Retired - Washington Capitals

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Capitals at home: 15-5-5
Senators on the road: 8-9-4

Last 10 games:
Capitals : 5-2-3
Senators: 3-5-2

Today game is at 3pm. Does that matter? The Caps are 4-0-0 in games starting before 6pm this year. The Capitals have faced the Senators 69 times with a record of 33-28-5-3. Washington won two games against Ottawa this season 3-2 and another game in overtime. The win against Ottawa on December 19th was the first win after an 8 game losing streak.

The Capitals continue to struggle on their power play. This has even been pointed out by the Washington Capitals majority owner Ted Leonsis. While the Captials grinders have been able to pull through during the PP drought, the Capitals must regain their power-play prowess if they want a chance at a deep play off run. The Capitals are 16-2-3 when scoring on a power play.

Nicklas Backstrom enters the game tonight scoring only 10 points in 19 games. None of the 10 points were goals. There has been a lot of talk about the failure of the Capitals top scorers this season, and I think Backstrom may be the key to the Capitals getting back on track. Backstrom not only is a top goal scorer for the Capitals, but he also feeds Ovechkin. His passing as of late has been too long thought and calculated. He needs a goal and the confidence that goes along with it. Not to totally slam Backstrom, he does have 3 points in the last 4 games.

I have not heard any reports as far as which goalie will be starting tonight, but I would anticipate it being Semyon Varlamov. He has only allowed 12 goals in the last 7 games and is currently 4th in the NHL in goals against.

Marcus Johannson and Mathieu Perreault have both had two goal games this year. The Capitals have not had 2 rookies with 2 goal games since the 99-00 season.

Alex Semin is most likely going to miss tonights game along with Matt Bradley (broken finger), Eric Fehr (shoulder injury), and Tom Poti (lower body injury).

Andrew Gordon has been recalled from Hershey and has 1 goal and 1 assist in the 8 games played with the Capitals this season. Gordon has 18 goals and 18 assists in 32 games at Hershey. (He is also a fairly regular tweeter @AndrewGordon10). He tweeted a little while ago "Im glad its an early game today! I want to get this going!!!!" I think I just like him because he uses too many exclamation points the same as I do!!!!!!!

The starting lines will be posted 15-30 minutes prior to face off! GO CAPS!

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I am hearing that Neuvirth will be the starting goalie!

Will confirm when I post starting lines shortly.

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As posted by Katie Carrera http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalsinsider/

Forwards
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Johansson
Laich-Perreault-Knuble
Chimera-B.Gordon-A.Gordon
Hendricks-Steckel-Beagle

Defense
Schultz-Green
Alzner-Carlson
Erskine-Hannan

Goal
Neuvirth
Varlamov

Scratches: Eric Fehr (shoulder), Tom Poti (lower body) and Tyler Sloan.

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Capitals 3
Senators 1

The Capitals came out onto the ice looking fairly dull for the 1st 2 periods. They did a much better job than they have in the previous few games in the penalties department. The Capitals had only 2 penalties the entire game, and were able to kill both of them! The first penalty was a hooking call on Backstrom in the 2nd period followed by Mike Green interference call the last 30 seconds of the 3rd period. Mike Green seems to have a hard time staying out of the box during the last minute of games.

Senator Mike Fisher(12) scored in the first period assisted by Foligno(10) and Shannon(7). The goal remained unanswered until the 3rd period. The Capitals hit the ice in the 3rd period with a lot more energy than the previous 2 periods. Brooks Laich sparked the goal scoring for the Capitals with an unassisted goal at 7:15 in the period off of a turnover by Ottawa Senator Chris Phillips directly in front of the goal.

The next goal was scored 45 seconds later and 2 seconds into a Capitals power play when Nicklas Backstrom won a faceoff giving John Carlson a one timer from the top of the faceoff circle. The goal was Carlson's 5th of the season and Backstrom received his 30th assist. Carlson's one time shot from the face-off would be hard to top, but Jason Chimera(6) found a way to do it when he flipped the puck from behind the goal line off of the back of Ottawa goaltender Brian Elliott. The goal was assisted by David Steckel(5) and Karl Alzner(5). If you have not seen this goal yet, be sure to wait out this video for the replay, the real time shot is hard to see.

