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Update Niskanen In,Holtby to start at St. Louis - Ovechkin Cold, Tarasenko? |
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UPDATE:
The Capitals announce Matt Niskanen will return today and start on the 2nd pairing with Madison Bowey. Brooks Orpik is out tonight now and Braden Holtby will get the start for Washington in a little bit of a surprise as I had though perhaps Copley would play on the first end of back-to-backs against his former team. In all likelihood, Copley will start tomorrow night in Dallas.
The 24-11-3 Washington Capitals look to get back on track on the road tonight vs the St. Louis Blues after a modest 4-game winning streak was snapped at the hands of the Nashville Predators last Monday in a 4-3 loss at Capital One Arena. The Predators came back twice from two 2-goal deficits to rally and beat Washington for their 6th loss at Capital One Arena in 20 games. The team has now dropped only 4 of their last 20 and remains in first place in the Metro Division. Game time is 8 PM EST at Enterprise Arena.
This is the first of a 3-game road trip for Washington, who have been road killers over the last couple of seasons. Currently, on a 5-game road winning streak, Coach Reirden’s team can win 6 road games in a row for the first time in just under eight years and second time since 1984. Washington has outscored their opponent 21-9 over the last five games on the road. Tonight is also the first game of back-to-back games.
Things are not rosy for the 15-18-4 St. Louis Blues as the Caps face a struggling team looking for traction near the bottom of the Western Conference. Only Arizona, Carolina, and Los Angeles have scored fewer goals than the Blues total of 102 with the Capitals scoring almost a goal more a game with 138. Washington’s +26 goal differential compared to the Blues -21 shows how far apart the two teams have been throughout the season thus far. St.Louis was beaten in their last game on Dec. 31 vs the New York Rangers in a game where the Blues outshot New York 40-23 but could not bury many of their chances.
This marks the first game of 2019 for the St. Louis Blues who have struggled mightily and likely will miss the playoffs in what is somewhat of a surprise to many including myself. Ryan O’Reilly leads the team in all offensive categories with 15 goals, 20 assists, good for 35 points but placing him 56th in NHL scoring as the Blues inability to score shows up here as good as O’Reilly is.
Sniper, and former All-Star, Vladimir Tarasenko is really struggling this year which has definitely hurt the Blues scoring attack. He has only 2 goals his last 13 games and with 11 only so far, is currently on pace for 24 goals which would be his worse season since his sophomore campaign when he had 22. Trade talks have swirled with his name coming up, but despite his numbers this year, I can’t believe they would move this player. He seems to score 30+ with ease but his -15 is the worse on the club and may speak to other issues going on in his game as he has been generally a plus player over his career so far. David Perron has more goals (13) than does Tarasenko. That can’t be a good thing.
While the Capitals have played very well over the last 20 games or so, they are still only leading the division by 2 points and the New York Islanders currently are only 5 points back despite not being in a playoff position so the Capitals will need to keep the foot on the pedal.
Since scoring 10 goals in 6 games from Dec 4th to the 15th, Alex Ovechkin has gone 6-straight games without lighting the lamp. For most players, this is not a huge deal, but for the reigning Rocket Richard Trophy winner, it is a little bit of a slump. The Great Eight still leads the NHL in goals with 29 with Toronto’s John Tavares and Buffalo’s Jeff Skinner trailing by three with 26 respectively. Over the six-game goalless drought, he has recorded 22 shots on goal so it’s just a matter of time before he scores again.
Ovechkin has been playing smarter this year along with his well-known goal-scoring prowess. He’s only taken 3 minor penalties in the last 14 games and with 18 total minutes on the year, he’s becoming more responsible away from the puck and being in good positons to not have to take penalties.
He also decided to opt out of the 2019 NHL All-Star game citing his body needed a rest after a long year of hockey. I have no issues with this and especially for a guy who does as much as he does off the ice for hockey. He will have to serve a league-mandated one-game suspension for missing the game. My guess is he misses the Calgary home game after the break. Though it’s not a rule per say, I feel that you should have to miss a home-game as some fans in other cities only get to see the superstars live once/twice a year.
Defenseman John Carlson and goalie Braden Holtby will attend the festivities representing the Capitals. While it will be Holtby’s 4th-straight selection, It will be Carlson’ s first appearance at the game and he should fit well in a 3 on 3 tourney.
The Capitals continue the road trip tomorrow night in the second half of the back-to-back vs The Dallas Stars at 8 PM EST.
Capitals Gain:
2018 1st round pick Alex Alexeyev is having a great showing at the World Junior Tournament. He is tied for 5th in tourney scoring with 2 goals and 4 assists in 5 games for Russia and is a +7. He and Russia will now take on the United States in the semi-final tomorrow.
I didn’t like the low-bridge on Ovechkin here…. Could have been clipping in my book. Dangerous.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
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