THE HOME STRETCH: "DAT WILD CARD" - Our Last 15 Games

[ottawa]

RestingLundquist to play Talbot is not reassuring at all

But Price playing Detroit does a little bit

Lol yeah, Rangers are a scary team regardless of who is in nets...but you would think they'd rest more than just Lundqvist...I mean, home-ice is secured. Do they really want to ice their top players against a team that is doing anything and everything to win?

And no offense, but I think it's in their best interest to help the sens make the playoffs since they'll be paired with you guys.

 

[The Lewler]

It's stating the obvious, but nothing left to do now except win and wait.

 

[Super Cake]

true but with washington resting a few players, (wilson, fehr, beagle already confirmed getting night off tomorrow) i can see him going peters but like you said hopefully not

It is good that Ovechkin is not resting. He can literally score goals out of his ass.

If Peters does start, maybe Ovechkin can just score more goals than Peters lets in.

No, but seriously, Ovechkin is a beast this season. Better than Crosby. Yes, i said it. What are you going to do about it?

 

[hockeykicker]

It is good that Ovechkin is not resting. He can literally score goals out of his ass.

If Peters does start, maybe Ovechkin can just score more goals than Peters lets in.

No, but seriously, Ovechkin is a beast this season. Better than Crosby. Yes, i said it. What are you going to do about it?

well he does have a sv % at .881 haha

 

[sycamore]

Caps fan here. Trotz has confirmed that Holtby is starting tommorow.

Don't worry. We'll whip the Bruins for ya. We've whipped them all year. Seeing as we have yet to secure 2nd in our division, we still have a lot to play for.

 

[Super Cake]

well he does have a sv % at .881 haha

Hopefully you guys find a better backup this offseason.

Backup goalies are very important.

Don't want to burn out your starting goaltender by having them play 70+ games in the regular season.

 

[sycamore]

As it stands:

Ottawa has to face the Rangers, and a Flyers team that's playing spoiler against everyone.

While Pens have Islanders, then the Sabres;
Boston has Washington, Tampa and Florida;
Detroit has a Max-less Montreal and Carolina again;
Islanders have the Pens and Blue Jackets.

We need one of those four to lose out (Isles have to be both reg losses), but Sabres and Carolina games should be guaranteed wins. Pens/Isles just has to go to OT to make them both comfortable.

So really it's down to Boston having the toughest schedule remaining of them. But they're the ones playing the strongest of the bunch.

I actually think Detroit has a good chance of faltering. They're playing lousy hockey right now, Montreal is a touhg game and I wouldn't discount playing the Hurricanes IN
Carolina. Caps played there a couple of weeks ago and lost. A division foe is a division foe (except for the Buffalo Tankers).

 

[L'Aveuglette]

Caps fan here. Trotz has confirmed that Holtby is starting tommorow.

Don't worry. We'll whip the Bruins for ya. We've whipped them all year. Seeing as we have yet to secure 2nd in our division, we still have a lot to play for.

It'd be a real nice thing you'd do for us. Counting on you guys.

 

[hockeykicker]

Hopefully you guys find a better backup this offseason.

Backup goalies are very important.

Don't want to burn out your starting goaltender by having them play 70+ games in the regular season.

yea, we got one in the minors probably coming up next year in grubauer and copley.
both are the ahl goalies
copley: 15-3-3 sv %0.926 gaa 2.10
grubauer: 26-16-5 sv%0.921 gaa 2.29

should be great goalies but will have to choose one behind holtby

 

[Super Cake]

yea, we got one in the minors probably coming up next year in grubauer and copley.
both are the ahl goalies
copley: 15-3-3 sv %0.926 gaa 2.10
grubauer: 26-16-5 sv%0.921 gaa 2.29

should be great goalies but will have to choose one behind holtby

What will you guys do with Peters? Trade him or send him down?

 

[hockeykicker]

What will you guys do with Peters?

no idea, probably look to trade him for futures/7th rounder but to keep both those guys down there another year doesnt make sense but who knows with the caps management. we finally got a gm that actually cares about defense so baby steps

we can send him down i guess but he will clear waivers and be kind of pointless down there with the young goalies

 

[Super Cake]

no idea, probably look to trade him for futures/7th rounder but to keep both those guys down there another year doesnt make sense but who knows with the caps management. we finally got a gm that actually cares about defense so baby steps

we can send him down i guess but he will clear waivers and be kind of pointless down there with the young goalies

Trade him to the Oilers. I hear they are looking for a goalie.

 

[hockeykicker]

Trade him to the Oilers. I hear they are looking for a goalie.

they just beat the kings

 

[saskriders]

As it stands:

Ottawa has to face the Rangers, and a Flyers team that's playing spoiler against everyone.

While Pens have Islanders, then the Sabres;
Boston has Washington, Tampa and Florida;
Detroit has a Max-less Montreal and Carolina again;
Islanders have the Pens and Blue Jackets.

We need one of those four to lose out (Isles have to be both reg losses), but Sabres and Carolina games should be guaranteed wins. Pens/Isles just has to go to OT to make them both comfortable.

So really it's down to Boston having the toughest schedule remaining of them. But they're the ones playing the strongest of the bunch.

We would only need to Islanders to lose out.

We can max out at 99 points.