The Capitals were successful in three areas tonight and were the keys to the game. During Ottawa's 4 minutes of power play time, the Capitals were able to successful kill all attempts and held the Senators shot-less in those 4 minutes. The Capitals were also successful on their own power play scoring 2 seconds into the first opportunity and scoring on 1 of 3 power play shots. The Caps won 69% of face-offs (43 0f 62) including Boyd Gordon and Jay Beagle who were both successful in 100% of their face-offs (Gordon 8 of 8, Beagle 2 of 2). Backstrom, Laich and Steckel were all above 67% in face-off wins.

Michael Neuvirth was in net against the Senators and played a great game. He was 22 of 23 shots for a .957 SV%. Here is a video of his "save of the game" against Filip Kuba. Brian Elliott stopped 23 of 26 shots for a .885 SV%.

The offensive ice time leaders for the Capitals were Marcus Johannson(22:16) and Alex Ovechkin(22:10). The defensive ice time was led by Mike Green(24:25) and Jeff Schultz(21:17). John Carlson had 21:07. Mike Green was credited with 5 hits and had 3 shots on goal. Alzner, Backstrom, and Schultz each has 3 shots on goals as well.

The Washington Capitals character for Stan Lee's Guardian Project was revealed during the game on Sunday. If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Here is an interesting article about Matt Hendricks receiving fight lessons from DJ King during practice.

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Capitals on the road: 9-9-2
Flyers on home ice: 13-6-2

Last 10:
Capitals 5-2-3
Flyers 7-3-0


Tonight's meeting between the Caps and the Flyers is the 3rd this season. The Capitals won the first meeting 3-2 in overtime, and lost the second 5-4 in a shootout. Both games this year have been played on Capitals home ice. Philly takes to home ice tonight leading the standings over the Capitals with 63 points and in 2nd place, just one point behind Vancouver. The Capitals have 57 points (tied with Tampa Bay in the Southeast Division).

The Capitals did not allow a single power play shot by Ottawa on Sunday, and need to continue that kind of defensive play if they want to shut down Philadelphia's offense. The Caps must also continue converting on the power play. They were able to convert on 33% of their power play opportunites against Ottawa.

A point by Nicklas Backstrom tonight would be his 300th in his NHL career. Backstrom was very successful in face offs 2 days ago winning 13 of 19. The Capitals won 69% of face-offs, a key to keeping control of the puck in the offensive zone.

Marcus Johannson has become a more integral part of the team, and had a career high 22:16 ice time on Sunday. The Carlzner line (John Carlson and Karl Alzner) continue to be a strong defensive pairing for the Capitals. All of Carlson's points (5g,14a) have been on home ice. Carlson is currently tied with Kevin Hatcher for the 5th most points by a Capitals rookie defenseman. Karl Alzner (+10) has the second highest +/- ranking on the team, tied with Brooks Laich and 4 behind his line mate John Carlson(+14).

DJ King is expected tonight. His last game was December 6th. King saw just over 6 minutes in ice time, and 5 minutes in the penalty box for fighting. He is expected to play with Jay Beagle and face-off-master David Steckel.

Michael Neuvirth is expected to be the starting goalie for the Capitals tonight. Neuvirth stopped 22 of 23 shots in his last start and finished the night with a .957 SV%.



Injuries:
Matt Bradley - broken finger
Alex Semin - lower body injury
Tom Poti - Day-to-day - upper body injury
Eric Fehr - shoulder injury

Great player evaluation from Japers.

[Ballsakic]

I wish the chubby coach would make his mind up on starting a goalie so he could get his rhythm.

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I wish the chubby coach would make his mind up on starting a goalie so he could get his rhythm.

"Win and you're in" is what Boudreau has been going with for the most part. Right now the net is Neuvi's to lose! (Although BB does seem to favor Varly)

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Caps starting line ups thanks to Katie Carrera http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalsinsider/

Based on warm-up here's what the lineup should look like against the Flyers:

Forwards
Ovechkin-Johansson-Laich
Chimera-Backstrom-Knuble
Hendricks-Perreault-B.Gordon
King-Steckel-Beagle

Defense
Schultz-Green
Alzner-Carlson
Erskine-Hannan

Goal
Neuvirth
Varlamov

Scratches: Eric Fehr (shoulder) and Tom Poti (lower body).

