Caps goaltending woes...

[allstar1579]

Ok, I'm officially to the worried point. It is fair to say with signing Theodore, that we had a risk involved. This is the guy that for two years couldn't beat out a guy that can't win a starting job this year, and is seven years removed from his MVP season.

What I ask of you my fellow CAPS fans, is how do you treat the situation? Do you hope he gets better knowing that giving up at least 3 a game, he gives you a better chance to lose than win in the NHL, or do you start thinking about making a move?

Lets make it more interesting as Johnson is a great backup, but not usually great as a starter and he is nursing some sort of injury that they won't officially announce. The 3 in-house options to replace someone are Varmelov: the russian 21 year old that is compared to Bryzgalov (he is out with a groin strain which tend to linger in goaltenders), Machensey: the 22 year old who has been steady but never really separated himself from the competition, and Neuvirth: the 20 year old who could be the next Czech superstar, but was recently loaned back overseas and rated about equal with Machensey so far (he can be recalled, but too much movement might stunt his growth).

There is also another up and comer drafted last year in Holtby that is actually rated to be slightly better than Machensey and Neuvirth, and a notch behind Varmelov.

Being a playoff team, how to you approach this dilemma?

[Bosibus]

Start looking...

[tywright]

Right now we have to stick with Theodore and hope he starts playing up to his potential. We'll going to be stuck with him through next year. When he's on...he's on, so there is hope. But he's a streaky goalie that needs a good D in front of him to clear out the rebounds and limit shots. The Caps D is still pretty suspect so I don't see that happening until Alzner gets up here, Schultz becomes more experienced, and Green becomes a better overall "D"man. Morrison, Poti, and Erskine being hurt doesn't help much either.

As for Varlamov...he should be making an impact in 2010. Here's some more info on him http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/semen_varlamov

[Dracula]

What's the earliest we would bring up Alzner? He's probably not as seasoned as they want him to be but I'm sure he would help the D

[allstar1579]

Right now we have to stick with Theodore and hope he starts playing up to his potential. We'll going to be stuck with him through next year. When he's on...he's on, so there is hope. But he's a streaky goalie that needs a good D in front of him to clear out the rebounds and limit shots. The Caps D is still pretty suspect so I don't see that happening until Alzner gets up here, Schultz becomes more experienced, and Green becomes a better overall "D"man. Morrison, Poti, and Erskine being hurt doesn't help much either.

As for Varlamov...he should be making an impact in 2010. Here's some more info on him http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/semen_varlamov

I don't think it's a question of playing to potential when you are on the wrong side of 30. He hasn't really had a good year in 6 years, and he has lost a step so to speak as a goalie. I have seen him in person 4 times this year, and I can tell you he isn't getting beat by good players, and this crap about the D costing him goals in the paper is just that, crap. He is not covering his rebounds...ever, and he's getting beat 5 hole on 50% of the goals because he is too lazy to drop down to butterfly. He just isn't giving 100% effort in most if not every game he plays.

We have a good solid D man on every pair out there, the paper is trying to say that they are giving up too many easy opportunities, but they aren't as bad as they are made out to be. Green is going to give up position once in a while, that is the nature of being such an offensive D man, we just have to take the trade off if we want a guy scoring 20 goals from the blue line. Morrison is solid, Poti is solid when he is healthy, Erskine is healthy. Jurcina shouldn't be there, Alzner should, but until we trade off some salary, that won't happen because we are right up against the cap, so once again we can thank Theodore for not having our best D in each game. The best illustration of our D is how many shots we are allowing a game, which we are 7th in the league at 27.3 shots allowed. Our save % is 87% though and that is just unacceptable for NHL goalies. 90% is the lowest you are looking for.

Varmalov is close to ready to getting a shot, but he has a groin injury and is out for a couple weeks, so that pretty much kills it for this season, it will take him too long to get back from that and get in top form.

[tywright]

I don't think it's a question of playing to potential when you are on the wrong side of 30. He hasn't really had a good year in 6 years, and he has lost a step so to speak as a goalie. I have seen him in person 4 times this year, and I can tell you he isn't getting beat by good players, and this crap about the D costing him goals in the paper is just that, crap. He is not covering his rebounds...ever, and he's getting beat 5 hole on 50% of the goals because he is too lazy to drop down to butterfly. He just isn't giving 100% effort in most if not every game he plays.

We have a good solid D man on every pair out there, the paper is trying to say that they are giving up too many easy opportunities, but they aren't as bad as they are made out to be. Green is going to give up position once in a while, that is the nature of being such an offensive D man, we just have to take the trade off if we want a guy scoring 20 goals from the blue line. Morrison is solid, Poti is solid when he is healthy, Erskine is healthy. Jurcina shouldn't be there, Alzner should, but until we trade off some salary, that won't happen because we are right up against the cap, so once again we can thank Theodore for not having our best D in each game. The best illustration of our D is how many shots we are allowing a game, which we are 7th in the league at 27.3 shots allowed. Our save % is 87% though and that is just unacceptable for NHL goalies. 90% is the lowest you are looking for.

Varmalov is close to ready to getting a shot, but he has a groin injury and is out for a couple weeks, so that pretty much kills it for this season, it will take him too long to get back from that and get in top form.

