Seems like we have been in must win mode for a few weeks, and that is essentially because the must. There are five games left in the NHL regular season, Caps trail Boston by two points, but yet, they can’t simply tie Boston, Boston would hold the tie breaker.
The Caps chances are easily stated. They MUST take care of their business first and foremost, meaning, win out from here on. Then, they need some help and the good news is, Boston has New Jersey and Ottawa, numbers 3 and 4 in the Eastern Conference, to play in 4 of their final 5 games.
So yes, it is possible, but it all starts with what the Capitals do when they take the ice.
Tarik from the Washington Post reports yet again that Crisotbal Huet will mind the net of the Capitals. Pretty clear form here on who the Capitals want in the net. Tarik also provides the line formations for tonight.
Forwards
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Kozlov
Cooke-Fedorov-Semin
Fleischmann-Laich-Fehr
Brashear-Gordon-BradleyDefense
Morrisonn-Green
Poti-Schultz
Jurcina-Erskine
John Erskine makes his return from a brief injury, which is why Lepisto was sent to Hershey and jay beagle called up from Hershey. Boudreau doesn’t need Lepisto now, but may be looking fro some additional scoring elsewhere, although it appears Beagle may be a scratch tonight.
Here’s some of our Capitals friends Game Previews ...
From the guys at Capitals Blue line.
Avoid mistakes. The Capitals are a far better team that Tampa Bay and one with much more to play for. They ought to significantly outplay the Lightning and the only way that won’t be reflected on the scoreboard is if the Caps give the Lightning chances to get back in the game with turnovers, soft goals, bad penalties or the like.
Bingo! Avoiding mistakes is they key. The Capitals should easily out shoot Tampa Bay. They have the fire power, the aggressiveness, and the speed. You would think also the motivation. But the penalty mistakes, particularly when we are on a power play have to stop. Alexander Semin and Tom Poti are notorious for drawing penalties when the Caps are one up. Avoid turnovers. Avoid unnecessary turnovers. Personally, I would like to see a bit less conservativeness on defense and see Mike Green get back involved in scoring. Will we? Likely not.
As always, Japers’ has us covered for a good game day peak.
Joe’s Washington Hockey blog gives us his game preview he has for every game this season. Great job Joe!
And of course Peerless gives us his game preview and a look at Tampa’ comments.
ENEMY WIRE:
Tampa Bay newspaper supports Alex Ovechkin for MVP.
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