit you hear all the time about the winning/losing innate characteristics of individual players is just that—bullshit."

Holy crap.

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Condon got the shutout and Player of the Game against France.

Eller's team lost 10-1...Eller had an assist (1 in each game) and was +1. I always get a kick out of seeing a blowout and someone on the losing team still managing a plus rating.

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Condon got the shutout and Player of the Game against France.

Eller's team lost 10-1...Eller had an assist (1 in each game) and was +1. I always get a kick out of seeing a blowout and someone on the losing team still managing a plus rating.

Wow. How do you get a +1 in a 10-1 game? The rest of that team must really suck

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Wow. How do you get a +1 in a 10-1 game? The rest of that team must really suck

To be fair, four of the goals were on the PP (so no +/- gets awarded). Even at that, being a plus player on the losing end is a bit difficult.

As for them not being a good team, that's true. They have a few NHL'ers up front (Eller, Ehlers, and Hansen) but it goes downhill after that.

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Haha are you trolling us Donny? Galchenyuk back to the wing?

Yes...and No.

I think Galchenyuk would do fine at either position. :popcorn:

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I know you can never assume, but are there any reasons dadanov wouldn't be able to take second line Center duty? Over a point per game in the KHL sounds like it would translate well to the NHL. If he isn't good defensively plex could cover those duties

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I know you can never assume, but are there any reasons dadanov wouldn't be able to take second line Center duty? Over a point per game in the KHL sounds like it would translate well to the NHL. If he isn't good defensively plex could cover those duties

Dadonov's the winger, Shipachyov the centre. Shipachyov should be a decent 2nd or 3rd line centre though I don't believe he's the most responsible in his own end.

Tough day for Condon today, 3 goals allowed on 14 shots in a loss to Germany. Andrighetto had another strong game against the Swedes while Plekanec was the lone Czech player to score in a loss to Denmark.

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