- – Once Shultz went down Green went down hard. Possibly the side effect of playing with newly acquired Scott Hannan – -

Hannan did struggle with the new system, which was the reason for Green’s decline, not Green’s play overall. In fact, Green/Hannan have prob seen tougher competition than Carlzner these past few games – which you’ll see in an upcoming post – but for now take my word.

- – John Carlson is our best defensemen. In part because Green has been slumping all season, but Carlson is also very good. – -

Define “best.” I am not saying I disagree, but define “best.”

- – The top scorers are all slumping for no real reason why – -

There is a VERY real reason why, and I called it in October: http://www.russianmachineneverbreaks.com/2010/10/25/pdo-and-why-the-caps-may-be-struggling/

- – all year this has been plagued by poor breakouts or not finishing chances – -

Not sure this is accurate. As noted in some of my earlier posts, esp during the L8 streak, the Caps were outchancing the opposition, just not converting to goals. However, “finishing ability” is NOT a repeatable skill like generating scoring chances is, so it should concern fans less than when they are repeatedly outchanced, like they have been these last 3 games.

John Carlson is our best defensemen. In part because Green has been slumping all season, but Carlson is also very good.

Whats wrong with the Caps this year? Too much dump not enough chase. Standing still on the PP and constantly sending high risk cross rink passes. The PK is constantly moving and challenging and has been quite successful all year and that’s a huge difference. The top scorers are all slumping for no real reason why. It doesn’t appear to be a x+y=z thing in that they are just missing on variable. But it has roots in the lack of a net presence, effort level, not working down low, and being stagnant.

Last night, I only watched replays, but 2 of the 3 goals came on a breakout-like set up. Laich’s goal was a direct result of dumping the puck low, Ovechkin and Mojo putting pressure on the defensemen to cough up the puck into the slot. Chimera’s goal was dumping behind the net, he comes around with it and catches the goalie leaning. Neither goal, atleast what I viewed, didn’t come from setting up in the off zone playing shiny.

That may be the run and gun part of the caps still alive, but good break outs lead to scoring chances and all year this has been plagued by poor breakouts or not finishing chances.

Yes, let’s trade the two time Norris trophy finalist at once, what a great idea!

Here, why don’t you read this for now.

http://www.japersrink.com/2010/11/5/1795412/is-bruce-boudreau-hiding-mike-green

I’m not saying Green is infallible on defense. He does make mistakes but all defensemen do, even the good ones. Did you watch Dave Bolland’s goal last night against the Preds? He made Ryan Sutter look silly. Top defensemen play a lot of minutes and Green plays 26+ min a night (5th most in the NHL by a D right now) so of course they are going to make some bad plays and take penalties. Also, Carlson and Alzner are currently the shutdown pair for the Caps and doing a great job but I don’t see that as a knock against Schultz and Green’s defense, that just means that Carlson and Alzner are really, really good and well suited for that role. I’ll never understand why some Caps fans focus so much on Green’s mistakes but ignore all the good plays he makes every night. IMO, his work on the PK this year in particular has been great. While Green’s greatest strength will always be his offense, I think he has improved on defense every year despite never having a vet or mentor as a partner to help him out. I mean Shawn Morrison was terrible and Schultz is good but he is also younger than Green and still learning as well. Green has never had a player like Seabrook, Weber, Scuderi/Mitchell, Pronger, etc. to play with. The biggest knock on him of course is his playoff performance in the past two years. He really needs to get it together in the post-season. If he does that I think a lot of the unfair criticism of his defense will subside.

I would love to see some sort of statistical analysis exposing his awfulness.