Caps Mailbag: How do you get rid of the penalties? originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
The Capitals Mailbag is back! Every week this season, I'll be taking your questions and diving into the topics that you want to know.
If you have a question for the mailbag, send it in to capitalsmailbag@gmail.com
Please note, some questions have been edited for clarity.
Blake A. writes: At the pro level, is there something that can be done in practice or meetings to reduce penalties? Like does a drill exist to help with stick discipline? Or is it pretty much just something that needs to come from within? Like how do pro hockey players fix dumb penalties?
The first thing to note is that the penalty situation actually is not as bad as you may think. In terms of PIM per game, Washington ranks 14th in the NHL. I know, I was shocked too. I just assumed they were top-5 after taking 10 penalties in a span of two games.
Sometimes PIMs can be an inaccurate reflection of penalty issues because a team may have a bunch of majors bumping up the average, but Washington also ranks 13th in minors. There is a level of sloppiness to the season thus far that is contributing to this and it's running across the league, not just in Washington.
Having said that, I get your point and that two-game stretch with the second game in Buffalo and the first game in Pittsburgh were awful in terms of the penalties so there is certainly still room for improvement.
To fix penalties, you have to look at the type of penalties the team is taking. You noted the stick penalties. Things like trips, slashes, cross-checks, hooks as well as holds all generally happen when your team does not have the puck.
I wrote about this after the first game against Pittsburgh, but in the games in which they couldn't stay out of the box, the issue wasn't so much the penalties as it was the fact that they could not get or maintain possession of the puck. When you don't have possession and you are forced to play defense, you better be a sound defensive team or these penalties are bound to happen.
I know people don't want to hear this, but it is going to take a little bit of time to adjust to Laviolette's system. Once they do, they should be able to maintain possession better rand the penalties should start to decrease.
Xavier K. writes: How do you feel the players are adjusting to Laviolette’s system and how do you feel about Samsonov’s performance in net so far? He seems shaky and not as confident was wondering what your thoughts are.
With Laviolette's system, I think there's a lot to like there. The problem is we saw a lot of if in the first game and the last three have looked more like last year's team.
The transitions through the neutral zones are so vastly improved I can barely stand it. To think that speed and short passes are not preached by every coach in the NHL is baffling to me and Washington's transitions up the ice are much improved. There are times where they play almost too fast though and it looks like they don't know where to go with the puck once they get to the offensive zone and try to force passes. Defensively, there is still an adjustment there. I don't think they are close to a finished product at that end of the ice.
Complicating things is the fact that there was a shortened training camp and no preseason. A condensed regular season also means fewer practice days. The season started on Jan 14. It is now Jan. 22 and the Caps have had a grand total of two practices during that time. This going to take a while.
The thing to remember about Samsonov is that he is a completely different type of goalie from Braden Holtby. Fans who are used to Holtby are used to the calm nature in which he would play the game. Samsonov, by contrast, has a much more frenetic style. Everything he does is going to look more chaotic because that's the way he plays. Dominik Hasek was like that. Jonathan Quick is another good example.
I'm not saying that Samsonov is going to be a Hasek or that he has been perfect in his two starts, but it is going to take Caps fans who are used to seeing Holtby makes saves like he was ordering a cup of coffee time to adjust to a goalie like Samsonov.
Having said all this, maturity is a concern now. Samsonov is only 23 and I know I did some dumb things when I was 23, but given how Samsonov suffered the neck injury in the summer and now this hotel situation in which he violated protocol, tested positive for COVID and will miss at least four games, these things happened in a span of less than a year. He can't have any more slip-ups like this or it will be impossible not to question his maturity level.
Joseph P. writes: You've mentioned in the past that moving TJ Oshie to the third line would be beneficial due to his age (conserving his energy, since he plays so hard every shift) and his chemistry with Lars Eller, but there was no second line replacement. Even though it was just one game, do you think playing Daniel Sprong on the second line and Oshie on the third could be a regular thing once Laviolette finishes experimenting with lines? How would you handle the situation at this point?
