Eastern Conference: (2) Washington vs. (7) Rangers

[playmaker26]

lanky wrote:

interesting to see the difference in the answers... this one seems to be difficult to get a consensus on.

I think the caps will win out in 5-6 games.

Flyer Fan wrote:

The Rangers have the better goaltender.
The Capitals have Ovechkin.

Green\'s a phenomenal player, ...but giving Torts a chance to gameplan for him for a seven game series will help slow him down.

The Caps still have Semin, but the Rangers are no slouches upfront either, ...Naslund, Gomez, Drury, Zherdev etc...

Mark Staal came into the league tabbed as a future \"shutdown\" defenseman... This is a great opportunity to step into that role...

If he can just contain Ovy, if Torts can find a strategy for containing Green, ...and that\'s all they need to do, ...is keep them semi under control,

...with Lundquist behind them, and a few big goals from Drury and the other vets, ...Rangers in 6

I have to disagree with most of this... Coaches have had all year to develop gameplans for Green, and it hasn\'t worked yet. Torts won\'t be able to develop any gameplan for green that will work the length of their series. Green is just too dynamic of a player. Plus... if you key in on him, then you leave ovechkin more room. Or semin... or leave backstrom more room to make a nice pass. There\'s really no clear cut (focus on this guy) strategy that Tort can draw up.

That\'s what\'s made the caps so difficult to play against this year, because if you key in on 1 or 2 or even 4 of their guys, they\'ll just beat you some other way.

Comparing Ovechkin/Semin/Backstrom/Laich to Naslund/Drury/Gomez/Zherdev is just comical to me. I can\'t believe you went there.

I\'m also not sure how you can claim Drury as mr. clutch. He has 2 gamewinning goals this year...

Consider the following: Washington\'s top 5 goal scorers have as many goals this year as NYR top 12 (166 goals). Brooks laich is washingtons 4th best goal scorer, and he\'s only got 1 less goal than NYR BEST.

Alexander ovechkin - 56
Alexander Semin - 34
Mike Green - 31
Brooks Laich - 23
Nicklas Backstrom - 22

Markus Naslund - 24
Nikolai Zherdev - 23
Chris Drury - 22
Ryan Callahan - 22
Scott Gomez - 16
Brandon Dubinsky - 13
Nigel Dawes - 10
Michal Rozsival - 8
Aaron Voros - 8
Nik Antropov - 7
Fredrik Sjostrom - 7
Lauri Korpikoski - 6

Add to that the fact that Washington dominates in the faceoff circle (7th in the league/2nd in the east/1st among eastern playoff teams) and dominates games at home (tied for 1st in home ice wins in the the east, and tied for 2nd in home ice wins in the league).

I think the Rangers are sledding uphill in this first series... outside of something amazing happening, i really don\'t think they\'ll win more than a game. Even if something amazing happens, i doubt they\'ll win more than 2... much less the series.

As shaky as you all think Theodore may be, Varlamov has been tremendous this year, and has experience as the starting goaltender in the playoffs in the Super League in Russia. I\'m not as concerned about the caps goaltending as many seem to be.

Also, coming off a bad loss to Florida in their final game, the caps will be balls to the wall at the start of this series.

Washington losing to Florida will have no bearing on this series.

The debate does seem pretty split which is a surprise to me. My initial thoughts were a Caps blowout, but they do have Theodore. I\'d be concerned about goaltending if I were a Caps fan, especially with them playing against Lundqvist.

It will be hard to gameplan against Green but it is definitely easier with the longer preparation with the long series.

Staal and Girardi will have their work cut out for them against Ovechkin but they don\'t take too many penalties and they can be physical. You won\'t be able to stop AO but you just have to limit the damage like the Flyers did for most of their series last year.

Caps in 6 but it will be a close series.

[Dutch]

I have a feeling that the stick will be \"hot hot hot\"

B)

[playmaker26]

Dutch wrote:

I have a feeling that the stick will be \"hot hot hot\"

B)

Haha.

[BDog]

Flyer Fan wrote:

The Rangers have the better goaltender.
The Capitals have Ovechkin.


Green\'s a phenomenal player, ...but giving Torts a chance to gameplan for him for a seven game series will help slow him down.

