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GameDay DC-Caps Head to the Pepsi Center |
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Match-up – Washington Capitals (9-7-1 )@ Colorado Avalanche (13-2-0)
Road/Home records – 3-4-1-------------- 7-2-0
TV –CSW
Puck drop - 8:00 PM ET
Season series - 1-0 Colorado; 5-1 in Washington on October 12th.
Last 10: 7-2-1 (WSH) and 8-2-0 (COL)
Projected starting goalies –Braden Holtby (WSH) v Semyon Varlamov (COL) – Confirmed
Goals for/against per game:
Colorado:- 3.33(4th) and 1.80 (1st)
Washington: 3.06 (9th) and 2.76 (19th)
Power play/Penalty Kill:
Colorado-19.2% (14th) and 87.5% (3rd)
Washington- 28.2% (1st) and 88.2% (2nd)
The Caps are coming into the Pepsi Center this evening looking to avenge their previous loss to the Avalanche. The last time these two teams met was early in the season and the Caps were not playing good hockey at the time. As a result, the Caps ended up falling to the tune of 5-1 and saw the Avalance and Varlamov put on the entire show. Most notable was the fact that Varlamov stopped 40 shots while only conceding one goal and he has continued his stellar play for most of the season.
This will be the second game in back to back nights, as the Caps have gone on a quick 2-game road trip to the West. Last night, the Caps blew a two goal lead in the final 5 minutes of the game which ultimately lead to a shootout loss for the visitors. In addition, the Caps played significantly less disciplined than they had in their previous games which also had an impact on their PK. The Caps came into the game against the Coyotes with the best PK in the league, however, conceded two goals on seven shorthanded chances which dropped them to the 2nd overall PK at the end of the night.
The Caps have continued to struggle in the first period and this was the case against the Coyotes. It wasn’t until the second period that the Caps appeared to fully get their legs underneath them and it resulted in 3 second period goals. In typical fashion, the first two goals came off of the PP which has been the Caps bread and butter this season. However, Ovechkin didn’t have a goal last night despite tallying an assist which is not usual as he has been a goal-scoring machine on the PP. Jason Chimera stayed hot as well as he tallied an assist with a Joel Ward goal.
Looking at the third period, the Caps truly let off the gas pedal and were out-shot 14-6 during the final frame. Early in the third, the Caps had a 5v3 PP for over a minute and were unable to put the Coyotes away. The final penalty with two minutes remaining in the game for delay of game by Nate Schmidt was a young mistake, however, it must be avoided in the future, especially at that point in the game. Ultimately, mistakes cost the Caps a point in their game and it also cost them the chance to come into tonight with a 5-game winning streak.
Over the course of the past 5 games, the Caps come into the evening boasting a 4-0-1 record. For them to get a victory this evening, they will need to play significantly tighter D than they did previously against the Avalanche. The 5-5 play the last time these two teams met was actually not that bad, just the Avalanche were able to find ways to get the puck in the net. The Caps actually out-shot the Aves 41-28 despite only getting 2 PP opportunities. Most impressive was their second period which saw the Aves give up 19 shots and saw Varly not give up a goal during that frame. While the Caps didn’t play a bad game, their defensive zone coverage was weak which gave up high scoring chances despite limiting the number of shots. The Caps will need to continue to play good D-zone coverage and this should help make this game be a much tighter match-up.
Coach Oates was also struggling at the time to get consistency from his defensive unit, as he was changing players such as Connor Carrick (AHL), Jack Hillen (IR) and Erskine (upper-body injury) with guys like Alexander Urbom, Steven Olesky and later Nate Schmidt. In addition, he was using different forward line combinations that have now finally changed because of their poor ability to match-up to opponents on the 5-5 level. It really wasn’t until 5 games ago that Coach Oates finally gave into shuffling the lines and this was a result of Ovechkin getting injured. Since then, the Caps offense has been firing on all cylinders and the new line combinations appear to be competing at a high level.
The PP continues to produce at an astounding level and is 1st in the NHL with the second place PP sitting approximately 5% less effective than the Caps. Only one team in the NHL has created more PP opportunities (SJS) as the Caps have gone on the PP 71 times this season. Complementing their PP, is the fact that they have tallied 20 goals (4 more than next closest team), however, they have also given up 2 goals shorthanded. One of these two shorthanded goals came to the hand of Alex Tanguay. This evening will be a challenge for the Caps to get on the PP as the Aves have been shorthanded the least of any NHL team this season (48). It will be imperative for the Caps to have their feet moving this evening or else it will be very difficult to draw penalties against a disciplined team. While the last game saw the Caps control the pace 5-5, if they can manage to get more than 2 PP opportunities they should be able to get a few more past Varly than last time.
One concern for the Caps this evening is the fact that they are not a very disciplined team. The Aves, as stated above are the most disciplined in the NHL judging by the amount of times shorthanded. Looking at the Caps, they are the 23rd in the league in terms of the amount of times on the PK, putting them as one of the more undisciplined teams. Given that the Aves PP is middle of the pack, this wouldn’t’ be too concerning if they didn’t have a line-up of potential superstars and high caliber snipers. Between Duchene, Stastny, Landeskog, Tanguay and MacKinnnon the Caps will have to play better on the PK than last evening.
I would say that this evening that the special teams will be a wash as the Aves PK is 2nd best in the NHL. Thus, tonight’s game will be won in the physical play, the 1-1 battles and the ability to clear the D zone effectively while limiting turnovers. If the Caps do not bring a strong physical presence and can’t bump the Aves off of the puck, then they will be looking at preventing high scoring chances. This evening, the Caps will probably continue to roll with the lines that they have in the past few games.
Below are the projected lineups for the Caps this evening:
Erat-Backstrom-Ovie
Laich-Mojo-Brouwer
Chimera-Grabo-Ward
Volpatti-Latta-Wilson
Schmidt-Green
Alzner-Carlson
Urbom-Olesky
Holtby (Neuvy)
Thanks for reading, I appreciate your comments and thoughts. Make sure to catch the Caps game this evening at 8 and feel free to follow me on Twitter @BCASE30. Go Caps!
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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