The Washington Capitals will play host to the Montreal Canadiens on Friday night. Opening faceoff at Verizon Center is scheduled for 7:00 pm.
The Canadiens are coming off of a strong 6-2 win over the Wild on Tuesday night. Pacioretti, who has been criticized for his goal scoring drought, silenced his critics with a hat trick in the match up. Other goals were scored by Bournival, Briere and Galchenyuk (awesome name.) Carey Price stopped 25 of the 27 shots he faced. It's worth mentioning that Brandon Prust, one of the best fighters in the league, had a 5 minute major for fighting.
The Canadiens feature a blend of youth and veterans with speed and skill up and down their roster. The sophomores, Brian Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk, are extremely fast and creative. The Canadiens have made a jump up the special teams charts and now have the leagues 2nd best power play percentage at 24.1%. They're penalty kill ranks 8th in the league and kills off 85% of short handed scenarios.
The Canadiens are expected to rest Carey Price for their Saturday night matchup at home against Pittsburgh. They'll give Peter Budaj the start against the Caps. He has only started 4 times this year but his numbers are solid. He boasts a 3-1 record, 1.48 goals against average and .945 save percentage.
The Caps were shut out by the Penguins Tuesday night and are looking to rebound. Although the loss was ugly, the Caps have fared well in the tough stretch of schedule. They've beat the Red Wings, Blues, Blue Jackets, Islanders and Wild. They should be coming out with a head of steam against the Canadiens. These two teams dislike each other and the Capitals have not forgotten the 2010 playoffs when the Canadiens defeated the 1st seeded/Presidents trophy winning Caps in 7 games.
Ovechkin is still tied atop the league with Alexander Steen in goal scoring with 17 goals. In 30 career games against the Canadiens, Ovechkin has 17 goals and 34 points. It would be a good night for Ovechkin to find the back of the net as the Caps could use the win. They don't want to see the 1st place Penguins add to the 3 point lead they hold over the Caps in the Metropolitan division.
Oates stated Thursday, he 's debating on moving Brooks Laich to Left Wing on the 2nd line and playing Martin Erat at center. The move isn't surprising as the 2nd line hasn't generated the type of scoring that is expected from them.
Mike Green is expected to make the start against the Penguins after being out of the lineup for a few games with a lower body contusion.
Braden Holtby is the projected starter for the first game of the back to back set. He has a 2.70 goals against average and a .923 save percentage on the season.
Zach's Three Keys to the Game:
** Goaltending: It's time for Holtby to step up and show the Caps that he can help carry this team to the playoffs. The Caps defense has been blamed for some of Holtby's bad games but in the end, he's their last defense for a reason. Holtby clearly had three goals he should have stopped against the Penguins. I'm tired of hearing the excuses for Holtby. Tonight, he needs to show what he's made of and make the critical stops to keep his team in the game.
** Discipline: The Caps don't want to give power plays to the leagues 2nd ranked unit. They need to avoid the costly penalties and stay out of the box.
** Line 2: The 2nd line of the Caps hasn't been good enough. Brooks and Troy have the talent to put way more pucks on the net. Erat has played better then both of them so maybe Oates" move of putting Erat in between them will begin to generate some creativity.
ROCK THE RED !!
Thanks for reading,
Zach Hart
Shades of Red
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