The Caps still have Semin, but the Rangers are no slouches upfront either, ...Naslund, Gomez, Drury, Zherdev etc...

Mark Staal came into the league tabbed as a future \"shutdown\" defenseman... This is a great opportunity to step into that role...

If he can just contain Ovy, if Torts can find a strategy for containing Green, ...and that\'s all they need to do, ...is keep them semi under control,

...with Lundquist behind them, and a few big goals from Drury and the other vets, ...Rangers in 6

Think for just one second here
Ovie and Green had 87 goals and 183 pts between them. 37 of those goals came on the PP and all this is without talking about Semin and Bactstrom. You just don\'t draw up a game plan to shut these guy\'s down at that\'s it...done deal. NY lacks the elite shutdown specialists to do this and the arguement that Theadore stinks doesn\'t hold water cause I think the Caps win this series easily with a beer league goalie in net.

[playmaker26]

BDog wrote:

Flyer Fan wrote:

The Rangers have the better goaltender.
The Capitals have Ovechkin.


Green\'s a phenomenal player, ...but giving Torts a chance to gameplan for him for a seven game series will help slow him down.

The Caps still have Semin, but the Rangers are no slouches upfront either, ...Naslund, Gomez, Drury, Zherdev etc...

Mark Staal came into the league tabbed as a future \"shutdown\" defenseman... This is a great opportunity to step into that role...

If he can just contain Ovy, if Torts can find a strategy for containing Green, ...and that\'s all they need to do, ...is keep them semi under control,

...with Lundquist behind them, and a few big goals from Drury and the other vets, ...Rangers in 6

Think for just one second here
Ovie and Green had 87 goals and 183 pts between them. 37 of those goals came on the PP and all this is without talking about Semin and Bactstrom. You just don\'t draw up a game plan to shut these guy\'s down at that\'s it...done deal. NY lacks the elite shutdown specialists to do this and the arguement that Theadore stinks doesn\'t hold water cause I think the Caps win this series easily with a beer league goalie in net.

Philly had a much worse defense last year than the Rangers have this year and the Flyers beat them.

Granted, I think Philly was better than the Rangers but the Flyers also didn\'t have Lundqvist.

I think Washington wins, but it\'s not going to be a walk in the park.

[lanky]

playmaker26 wrote:

Philly had a much worse defense last year than the Rangers have this year and the Flyers beat them.

Granted, I think Philly was better than the Rangers but the Flyers also didn\'t have Lundqvist.

I think Washington wins, but it\'s not going to be a walk in the park.

Hm... yeah but at the same time, phili is a much tougher team to play in the playoffs. They are skilled, tough in the corners, and biron was every bit as hot in last year\'s playoffs as lundqvist has been for the rangers this season.

Also, that was the first taste of the playoffs for the capitals young guys. They roared back and almost beat phili in game 7.

Now that the caps stars have some playoff experience under their belt, and understand what\'s different from the regular season, and what\'s expected of them, i think they\'ll be golden this year.

Remember that last year was Boudreau\'s first NHL playoffs too. The experience likely helped him quite a bit too.

Remember that Pittsburgh/crosby lost in round 1 in 2006-07 before making it to the finals last year. I wouldn\'t be surprised at all to see something similar from the caps. Especially if Theo gets hot. When Theodore is on his game he\'s a top 5 goalie in this league. Problem is, he\'s rarely ever on his game lol!

Bottom line is that last year, phili out toughed a caps team new to the playoff style of game. This year, NYR wont have that same benefit going in their favor.

[playmaker26]

Only time will tell but it\'s not like the young guys for the Caps struggled last year against the Flyers. They played well. Sure the experience is going to help but if we\'re on that note, the Rangers have plenty of it.

Theodore, playing well, is not a top 5 goalie. Maybe top 12-15. I don\'t think he is going to ever find his Hart Trophy days again. He just can\'t lose the series for them.

I think the Caps win but their lack of defense could hurt them. They don\'t have the luxury of a stud goalie to compensate for their defensive struggles.

[hlfire]

Washington\'s weakness is in goal, which Theodore will show up, no one knows. I do see the offense making up their shortcomings in goal. NY Rangers in my mind is a soft team and I agree they are lucky they aren\'t up against a grittier team but Ovy is pretty physical too.

Washington in 7.