Yes, I have long been on the third-line Oshie bandwagon. If your top two lines are too top-heavy and you are worried about depth scoring, move someone from the top two lines to the third. Oshie immediately reminded us of his chemistry with Eller setting him up for a goal in the first period of Oshie's first game back on the third line. I still like him playing that role. The issue here is what happens with the second line.
You can't have a Jakub Vrana, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Sprong line. Just as a caveat, I said the same thing about Alex Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Ilya Kovalchuk and Todd Reirden began putting that trio on the ice after penalty kills which everyone let me know about. But a Vrana, Kuznetsov, Oshie line would be a problem because there is no one on that line I would trust in the defensive zone. If you replace Kuznetsov with Nicklas Backstrom, then we may have something here.
It also doesn't necessarily have to be Sprong who goes to the second line. It could be Conor Sheary.
Sheary did not leave much of an impression in his first two games, but this is the type of player who elevates his play based on the role he is in. He has not made an impact on the third line, but I do think it is worth a shot to put him on the second and see if he can elevate his play to that role the way he did in Pittsburgh when playing in the top-six.
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Nathan S. writes: Hi JJ. So glad you are doing these again. Any chance that of Caps season goes off the rails that instead of signing Ovi, they trade him to a contender midseason or let him walk after the season to jumpstart a rebuild?
Thanks Nathan! Wow, you certainly welcomed back the mailbag with a doozy.
Let's take the Ovechkin aspect out of this question first. I think there are going to be a lot of teams that have trouble throwing in the towel on the season. With only 56 games, the standings are going to be a lot closer than in a normal year. Plus, I talked above about how it is going to take time for the Caps to adjust to Laviolette's system. We see every year teams who look completely different from the regular season to the playoffs. Already I could see Washington being one of those teams this year once they finally have enough time to adjust to a new coach and understand what he expects from his players.
A midseason trade for a player who makes over $9.5 million per year will be tight to squeeze onto anyone's salary cap as well.
As for Ovechkin specifically, no. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
There are numerous examples in all sports of teams holding onto players too long for nostalgia's sake and knot knowing when they need to just cut bait and start the rebuild. That's totally fair. In this case, however, you just have to cross your fingers and hope he continues contributing for as long as he wants to stay in the NHL.
Ovechkin is the greatest player in franchise history. While I acknowledge that should not simply guarantee him a contract for life, you also have to be mindful of his impact on the hockey community within the area.
This is the hockey city that Ovechkin built. The reason kids are into the game and want to learn hockey and the reason why there are rinks that can accommodate that growing demand and growing interest in the sport is Ovechkin. Washington has had good hockey players before, but it has never had anyone like Ovechkin. To pull the rug out from under him in the middle of the season or just let him walk in the summer, that would be a tough pill for fans to swallow especially with him still chasing Wayne Gretzky's record.
No one is going to care how many first-round draft picks the Caps may have when Ovechkin nears the record and we have to watch him score goals 894 and 895 in someone else's jersey. I think that could damage the team's relationship with its greatest future statesman and the organization's relationship with the fans to a degree that it's just not worth it.
Gianluca T. writes: Hi, talking about the expansion draft, what is the plan? And which player do you think we are going to lose?
This could change throughout the year, but I still believe Oshie is the most likely candidate to be taken by Seattle. It makes sense for both teams as it allows Washington to move the contract of a 34-year old player who has four more years after 2021 at $5.75 million and he is exactly the type of player I would want if I was starting a franchise.
Having said that, Washington is going to have some decent defensemen available too as the team will only be able to protect three of them, per the expansion draft rules.
You can read more about how the team will approach the expansion draft here.
Joe Biden is a noted Flyers fan and actually attended a Capitals-Flyers game in Philadelphia while he was vice president in 2016. When fans are allowed back at Capital One Arena, I'd circle every game against Philadelphia in the calendar as possibilities for a surprise visit from the president.
Thanks for all your questions! If you have a question you want answered in the next mailbag, send it in to capitalsmailbag@gmail.com
