Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Capitals vs. Flyers Preview

The Caps look to start a win streak tonight, going into Philadelphia to do battle with the first place Flyers.  The Flyers are number 1 in the Eastern Conference with a total of 63 points.  The Flyers are 13-6-2 at home this year as opposed to the Capitals 9-9-2 away record.  The Flyers are an extremely good team as it is, and adding their home ice advantage will make the Caps task even more difficult. 

The Flyers come into tonight’s game having 8 of the players already with double digit scoring totals, so the Caps defense and goaltending will have to be at the top of their game.Once again the Caps must win this game tonight, because they can no longer just coast along, in the once mediocre, Southeast Division.  A win tonight with a Tampa Bay loss against the Blue Jackets, will allow the Caps to reclaim top spot in the division.

The Caps are in desperate need of a solid winning streak to give the team vital momentum and confidence.  As stated before the Caps task of winning will not be easy, especially with injuries to: Tom Poti (unknown- day to day), Alexander Semin (thigh- day to day), Matt Bradley (broken finger- 1 to 2 weeks), and Eric Fehr (upper body- 3 to 4 weeks.)

The Caps focus tonight should  be about regaining their dominance that they once had on the power play.  Also, as they did against the Senators on Sunday, they must continue to keep getting pucks on net. 

Finally players such as Ovechkin and Backstrom need to have a coming out party, and do what they do best to win games by putting up points.  The Flyers come in winning 6 of their last 7, lets see if the Caps can put a damper on this in tonight’s much anticipated, hard hitting battle.

- In Ovi We Trust
             

2 comments:

  1. Your exactly right--the responsibility must first be placed on the team's leaders and superstars to perform early and often in tonight's game. That is when the Caps are at their best, letting role players step up at crucial times for a team-wide effort. I'd like to see OVI and the gang really test the Flyers' rookie goalkeeper early-on and keep the shot total high. Smart possessions, few penalties, and an effective power-play...it's a simple game. Let's go get a W boys.

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  2. Yeah we need the superstars to perform but, I will be happy if we aren't trailing after the first period (first 10 minutes). We absolutely blow in at playing defense in the first period and put ourselves in a hole almost every game lately.

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