Andrew Gordon has been reassigned to Hershey.

[Dean Youngblood]

Mathieu Perreault and the Washington's offense is really starting to P*ss me off. I am giving this kid a few more games before cutting ties with him.

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Capitals 2
Flyers 3

Once again the Capitals started the night with a goal deficit after the Captials defense and goalie Michael Neuvirth were unable to stop a Jeff carter(20) wrap-around. Carter was unassisted. Shortly after the Flyers goal, DJ King, who hasn't played since December 6th received a 5 minute penalty for fighting Jody Shelley who also recieved 5 minutes. The fight certainly did not spark the Caps as they closed the first period without a goal. David Steckel received the only minor penalty of the game for either team in the 1st period for hooking. The Capitals are doing a much better job of not going a man down for unnessecary penalties.

The second period saw a goalie change for the Capitlas. Semyon Varlamov replaced Michal Neuvirth who aggrevated a groin injury. The Flyers scored their second goal of the night with a Giroux(18) wrister, assisted by Carter(20) and Timonen(21). That goal was left unanswered for the remainder of the 2nd period.

The Capitals played a much better 3rd period and were sparked by a Mike Knuble(11) goal assisted by Marcus Johannson(5) at 7:58. The goal was promptly followed 40 seconds later by an Alex Ovechkin(16) goal assisted by Nicklas Backstrom(31) and Jason Chimera(9). The goal was reviewed by the NHL in Toronto but the ruling on the ice stood. The Capitals were able to play a fairly solid defensive game in the previous 2 periods and continued that in the third, keeping the Flyers from scoring a game winning 3rd goal in regulation. Unfortunately that did not continue in overtime, when Meszaros(2) scored on a slap shot assisted by Carle(23) and Briere(17).

The Capitals did a much better job of keeping the puck in their offensive end, but were not able to put up the number of shots need to be successful. Philadelphia outshot the Capitals 30-25, outshoting the caps in the 1st and 2nd periods 8-6 (each period), tieing in the 3rd 12-12, and 2-1 in OT.

Mike Green led the team in ice time with 25:37 (helped by staying out of the penalty box), followed by line mate Jeff Schultz(22:33). Nicklas Backstrom(21:15), Karl Alzner(21:03), Alex Ovechkin(20:30), and John Calrson(20:12) all had over 20 minutes a piece. Jason Chimera had great fantasy numbers playing 19:52, and finishing with 1 assist and 6 shots on goal. Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Hendricks each had 3 shots on goal. Marcus Johannson has 3 goals and 1 assist in the last 5 games.

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Capitals on the road: 9-9-3
Islanders on home ice: 8-9-4

Last 10 games
Capitals 5-2-3
Islanders 5-4-1

Tonight the Capitals face the Islanders for the second time this season. The Capitlas were victorious 2-1 againsts the Islanders on October 13th. The Capitals have won the last 4 games played against the Islanders in the Nassau Coliseum. 4 of the last 6 games played on the Islanders home ice were won by Alex Oveckin goals in overtime.

Marcus Johannson has 3 goals and 1 asssit in his last 5 games. Johannson who average 12:52 minutes during the first 27 games this season saw a career high 22:16 Sunday afternoon agains Ottawa.

The Capitals have to continue playing without giving up penalties as they did against the Flyers on Tuesday when they only had one minor penalty (David Steckel - Hooking). The Capitals are 17-2-3 when scoring on a power-play. The Capitals have been struggling as of late and need to concentrate on the power play and power play killing to be more successful.

Semyon Varlamov, who has already missed at least 14 games due to an ongoing groin injury, has been listed as day-to-day, most likeley the result of not being able to properly warm up to replace Neuvirth at the start of the 2nd period Tuesday against the Flyers. Braden Holtby has been recalled from Hershey and attending practice today with the Capitals. Holtby has played 18 games this season with Hershey and boasts a 1.82 GAA and .937 SV%. Holtby has played 5 games with the Capitals this season with 3.84 GAA and .845 SV%.