Hopefully by the time he gets called up, you'll have Varlamov's name spelled correctly ;)

[allstar1579]

Hopefully by the time he gets called up, you'll have Varlamov's name spelled correctly ;)

Nah, probably not ;) He gets 5 wins, I'll take spelling notes.

[tywright]

Hmm Brent Johnson has a good game last night and Boudreau rewards him with a start against Carolina tomorrow night. We have ourselves a little goalie controvery brewing.

[allstar1579]

Hmm Brent Johnson has a good game last night and Boudreau rewards him with a start against Carolina tomorrow night. We have ourselves a little goalie controvery brewing.

Yuppers, the easy answer is for BJ to get 2/3 of the starts until JT puts together a string of decent starts (not holding my breath). The team is scoring almost 4 goals a game, which is great, but if you are giving up 2-3 goals on the first 10 shots like JT likes to do, it's a demoralizing hole to put yourself in.

Just a bad FA acquisition and why teams should develop goaltenders rather than signing another team's Goalies are like SP in MLB, you develop a young star and keep them, you don't let them go in FA, if you do, something is wrong.

[Bosibus]

What goaltending woes? :)

[allstar1579]

What goaltending woes? :)

The ones anytime Johnson doesn't start ;) Take out the 3 goals BJ gave up in the 2/3 of a game early this season and his GAA is under 2.00.

Theodore will start the next one to give Brent a break and to pretend we are still giving him a shot to straighten it out, hopefully Johnson will be back the next game.

[Bosibus]

The ones anytime Johnson doesn't start ;) Take out the 3 goals BJ gave up in the 2/3 of a game early this season and his GAA is under 2.00.

Theodore will start the next one to give Brent a break and to pretend we are still giving him a shot to straighten it out, hopefully Johnson will be back the next game.

I agree. BJ is the man right now...ranks 4th in the NHL in SV%.

Glad to see OV get one last night. He looked relieved on the replay when he was going for the group celebration.

[allstar1579]

I agree. BJ is the man right now...ranks 4th in the NHL in SV%.

Glad to see OV get one last night. He looked relieved on the replay when he was going for the group celebration.

I thought they all played well last night, but Boudreau lit them up anyway for the 2nd period. OV needed that, I'm glad Olie could help him out ;)

My boy Fehr looked great last night, he just really needs a chance to shine, but the kid is for real, he's huge, plays physical, and has that touch for the net. I like the reuniting of the top line from the year they won it all in Hershey (Laich/Steckel/Fehr) but I would actually rather see Fleichmann go on that line and Laich go to Nylander/Kozlov, and leave the top 3 together.

Way to go Brent, hopefully he'll get to start again tomorrow!

[DuffMan]

Nice to see them go on a little bit of a winning streak. And if Ovechkin is starting to get on track this will only help things even more.

Looks like Johnson is going to be the #1 in goal for the time being.

[allstar1579]

Johnson got hurt in the 1st tonight....<sigh>.

[tywright]

Johnson got hurt in the 1st tonight....<sigh>.

Yeah but Theodore looked solid in the final 2 periods by stopping all 13 shots.

[allstar1579]

Yeah but Theodore looked solid in the final 2 periods by stopping all 13 shots.

You know how sad it is that we are getting excited over him stopping 13 shots? Don't get me wrong, I'll take it for now, but I'm personally holding my breath and hoping Johnson can start Saturday night.

[Bosibus]

You know how sad it is that we are getting excited over him stopping 13 shots? Don't get me wrong, I'll take it for now, but I'm personally holding my breath and hoping Johnson can start Saturday night.

Does anyone know for sure if he is starting or still hurt?

[allstar1579]

Does anyone know for sure if he is starting or still hurt?

It's a pretty good bet because they didn't call up a goalie for tonight's game, so he is the backup and if JT gets hurt, he's in. That would put him in line to get back in the saddle tomorrow after giving him a short rest.

[Bosibus]

Soooo would have loved to win that game last night. Amazing.

[hammer310]

Soooo would have loved to win that game last night. Amazing.

I know dude, winning the game in OT after Ovie tied the game with one second would have been awesome.

I hate going to shootouts because none of our guys ever perform well.

Overall, I think it was a pretty sloppy defensive effort. Mike Green had a very poor defensive game.

IMO, Theodore was not as bad as his stats showed. He saved the Caps from giving up like 10 goals, he had some fantastic saves. The Defense had been playing well, so I'll let it go down as just a bad game.

[allstar1579]

I know dude, winning the game in OT after Ovie tied the game with one second would have been awesome.

I hate going to shootouts because none of our guys ever perform well.

Overall, I think it was a pretty sloppy defensive effort. Mike Green had a very poor defensive game.

IMO, Theodore was not as bad as his stats showed. He saved the Caps from giving up like 10 goals, he had some fantastic saves. The Defense had been playing well, so I'll let it go down as just a bad game.

Yeah, not a great game, but Theodore can not go giving up 5 goals a game, regardless of how good or bad we have been playing, not making $5.5 mil a year. Green never plays particularly well, he is an offensive D man, so that by nature is going to create a lot of holes on his D, that is why he is paired with our best Defensive guy in Morry. Alzner could probably go into that slot if not for fears of going over the cap.

I was hoping Theodore would have a good couple games and we could trade him to free up some space :)