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GameDay DC-The Islanders and Vanek Come to Town |
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Match-up – New York Islanders (6-5-3) @ Washington Capitals (7-7-0)
Road/Home records – 3-2-0 -------------- 4-3-0
TV – CSN-DC,
Puck drop - 7:00 PM ET
Season series - 0-0
Last 10: 4-4-2 (NYI) and 6-4 -0 (WSH)
Projected starting goalies – Evgeni Nabokov (NYI ) v. Braden Holtby (WSH)-Confirmed
Goals for/against per game:
New York Islanders- 3.07 (10th) and 3.00 (24th)
Washington- 2.93 (13th) and 2.86 (20th)
Power play/Penalty Kill:
New York-21.7% (7th) and 81% (17th)
Washington- 23.6% (4th) and 90.7% (2nd)
The Capitals are taking on the Islanders this evening in their first matchup as Metropolitan division foes. Both teams are coming into the night boasting consecutive wins and will be looking to go on a 3-game winning streak. For the Capitals, a win tonight would mark the second time this season that they have gone on a 3-game winning streak. In addition, the Capitals will be happy to have Ovie back in the lineup as he was sidelined the past two games with an undisclosed upper body injury. During his two games out of the lineup, the Capitals beat the Flyers 7-0 and the Panthers 3-2 (SO).
It was positive to see that the Capitals were able to put solid wins together without Ovie. Mainly because they previously had strongly relied on “The Great 8” to put up a majority of their scoring. Before his injury, the Capitals had scored 34 goals, 10 of which came from Ovechkin which accredits him for close to 33% of their goals. In addition, they were averaging right around 2.8 goals a game, but despite him being out of the lineup managed to put up 9 goals. I believe that this will help the Capitals with their overall team play as they had to learn how to play without him in the lineup. While it was only for a short period of time, the momentum with the scoring and wins will help out the players who had struggled at the beginning of the season. With Ovechkin back in the lineup, look for the PP to continue to be dangerous as it is one of the most efficient in the league. However, with his 2 game absence, Nicklas Backstrom now leads the team in points with 16 ( 5 G, 11A).
Tonight should be a heated battle as the teams are separated by 1 point in the standings. If the Capitals can manage a victory, they would move into second place in the Metropolitan. Given the poor start to the season, being able to continue stringing together winning streaks will greatly allow them to maintain playoff position in a Metro division that has been much less competitive than critics believed it would be.
Both first lines have plenty of star power to boast as well as the Islanders recently acquired Thomas Vanek from the Sabres. He has been skating well with Taveres and the Caps ability to shut down the first line will determine their efficiency tonight. Looking at the Islanders production, they have two really solid forward lines, however, after that their 3rd and 4th line have not produced that much. Most surprising is the fact that Kyle Okposo has 17 points ( 4 G, 13 A) in 14 games, especially considering he is 7 points off of his production from last year in 48 games.
The Caps have seen Jason Chimera heat up the last few games and he is now 4th on the team in points with 11 (5 G, 6A). In his last 5 games, he has put up 9 points ( 4 G, 5 A) and had a 4 game point streak snapped against Florida. Despite this, it is still concerning that only 6 players on the Capitals have 3 or more goals this season which shows the lack of distribution with scoring. In addition, while the D unit has begun playing more solid defensively, they are still not producing much offense. Mike Green has been great on the PP with 6 assists, however, only has 3 in 5-5 play. Only 2 D have scored for the Caps, Carlson and Carrick; Carricks goal was a breakaway off of a stretch pass as he came out of the box too. While it is good that they are still getting some production, it would be good to see a few more goals from the blue-line in case the only 6 guys who are scoring get cold. Fehr has been an absolute disappointment after he came off of an extremely hot preseason and needs to find his scoring touch again. Despite this, he has not been the most disappointing players this season for the Caps as Brooks Laich holds that with his measly 2 points which both were goals (one of which was mad ugly and a 5-hole dribbler most peewee’s would stop).
The Caps will need to come out with a jump in their step as the first period they have been a bit flat in for most of the season. It would be good to see them improve on their first period play so that they do not have to play from behind. Both teams have similar stats for goal production, as well as goaltending which should mean that tonight will be a battle of will. Each team is dangerous with the man-advantage, however, the Caps PK appears to be stronger. This will probably be the toughest Metropolitan game the Caps have had this season as they have previously played the Flyers, Rangers, Blue Jackets and Hurricanes. Both teams will be hungry for the win as they attempt to close the gap between them and the first place Penguins who have 22 points and lead the Eastern Conference. If the Caps come out sleeping, this one may be early quick though with the Islanders high scoring offense.
Thanks for the read, comments are always appreciated. If you are on Twitter, feel free to follow me @BCASE30. Most importantly, Go Caps!
Carolina Hurricanes Blogger • 
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