Who will backup Holtby if Varlymov is unable to play tonight? According to Washington Post writer Katie Carrera, Brett Leonhardt was also on the ice for practice on Wednesday. Brett Leonhardt is the Producer for the Washington Capitals website, and was a goalie in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League and for State University of New York at Oswego as well as Nuemann College. When the Capitals faced a similar goalie shortage on December 12, 2008, Leonhardt suited up and sat on the bench as the back up goalie for Brent Johnson. Varlymov who was not able to make it to the game until just before the 2nd period took over the back up postion at the start of the 2nd period. Leonhardt's statistics over 4 college seasons were 2.51 GAA and .917 SV%.


Injuries:
Matt Bradley: out 1-2 weeks
Alexander Semin: day-to-day
Tom Poti: day-to-day
Eric Fehr: out 3-4 weeks
Tyler Sloan: day-to-day
Michal Neuvirth: day-to-day
Semyon Varlamov: day-to-day

The starting lineup will be posted here 15-30 minutes prior to puck drop!

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Here is a good article about Matty P that I found on Japers Rink. Enjoy!

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Capitals 2
Islanders 1

The Capitals pulled off a victory against the Islanders despite taking 8 penalties to the Islander 2. Luckily the Capitals were able to fend of the Islanders on all 8 short handed situations. The Capitals were also out shot by the islanders 24-25. The Capitals have a done much better job of keeping the pucking in the offensive zone, but will have to increase their shots on goal to get back to higher scoring games.

The first goal of the night came from Jason Chimera(7) assisted by Ovechkin(31) and Backstrom(32). The play started with a great pass through traffic from Backstrom to Ovechkin who was then able to pass directly to the blade of Chimera who was waiting in front of the goal for the tip in. It was good to see Backstrom making a pass through traffic that would normally have been routine, but has not been routine at all for him in the past dozen games. The Chimera goal was the first time the Capitals have scored the first goal in 9 games when they defeated Montral 3-0 on December 28th. Perhaps with the success of the Chimera-Backstrom-Ovechkin line, we will see it again Saturday night against Toronto.

Nicklas Backstrom(12) was able to smile a huge sigh of relief in the 2nd period when he scored his first goal in 21 games. Backstrom's goal came from a rebound in front of the net after a blocked goal attempt from Ovechkin(32) that was put in motion by John Carlson(15). The Islanders Michael Grabner answered the Capitals goal just over a minute and a half later. The Grabner(12) goal was assisted by J. Bailey(9).

The 3rd period was scorless with Washington taking 2 penalties (Backstrom and Perreault) and getting only one power-play opportunity. Despite being shorthanded twice, the Captials were only out shot by the Islanders 6-7 in the third period.

Braden Holtby on recall from Hershey stopped 24 of 25 shots for a .960 SV%. 8 of the 25 shots came on power-plays. Holtby's only goal was given up while the Capitals were at even strength. Bruce Boudreau confirmed on Friday that Varlymov is able to play against Toronto, but it had not yet been decided if he would start or if Holtby would get the nod.

Mike Green led the Capitals in ice time with 27:40 which included the team high power play time of 3:31. Green also led the team with 7 block shots, followed by John Erskine who blocked 4. Jeff Schultz and Nicklas Backstrom had the second and third most ice time (22:31 and 20:36, respectively) Alex Ovechkin only had one shot on goal. Jason Chimera has 3 points in 3 games (2 goals, 1 assist).


Caps vs. Leafs preview will be posted shortly!

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Capitals on the road: 10-9-3
Maple Leafs at home: 10-10-4

Last 10 games:
Capitals: 5-2-3
Leafs: 6-3-1

Both teams are 2-2-1 in their last 5 games.

Tonight the Capitals face the Maple Leafs for the third time this season, but it will be the first meeting in Toronto. In the previous two meetings each team has won a game a piece in the shoot out. The score of both games was 5-4.

The Capitals power play killing (85.5%) ranks third in the NHL. Washington enters the game tonight on a streak of killing the last 11 power plays they have faced, and are 17 for the last 18. Toronto is ranked 26th overall (77.8%), but is much better on home ice, boasting an 82.3% which is 18th overall. Both teams are close in power plays with the Caps scoring on 17.9% of power plays, and the Leafs scoring on 18.1%. The Leafs are much better on the power play on home with 22.5% versus the Capitals 16.9% on the road.