Islanders have 98 points and the tiebreaker, we would need them to get 0 points to pass them

Detroit has 97 points and the tiebreaker, we can have them get 1 point and still pass them

Pittsburgh has 96 points and the tiebreaker, we can have them get up to two points and still pass them

Boston has 95 points, has not clinched the tiebreaker, and we have the second tiebreaker. We could have them get 4 points and still pass them as long as they don't win any ROW. We could have them get three points and pass them regardless of ROW

 

[StefanW]

We have to win both of our games. If we do that, we need one of the teams we could catch to crap out, which is definitely possible given there are three or four of them.

The problem is that our schedule is pretty tough, although maybe not as tough as Boston's. Boston does have a game in hand now though so they have a cushion to drop a game.

 

[MisterMethos]

Hopefully, AV decides to rest some of his top players on Thursday. Makes no sense to play them and risk possible injury going into the playoffs.

The Penguins-Sabres game is interesting, in that, I am sure Tim would like to see Bryan go to the playoffs, but on the flipside by knocking out Pittsburgh, Buffalo does slightly hurt their chances at McDavid as Pitt's draft pick would become lottery-eligible and the Oilers own it.

 

[Super Cake]

It is interesting reading how Islanders fans are now getting extremely worried about missing the playoffs. I mean all they need is one point. Does anyone here really expect them to not get one point in their last couple of games?

 

[ottawa]

Pittsburg's roster looks nothing like it did when they win the cup, Bostons neither. These teams are a shell of their former selves.

I'd much rather take my chances against them then this wildcard Sens team

I said core, not roster.

core = main players as in (Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Kunitz) or (Lucic, Bergeron, Krejci, Marchand, Chara, Rask)

The point of my post was more to address experience rather than skill...I think the current sens are better than the Bruins and the Pens, but I think playoff experience goes a long way too. Like I said, it could go either way, depends on how the playoff rookies (Hammond, Stone, Ceci, Lazar and Hoffman) do.

 

[BigBush*]

I said core, not roster.

core = main players as in (Crosby, Malkin, Letang, Kunitz) or (Lucic, Bergeron, Krejci, Marchand, Chara, Rask)

The point of my post was more to address experience rather than skill...I think the current sens are better than the Bruins and the Pens, but I think playoff experience goes a long way too. Like I said, it could go either way, depends on how the playoff rookies (Hammond, Stone, Ceci, Lazar and Hoffman) do.

Still think its an idiotic thing to say you'd rather play the old core from 5 years ago (with like 4 of the same guys on it) then the new up and coming core who's red hot.

They should of just lost some games so that they could play Mobtreal

 

[ottawa]

Still think its an idiotic thing to say you'd rather play the old core from 5 years ago (with like 4 of the same guys on it) then the new up and coming core who's red hot.

They should of just lost some games so that they could play Mobtreal

Why? literally every one of those players in both cores are in their prime, and most of them have been known to elevate their game in the playoffs. That's what I'm trying to get at, we have yet to see if the young sens will be able to elevate their game, and the most interesting thing to see will be how Hammond plays.

 

[Super Cake]

I really want to see some playoff hockey.

Please hockey gods, let the Sens make it. I will do ANYTHING.

 

[BigBush*]

Why? literally every one of those players in both cores are in their prime, and most of them have been known to elevate their game in the playoffs. That's what I'm trying to get at, we have yet to see if the young sens will be able to elevate their game, and the most interesting thing to see will be how Hammond plays.

Why? I ****ing told you why. Are you *******? Because those teams aren't even close to where they were.

I'd much rather play the depleting core that has done nothing recently then take my chances against the hottest team

 

[General Zodd]

I really want to see some playoff hockey.

Please hockey gods, let the Sens make it. I will do ANYTHING.

Wow 13,000 posts in 2 years? You are a machine man!

 

[Super Cake]

Wow 13,000 posts in 2 years? You are a machine man!

It feels like i have wasted a lot of my time on these boards.

If the Sens don't make the playoffs, i might take a break from them just to see what it feels like to not be on this board 24/7.

 

[ottawa]

Why? I ****ing told you why. Are you *******? Because those teams aren't even close to where they were.

I'd much rather play the depleting core that has done nothing recently then take my chances against the hottest team

How are they depleting? the Bruins have a better core than the sens and they're as good, if not better, as they were back then with the exception of Lucic.

As for the pens, sure they lost some of the key players (Guerin and Gonchar specifically) but they've gained other good players too. They're doing bad now, yes, but they were a top team in the league all season up until a month ago, and with Crosby/Malkin, the pens are sure to be dangerous. They've only not been past round 2 once in the last 7 years, they're a team that knows how to turn it up in the playoffs when you have leaders like Malkin/Crosby.

Can you say the same about the sens as for their recent post-season success? The sens have a hot streak/momentum going on right now, so that's a huge plus, as we both know...Hopefully that momentum won't break with the 4 day rest they'll get after the season ends...but if I'm the Rangers, I'm hoping the sens kind of forget about all the adrenaline rush during those 4 days and the young sens start to feel playoff pressure.

Again, I'm not making an argument against the sens losing or winning against the Rangers, I think it could go either way. I'm just trying to explain why I think the Rangers would like to avoid the Pens and the Bruins.