NHL 2017 -Official Discussion Thread

[StCapps]

Ovechkin has gotten away from the one-dimensional game. He isn't just a scorer anymore, he's made some great fucking passes, his vision has improved by leaps and bounds. You are living in the past.

Orly? To go along with his 4 goals, OV has a grand total of 2 assists. Malkin has 10. Crosby has 7. Kessel has 7.

Meh, not his fault that guys are often choking when he gets them the puck in good position to score. You should blame Backstrom, Kuznetsov, the puck watching defense and Holtby, long before you get around to shitting on Ovechkin. Yet you proceed right to shitting on Ovechkin, just like the retarded hockey media that can only ever view a Caps-Pens series through the Crosby vs Ovechkin frame.

[Smitty-48]

You have a $124 million franchise player, whose team is built around him, who, for the umpteenth time in a row, is just not producing in the playoffs, it ain't rocket science, when the chips are down, OV doesn't produce, how many times does it have to happen, before people stop making excuses for him?

4+2 in 8, is "showing up"? Not when you're a franchise player ostensible offensive superstar, not if you play for the Penguins at least, face facts, OV is a bust, again.

[StCapps]

You have a $124 million franchise player, whose team is built around him, who, for the umpteenth time in a row, is just not producing in the playoffs, it ain't rocket science, when the chips are down, OV doesn't produce, how many times does it have to happen, before people stop making excuses for him?

Well I didn't make excuses for him when he played like shit in the playoffs in past years. The fact is though that he's actually playing pretty good this go around, despite not having a point per game in the playoffs, and he's gotten a lot better defensively and become a much better team player. I'm not going to shit on him when he's actually stepped up his game this go around, just because Crosby is playing even better. Some folks will pile on Ovechkin no matter how he plays in the playoffs though apparently, it's always his fault, even when it very clearly is not.

[Smitty-48]

"Pretty good" just doesn't cut it, in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Ovechkin is ever "pretty good", but he's never great, and that, is why they lose.

[StCapps]

"Pretty good" just doesn't cut it, in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Ovechkin is ever "pretty good", but he's never great, and that, is why they lose.

This time they are losing because the rest of the team sucks, not because Ovechkin isn't playing well enough. Why are blaming the best player on the ice for the play of the biggest underperformers on the ice? Ovechkin can't play for them, how is that his fault? OV is doing a much better job living up to expectations in the playoffs, than Holtby, the entire fucking defense or Kuznetsov. That's their fault, not his and all the reasons I just mentioned are a far bigger why the Caps are losing than Ovechkin's play, get real.

[Smitty-48]

"Pretty good" just doesn't cut it, in the Stanley Cup playoffs, Ovechkin is ever "pretty good", but he's never great, and that, is why they lose.

This time they are losing because the rest of the team sucks, not because Ovechkin isn't playing well enough. Why are blaming the best player on the ice for the play of the worst players on the ice? Ovechkin can't play for them, how is that his fault?

Because your assertion that it is the team which has to lift up its superstars in the playoffs, is silly, that's not how it works, when the chips are down, your best players have to be at their best, this is what gets the team over the hump, what seperates the wheat from the chaff, and with Ovechkin, he just doesn't show up, and no team can win in the playoffs, when their big gun goes in the tank, and it's not just once or twice this has happened, it happens every year, like clockwork, the Capitals don't choke, Ovechkin chokes, every single year, year after year, and its happening again.

4+2 in 8, the numbers don't lie.

[StCapps]

Because your assertion that it is the team which has to lift up its superstars in the playoffs, is silly, that's not how it works, when the chips are down, your best players have to be at their best, this is what gets the team over the hump, what seperates the wheat from the chaff, and with Ovechkin, he just doesn't show up, and no team can win in the playoffs, when their big gun goes in the tank, and it's not just once or twice this has happened, it happens every year, like clockwork, the Capitals don't choke, Ovechkin chokes, every single year, year after year, and its happening again.

Every team has superstars and they tend to cancel each other out. The difference between teams that win in the playoffs and teams that lose in the playoffs isn't the play of their top players, it's the depth. You are just wrong, especially in this particular case. The team who pulls the most Guentzel type role players out their ass and combines that with great goaltending wins, not the team with best stars. The best stars put a basement on your teams peformance level, what gets you over the top is depth, every fucking time.

You are describing the NBA, not the NHL, with this superstars stepping up is the most important factor in the playoffs schtick.

[Smitty-48]

All the depth in the world doesn't mean shit, if your big guns don't show up, Washington proves it every year, they've spent a decade building one of the deepest teams in the league, and they win the Presidents Trophy with ease, just because they are so deep, but when the playoffs come, their big gun goes in the tank, can't score, while the other teams big guns score, and Washington never makes it past the second round, Washington brings in a different supporting cast every year, they upgrade their depth over and over, with different guys, guys who have won with other teams, but there's only one constant, the choke is coming from the same place, every time.

4+2 in 8. Only scored 2 goals against the Leafs, one of the worst defensive teams in the league, far from being the 1995 NJ Devils, it was a bunch of soft rookies who can't keep the puck out of their own net; the numbers don't lie, Ovechkin doesn't produce when the playoffs come, no matter who the Caps play.

[StCapps]

All the depth in the world doesn't mean shit, if your big guns don't show up

Obviously but the big guns in the world don't mean shit if your depth doesn't show up. Teams who go far in the playoffs have both working for them and the team who usually wins the Cup is the team whose depth shows up in force while their big guns don't go quiet and the goaltending gets hot. If I had to choose only two of three factors, I'd take depth showing up in force and hot goaltending over the big guns going off, any day of the week, because those factors put Cup winning teams over the top more often than the Big Guns do.

[Smitty-48]

Backstrom has 3+5, Williams has 3+3, Oshie has 3+9, Johansson has 2+3, everybody on the Caps is scoring to their pace, except Ovechkin, the depth has actually shown up, they're the only ones who have showed up, the only other guy who hasn't shown up, is Kuzetzov, surprise-surprise; another Russian Prima Donna.

The Caps did the Pens a big favour taking Ovechkin in the draft, they could have had Malkin instead; whoops. The Caps picked the shitty Russian, the Pens got the real first overall pick that year, and down the middle, instead of on the wing.