2023-24 NHL Season Thread.

[Rennadrel]

An interesting turn of events...

http://capitals.nhl.com/club/news.ht...id=DL|WSH|home

I am not surprised, it popped up on Twitter the other night that Boudreau was being replaced and this confirms it. Tough luck for the guy, as he did have a reasonable amount of success with the team, however they have failed to start off strong this year.

---------- Post added 2011-11-28 at 05:17 PM ----------

I've heard grumblings about a coaching change there for a while now so it's not too surprising. Still, it's not like Washington has dug a terrible hole for themselves. Every team has a slump now and then. The players need a few wins to get their confidence back and it should be all good.

I think part of the problem is that the expectations for Washington are far too high. Remember how they were dominating for about 3 years running? Their struggles, and while the East is certainly highly competitive right now, I think a lot of the other coaches have just figured out the type of game Washington plays and they have failed to adapt to it and can't get their top players to score.

As for the Hurricanes firing Paul Maurice AGAIN, why am I not surprised? He was a shitty coach in Carolina, a shitty coach in Toronto and a shitty coach in Carolina again, odds are he never gets an NHL job again which is funny seeing as how he has at his disposal some very good talent in Eric Staal, Cam Ward and Jeff Skinner as well as veterans like Tomas Kaberle who is still a reasonably good player in the right situations.

[VanillaO]

Kaberle has been pretty useless for a couple years now, but they do have too much talent to be playing that poorly. As for the Capitals, I think they straight up just gave up on Boudreau (the players)... when a coach loses the players, it's time for him to go, no matter how the team is doing.

[Rennadrel]

It's not like Washington is that bad, at least they aren't Columbus or something. To give Boudreau credit, his team sits 8th in the East and only 5 points out of 1st place in the conference. Pittsburgh is on a tear right now and are arguably one of the best playing teams with or without Crosby, and the fact that they are getting almost all of their roster back early means they could be in for a long haul and one of the biggest Cup contenders. I can't see Washington being an 8th seed team as they are without a doubt better then any of the teams below them in terms of pure skill and talent, however I think that the competition in the East right now is arguably the toughest and every game matters, they need to be winning the games against the teams they know they can beat. I would anticipate that a post season birth for any team in the East right now is going to require 90 or more points, as opposed to the usual 82, that's how close it is. Even some of the teams below the 8th seed are not really bad teams, they just aren't playing up to snuff with some of the higher seeded teams right now.

If you look at Toronto for instance, there is no way in hell they are a 2nd or 3rd place team, however they are fighting with Boston for the division lead. I mean, ideally Washington should be a 1-5 team in the East no question, but they need to step up and play like it as a team, it's not all the coaches fault if the players are not playing with any heart.

[Cheddabezze]

Kaberle has been pretty useless for a couple years now

I agree 3000% percent. I HATED him when he was with us. (Just look how SHORT his stick is. WTF?!)

[Zoma]

Now now, let's keep a player's stick size out of the discussion.

[Asera]

Pacioretty suspended for 3 games. As much as I like him, it's a warranted suspension.

[Rennadrel]

Habs fans must be rioting tonight

[Greeney]

I agree 3000% percent. I HATED him when he was with us. (Just look how SHORT his stick is. WTF?!)

I didn't like him when he was with the Leafs either. Always felt this city hyped him up WAY more than he deserved.

[Cheddabezze]

IAlways felt this city hyped him up WAY more than he deserved.

Same story here. He was supposed to come in and make our power play super strong. Look what our power play did last year. Nuff' said.

[Masqerader]

just because the 4 other guys didn't capitalize on the pp, doesn't mean it is 1 guys fault.

[Rennadrel]

I didn't like him when he was with the Leafs either. Always felt this city hyped him up WAY more than he deserved.

I think his point production over the year speaks for itself. Positionally he has been pretty crap for a couple of years and he is soft when it comes to hitting, he pretty much doesn't hit at all which you should be doing in his position.

[Greeney]

I think his point production over the year speaks for itself. Positionally he has been pretty crap for a couple of years and he is soft when it comes to hitting, he pretty much doesn't hit at all which you should be doing in his position.

It's not just hitting, he never blocked a shot. It drove me nuts having a defenceman who was too scared to block a puck.


Kabookie, our powerplay was shit while he was here too.
We have a bad habit of hyping up player to be better than they are. A first liner in Toronto a few years ago might have made the third line on any other team at that point.

[Rennadrel]

There were a lot of things shit during Kaberle's career in Toronto, he was just a slightly above average player on a team with slightly above average players for most of his good tenure with the team. Post lockout was when they started sucking it up hard and the whole rebuild deal finally fell into place. I'd take a 23 year old Kaberle again doing what he did in his younger years, but then again we do have Jake Gardiner who is coming along nicely playing in the NHL and I think will eventually be a good power play quarter back with better foot speed and defensive abilities then Kaberle. Seriously, Gardiner is one of the best acquisitions Burke has made as GM, aside from getting Lupul as part of the trade for Beauchemin. Funny how the tables have turned though with the trades he has made.

[AceofHarts]

Patrick Eaves out 6-8 weeks iwth a broken jaw after that knucklepuck from Josi. hope he's feeling well and hope Josi doesn't feel like it was all his fault.

[Irony]

Scary looking incident. Third player on the Wings to have a broken jaw.

[Masqerader]

It's not just hitting, he never blocked a shot. It drove me nuts having a defenceman who was too scared to block a puck.


Kabookie, our powerplay was shit while he was here too.
We have a bad habit of hyping up player to be better than they are. A first liner in Toronto a few years ago might have made the third line on any other team at that point.

kaberle as a player is puck mover and a guy who sets up 1 timers, phaneuf/beauchmin couldnt hit the net the first year and a half there, remember what he did with mccabe, like i said, you can't blame 1 guy and not the four others for a bad pp...also consider the other team doing there job to stop the other team from scoring on the pp, a d man with close to 550 points in what 12 year career isn't that bad.


i mean if you want to talk over priced, and really bad d-man look no further then chris phillips

[Atrea]

I think his point production over the year speaks for itself. Positionally he has been pretty crap for a couple of years and he is soft when it comes to hitting, he pretty much doesn't hit at all which you should be doing in his position.

When a player's shots on goal can be measured with a single digit, they aren't NHL caliber any longer.
Tomas Kaberle should retire, before his shots on goal can be measured in fractions.

---------- Post added 2011-11-29 at 12:29 AM ----------

kaberle as a player is puck mover and a guy who sets up 1 timers, phaneuf/beauchmin couldnt hit the net the first year and a half there, remember what he did with mccabe, like i said, you can't blame 1 guy and not the four others for a bad pp...also consider the other team doing there job to stop the other team from scoring on the pp, a d man with close to 550 points in what 12 year career isn't that bad.


i mean if you want to talk over priced, and really bad d-man look no further then chris phillips

Don't bring up Bryan "More goals in my own net than in the other team's" McCabe; guy's a fucking goof.

I play defense, and an old boss of mine used to play defense also. You know what we used to call each other to poke fun?
"McCabe".

[Irony]

You really seem to hate ex-Leaf defensmen. I'd be happy, considering both of them left Toronto when their talent took a nose dive.

[Kynn]

Washington Capitals = San Jose East

[Irony]

Washington Capitals = San Jose East

Besides them both being teams with lots of talent that can't seem to win the big game, they have nothing in common.
But ok.