[lanky]

playmaker26 wrote:

Only time will tell but it\'s not like the young guys for the Caps struggled last year against the Flyers. They played well. Sure the experience is going to help but if we\'re on that note, the Rangers have plenty of it.

while the boxscore may indicate otherwise... the capitals stars (particularly Ovechkin) were invisible for much of the first half of the series. Once the caps were down 2-1, they started to re-gain their footing and adjust to the different intensity level of the playoff game, they started to do better, and get some wins back.

I don\'t forsee that two-three game dip where the caps stars disappear for much of the game(s) this year.

playmaker26 wrote:

Theodore, playing well, is not a top 5 goalie. Maybe top 12-15. I don\'t think he is going to ever find his Hart Trophy days again. He just can\'t lose the series for them.

Yeah perhaps. When he\'s on his game he is still very good (better than huet or kolzig i think)... when he\'s off his game, he\'s badder than bad though... so hopefully he comes in and makes a few big saves and gets hot and stays hot...

that or he sucks so bad that varlamov comes in and takes the caps straight to the cup ala cam ward. I wouldn\'t count out either scenario.

playmaker26 wrote:

I think the Caps win but their lack of defense could hurt them. They don\'t have the luxury of a stud goalie to compensate for their defensive struggles.

This is another misconception... among eastern conference playoff teams, only new jersey allowed more shots on goal this season than the caps (NJ allowed 2415, while the caps allowed 2418). The caps are a good defensive team in their own right, but that seems to get lost because they 1) score so much and 2) their starting goalie allows more goals than he probably should.

They don\'t \"struggle\" defensively by any mean though if you ask me... and green (while he\'s known for his offensive game) has made leaps and bounds this year in his own end.

[playmaker26]

I still think there defense is a weakness. Shots against can be a telling category but they are prone to giving up goals in bunches.

I wouldn\'t call their stars invisible in that stretch in the Flyers series. They weren\'t at their best but the Flyers just did a good job on them. You can\'t be on fire every shift and every game.

[lanky]

playmaker26 wrote:

You can\'t be on fire every shift and every game.

but you need to be during the playoffs... or at least your stick needs to be! :laugh:

[Gripnrip13]

Still think goaltending makes the difference in this series,Lundqvist can win a game or 2 by himself,Theodore can\'t.Rangers in 7.

[lanky]

Gripnrip13 wrote:

Still think goaltending makes the difference in this series,Lundqvist can win a game or 2 by himself,Theodore can\'t.Rangers in 7.

if lundqvist can win a game or 2 by himself, how on earth do you have the rangers in 7? If lundqvist wins a game or two then the series would end with washington winning 4-1 or 4-2.

:laugh:

The only time the Rangers beat the caps this year was in a shootout... which we all know do not occur during the playoffs.

Lundqvist allowed 12 goals against the capitals in the 3 games that he played the caps. I really don\'t expect the rangers to win this series not in 7 games, not in 15 games, not in 23 games. If you ask me, they could play 99 times, and the rangers still wouldn\'t win this series.

they just don\'t have the same depth that the caps do... the same face off ability, the same powerplay and gamebreaking skill. Lundqvist is the ranger\'s best shot at stealing a couple of games, but the caps have had his number this year.

[playmaker26]

Throw that 5-4 game when Washington came back out. While it was a great comeback, that will never happen to a Lundqvist team again.

You only point out the Rangers\' faults. They are not as bad as you think.

[lanky]

playmaker26 wrote:

Throw that 5-4 game when Washington came back out. While it was a great comeback, that will never happen to a Lundqvist team again.

You only point out the Rangers\' faults. They are not as bad as you think.

they are pretty bad. they squeeked into the playoffs somewhat by default, as buffalo tanked without miller, florida was inconsistant down the stretch, and montreal sucked something amazing the second half of the season. I wouldn\'t chose the rangers to even be in playoff contention if they were in the western conference... and i really don\'t think that they are that viable of an upset candidate.

You say that 5-4 comeback would never happen to a lundqvist team again... why? why not? It happened to him before, it can happen again. The capitals are on of the better teams in the league at coming back from behind. I\'ve watched them do it numerous times over the last 2 years.

What is different now about lundqvist that would cause that comeback to \"never happen\" again?