Comments on: SHOE’s Perspective on New Capitals Signing Steve Oleksy

By: serpent

serpent — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 17:38:00 +0000

Well—-ok. As long as we don’t morph into the Monumental Bullies.

By: Hockeynightincanada

Hockeynightincanada — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 16:50:00 +0000

Bradley was great….I admired Clark to in unique ways he contributed. He was a solid 4th line winger brought in to shut down the other team, and that’s what he did. Good leader, won pucks along the board, wore out the opposition in the opponent’s end of the ice. I think that 30 goal season raised the expectations a bit for some unfortunately, and even more unlucky to have had the injury problems he was dealing with.

By: Peter Hassett

Peter Hassett — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 14:49:00 +0000

I loved Clark and Brads (and to a lesser extent Brash). I’m completely opposed to enforcers or guys whose main duty is fighting, but I can’t get enough of a tough checking line that can throw hits when needed. A couple guys like Bradley can be great for a team as long– especially at a 650k-1mil salary.

By: Fedor

Fedor — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:02:00 +0000

Meant AHL regular in that tweet. Late night tweeting is hard.

By: Fedor

Fedor — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:01:00 +0000

https://twitter.com/FedFedRMNB/status/308354929280561152 Two days ago. Wow.

By: Hockeynightincanada

Hockeynightincanada — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:49:00 +0000

I think right now it’s a matter of adding character. I don’t want to turn the clock too far back, but let’s go back as far as Clark, Brads, Brash, and Heward since we had a team full of guys willing to protect our top-line forwards/star players. Teams disrespect us and take frequent runs at us because they know that nobody but Hendricks will respond. Saturday was a good start, but I think it’s Oates sending a message to his own team.

Agree, fighting isn’t as frequent in the game as it used to be, but contrary to what people say, it still plays a major role when the timing is right. I’m a bit old fashioned though, but I believe you need a balance of everything on your squad, from flashy forwards, energy line guys, shut down D-men puckmoving d-men, and your enforcers. All go hand in hand.

By: brian!

brian! — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:15:00 +0000

Sounds about right, I just wonder where he plans to put the tough guys on a limited roster and how he plans to utilize them, given the way the NHL is slowly moving away from fights and physical brutality. I’m also reminded of Hunters failed Joel Rechlicz experiment last season.

By: Hockeynightincanada

Hockeynightincanada — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 05:05:00 +0000

So the Caps re-sign John Erskine, claim Volpatti off of waivers, and now call up Olesky. I think it says quite a bit about what kind of players Oates feels this team needs right now. Not over the top players, but it adds toughness and I’d take that over some of the soft bunch we’ve been playing earlier this season.