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Capitals Prepare for Leafs after Huge Beat-Down |
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The Flyers crushed the Capitals. Speed kills and, especially when you let half your team walk over the summer and what you've got left is 50% all-stars and 50% AHLers. Add in a long-term injury to your best defenseman, and it's bad times.
8-2......six of the goals allowed at 5v5. The problem was the first period, the Capitals came out flat as day old Mcdonald's pop and got steamrolled to the tune of 70% CF against.
And to make matters worse, their next game is against the league's fastest, highest scoring team. One which, frankly, they were lucky to beat last spring while icing a much better lineup.
The last thing you want to do after being absolutely destroyed is go up against the league's best team. For the Capitals, that used to be a physical impossibility but they are no longer the league's best team. Or even one of them.
Barrie Trotz is pretty frustrated, as can be gleaned from looking at these defense pairings, in which it appears he has absolutely lost his mind. How much you wanna bet he's the first coach fired this year? He won't deserve it, and I bet he'll be relieved.
What he's doing here is trying to spread the pain across multiple lines. What's the alternative? One really horrendous pairing ? He's in a bit of a pickle, to be honest, but I still don't know that anything justifies an Orpik/Bowey pairing. Talk about awful.
Djoos and Carlson I can live with, as I think Djoos might be a legit NHL dman, but where at the point where a team that previously had four top-pairing defenseman now has a top pairing (listed second, bizarrely) that features a rookie who didn't make the opening night roster.
Finally we have Orlov - who is good - with Chorney who is not. Perennial allstar Ryan McDonugh could barely handle being weighed down by Girardi, and Orlov is no McDonugh, while Chorny makes Girardi look like Bobby Orr.
So basically, do not bet on the Capitals to beat the Leafs.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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