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8 vs. 87. Who Wins This Epic Series?

April 28, 2016, 1:13 PM ET [30 Comments]
Eklund
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The word "marquee" is overused a lot, but the Caps versus Penguins series starting tonight is about as marquee as it gets.

And yes this is Sidney Crosby versus Alexander Ovechkin, but to be honest this series is a heck of a lot more than that. These Capitals have been built to play in the playoffs. They're no longer a team who can be pushed around, and they have clutch players throughout the lineup. Meanwhile the Pittsburgh Penguins have never been playing better....and I mean never. I think this Penguins team right now would challenge any Penguins team we have seen in the Crosby era.

Of all the things the capitals have going for them, and there's a lot of things they have going for them, Braden Holtby definitely tops the list. Holtby does a lot of things at an incredibly high level, but where he excels the most is in stopping shots and opportunities in tight. His concentration is second to none when it comes to picking up shots down low. He is also one of the best 2 on 1 goalies we have seen. He gets across smoothly and rarely over plays anything.. If Pittsburgh is to have any luck against him they will have to take, and make the most of, their shots from the point.

In order to beat the Penguins, you can't fall behind, and that could be a problem for the Washington Capitals. This Caps have shown to be a terrible first period team this year, and that continued in round 1. They often came out flat and took weird penalties. The Penguins Power Play is on another planet than the Flyers Power Play...When you fall behind to the Penguins they can make you look very, very bad, because like their Stanley Cup team of a few years ago, this team thrives on the counter attack and capitalizes on the points in games when their opponent needs to start to take chances.

The Penguins goaltending is vastly underrated and won't be an issue in this series. In many ways Murray has benefited the psyche of this team, and is yet another calming influence on them. The Capitals will have to resist the urge to attack the Pens, and instead play solid team defense and counter attack them. The Penguins weakness comes into play when you make their defense play defense. The Dump and Chase is your friend against these Penguins. Make their defensemen turn their backs. Make their transition game as long as you possibly can...

Barry Trotz is a hell of a coach and knows all of this already...but how this plays out will be a fascinating one to say the least.

Predictions?

The only thing is this....The Penguins need to play exactly as they did against the Rangers. The Caps need to be much better than they were against the Flyers...especially when it comes to secondary scoring. It is easy look at the Caps Power Play numbers and think they dominated the Flyers. Five of their eight goals came in a Game 3 that had gotten out of hand. The Capitals did not score a power play goal in the final three games against a very beaten up Flyers penalty killing unit.

The Capitals survived the Flyer series. The Penguins blew the Rangers out of the water.

Either team could win the series for sure, and perhaps after game one I will feel very differently than I do now, but for now I am going with the Penguins in six.

Your pick?



We will discuss all this and more on the Podcast today at 1pm




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