Airing of Grievances – How Barry Trotz is Hurting the Washington Capitals
To preface this rant, Barry Trotz is a good NHL coach. He’s unquestionably much better than Adam Oates who shipwrecked the franchise into the rocks last year. Now that Trotz has gotten the Caps back on track, it’s fair to ask whether he’s the guy to get them to the Promised Land and some of his recent roster deployments call his logic into question.
In my opinion, some of his decisions in recent weeks have contributed to the Caps losing points. Mostly, they involve Trotz’s penchant for favoring veteran NHL players when push comes to shove and punishing players under the age of 25 for team-wide poor play at times.
Here are four things Trotz has done wrong and why. Also, beneath each mini rant is a special feature – an “Oates Approval Rating” based on a 1-10 scale of how likely it is Oates would approve of the move.
1) Continuing to play Jay Beagle on the top line in favor of Andre Burakovsky.
Beagle is a perfectly fine fourth liner and has a certain value to a team. He’s good at suppressing shots against, a solid penalty killer and an excellent faceoff guy. Beagle should in no way be playing on the first line more than once in a blue moon.
Unfortunately, putting Beagle on the top line seems to be Trotz’s go-to move when he’s unhappy with the team’s overall performance. Burakovsky, being a skilled forward under the age of 25, is an easy target and seems to pay the price for the entire team’s misgivings in those situations.
Sending a message once or twice? That’s fine. This is a pattern of behavior, though, for Trotz. He has an affinity for Beagle and perhaps an irrational fear of Burakovsky’s rookie mistakes which in his mind seem to outweigh his overall very good play.
Beagle has now started three consecutive games next to Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom and I’d argue that, while one forward out of twelve can only have so much negative impact on his team in a single game, Top Line Beagle has hurt this team this week to some degree.
The top-line was mediocre in a strong overall possession game for the Caps in their 1-0 loss to Montreal and who knows? If Burakovsky starts that game, maybe it’s enough of a difference to put the Caps on the board.
Ovechkin is playing as well as he has at any point in his career right now and it’s carrying the offense around him. The secondary scoring has, by in large, been lacking recently. Burakovsky, by possession numbers and point scoring pace is one of the best forwards on the team with little debate. He would probably help the team with that issue.
Beagle, for his part, had a nasty turnover against the Habs in front of the Caps’ net that led to a critical Brooks Oprik penalty late in the game. He took two penalties yesterday against St. Louis. What example is he providing, again?
Oates Approval Rating: 9
Oates would definitely approve of Beagle on the top line, except in his opinion Trotz probably isn’t playing him there regularly enough, therefore the move only gets a 9 on the Oates Approval Rating scale. Still, Oates would likely be proud that Trotz is carrying on what has become a franchise tradition started by Dale Hunter three years ago and continues today.
2) Justin Peters remains the the team’s backup
We hear a similar refrain every single time Peters gets lit up on the second night of back-to-backs and fails to keep his team in the game – “It was a team-wide failure, you can’t blame the goalie for that loss!”
My stance is that a goalie with an .870 save percentage, worse than any NHL regular besides Chad Johnson of the Islanders, shouldn’t so easily be granted the benefit of the doubt. He let in four goals against the Blues on Sunday and, sure, the team in front of him allowed 40 shots and generally looked weak. Still, the third St. Louis goal was the product of a juicy rebound he allowed into the slot while the fourth was another two-on-one in which he was grossly out of position. We saw several of those against Dallas.
It seems Trotz still doesn’t see the need to replace Peters, even despite mountains of evidence suggesting he’s not the answer as Braden Holtby‘s backup.
Oates Approval Rating: 5
On the one hand, Peters has been roundly terrible all year and Oates would probably like that about him and give him lots of playing time. On the other hand, Oates likes to carry three goalies and right now the Caps are only carrying two.
3) Jack Hillen Keeps Getting Time with Mike Green
Jack Hillen is a barely-serviceable NHL defenseman at this point in his career and his continued pairing with Green is dragging the latter down significantly. He’s arguable turned Green into a bad 3rd pair D as opposed to the elite defenseman he really is.
When they’re on the ice together they’re sporting an Oatesian 47.1% Corsi-For. Without Hillen, Green is 56% and an absolutely game-changer who carries the bottom-six forwards along for the ride with him.
And yet, Trotz hasn’t seen fit to split the pairing apart since Nate Schmidt was injured weeks ago. Hillen, like Beagle, is another NHL veteran. That’s pretty much the only pro I can think of to Hillen. Trotz has me miffed on this one. The Caps could play literally anyone else with Green and have better results.
Oates Approval Rating: 8
Oates is probably a huge fan of Hillen’s continued deployment because he was all about having a brutal third pair on D, although when Oates did the same thing with Connor Carrick last year, Carrick was way too green for the NHL. Hillen is at least a veteran who has been not-terrible in the past, so his deployment isn’t as comical as what Oates featured on the third pair.
4) Tom Wilson Should Be in Hershey
Instead, Wilson’s play continues to regress as he languishes on the fourth line under Barry Trotz. Now, I can’t begrudge Trotz for not sticking to his original goal of playing Wilson in the top-nine because the young forward hasn’t earned it. But what is Wilson contributing to the team now, exactly? What good is it doing to his development to have him under-develop with the Caps as opposed to marinating in Hershey with top-line and power play minutes?
Many of us crushed Oates for doing this exact same thing last year and rightfully so. Trotz should shoulder an equal amount of blame for how he’s handling Wilson now.
Oates Approval Rating: 10
Are you kidding? Oates INVENTED fourth-line Tom Wilson! Keep it going all season long!