The first goalie off of the ice during todays practice was Hershey Bears recall Braden Holtby. Holtby recorded a win Thursday night for the Captials after stopping 24 of 25 shots for a .960 SV%. Holtby has 4 shutouts in his last 13 AHL games. Assuming there aren't any last minute line changes, Semyon Varlamov will be backing up Holtby. Although the constant shuffle of goalies is frustrating to fantasy hockey poolies, the Capitals three goalies, Holtby, Neuvirth, and Varlymov has maintained excellent records as the Caps have only allowed 32 goals in the last 16 games. Neuvirth has a 2.01 GAA and .932 SV% in his last 6 games and is currently ranked is 25th in the NHL for GAA and 19th in SV%. Varly has a 1.81 GAA and a .944 SV% in his last 8 games and is currently ranked 6th in the NHL for SV%, and 5th in GAA.

Karl Alzner will play his 100th game tonight in Toronto. His 100th game may not be a huge milestone by itself, but it will happen in the same building where he scored his first NHL goal. Alzner ranks fourth on the team in plus/minus with a +10 rating. Speaking of plus minus, since Scott Hannan, who was received in a trade from Colorado has not recorded a minus game in his 22 games as a Capital. John Carlson, who leads the Capitals with +13 has not scored any goals on the road this season and has only scored 5 of his 20 points when away from home ice.

Jason Chimera has 2 goals and an assist in the last 3 games. He has been matched up with Backstrom and Ovechkin on the top line and his speed on the ice seems to be working well for the trio. He has had 6 shots on goal matching his career high for two straight games and skated for a career high ice time of 19:52 on Tuesday night against the Flyers. Is Chimera's 3 game point streak a result of hard work and line pairings, or does he play his best in Janruary? A point tonight would tie Chimera for his longest point streak as a Capital of 2 goals and 3 assists in 4 games last January.

Injuries:
Matt Bradley - broken finger - out 1-2 more weeks (on the ice at Kettler for a workout yesterday)
Alex Semin: lower body injury - day-to-day (on the ice at Kettler for a workout yesterday)
Tom Poti: upper body injury - day-to-day
Eric Fehr: seperated shoulder -3-4weeks
Tyler Sloan: day-to day
Michal Neuvirth: lower body injury (groin) - day-to-day

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Washington Capitals (27-14-8) vs. New York Rangers (28-19-3)

Capitals on home ice: 16-5-5
Rangers on the road: 16-9-1

Last 10 games
Capitals 5-2-3
Rangers 6-4-0

Tonight the Capitals face the Ragners for the 189th time in Franchise history. The Capitals and Rangers have both claimed a victory in the first two meetings this season. The Capitlas won the first game at home 5-3 and lost the second game in a blow out at Madison Square Garden 7-0.

Braden Holbty is expected to tend goal for the Capitals tonight. Holtby played extremely well on Saturday againsts the Maple Leafs, boasting a .972 goals-against-average and allowing only one goal. Semyon Varlamov will backup Holtby, as Michal Neuvirth is still out with a day-to-day lower body injury.

A goal from Alex Ovechkin tonight would make it his sixth consecutive season scoring at least twenty goals. Only Peter Bondra(13), Mike Gartner(10) and Mike Ridley(7) have more than six straight seasons scoring more than twenty goals.

The recently formed top line of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Jason Chimera has proven to be very successful. The trio has scored eleven points in the last two games.

John Carlson and Karl Alzner will look to shut down the Rangers offense tonight. The Carlzner line has been a key to the Capitals defensive game as well as helping out on the offense with a John Carlson recording assists in the last two games, and four points in the last five. The Carlzner line has allowed the fewer scoring chances against when even strenth and on the penalty kill than any other line combinations for the Capitalsd defense. Further breakdown of the Capitals defensive line can be found in this article written by the Washington Post's Neil Greenberg.

Injuries/Scratches:
Matt Bradley - borken finger - expected to return after the All Star break
Alex Semin - lower body injury - expected to return after the All Star break
Tom Poti -upper body injury
Eric Fehr - seperated shoulder
Tyler Sloan - loaned to Hershey for conditioning stint
Michal Neuvirth - lower body injnury - day-today

Starting lineups will be posted here 10-15 minutes prior to puck drop.