Winner plays NY Islanders - Loser plays Carolina Hurricanes
Like most I'd prefer we play the Islanders but I'll take whoever. A win would do the team a lot of good and give them a confidence boost, but in the end I don't see the result as being as important as getting the guys' legs moving better, starting to connect more frequently on passes and plays, and actually starting to look like a cohesive hockey team at both ends that's ready for genuine playoff hockey.
The effort against Tampa was a step forward, but still well short of where they need to be. I'm still very torn on how this game should be approached from a lineup perspective - clearly every player needs as much ice time as possible, veterans like Bergeron as much as anybody, but at the same time I don't want to see us get any silly injuries in a largely meaningless game, especially against a team as physical and sometimes reckless as Washington. At the very least Kase must play, and I'd give Clifton a look too since he's surely first or second cab off the rank should any of our regular D get injured. Perhaps as a compromise we play all our regular starters (ex. Lauzon or Gryz for Cliffy) but Cassidy shares the mins more evenly to reduce the wear and tear on our top guys.
The Caps haven't looked much better than the Bruins so far, but I'm sure they'll also like a win and will be very keen to avoid playing Carolina again, so I expect them to put in a pretty solid showing. So a victory for Boston would be great, but if they at least come out of this all healthy and taking another step in the right direction, then I'll be mostly content with that. Go Bs!
A lot depends on who the Caps want to play as they have a dramatic storyline with either matchup
That's true. Was just thinking of the Canes giving them such a shock last year, and they only look better this time around. But then perhaps the Caps will want to face that challenge head on and try to make amends.
But there is a coach in Long Island that wants to send a message to the Caps owner so..................
Safe to assume we are looking at this line up?
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
Ritchie-Krejci-Kase
Debrusk-Coyle-Bjork
Nordstrom-Kuraly-Wagner
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Gryz-Lauzon
Who’s Kase? Lol .. it would be good if he can get on the ice. He’s running out of time. I’m not enthusiastic about Ritchie on the second line. He should play but second line, I’m hesitant, only because if he’s not hitting anybody , not scoring and lack of speed with Krejci who’s not fast as well could be a very slow non- hitting line. I flip flop Ritchie with Debrusk and move Richie on third line. Of course the other side of the argument would be Kase and Ritchie had or could get chemistry on the line together. We shall see how this goes down.Safe to assume we are looking at this line up?
Marchand-Bergeron-Pastrnak
Ritchie-Krejci-Kase
Debrusk-Coyle-Bjork
Nordstrom-Kuraly-Wagner
Chara-McAvoy
Krug-Carlo
Gryz-Lauzon
I will be sitting inside in the air conditioning, on a very hot day, watching a sport being played on glorious, cold ice.Definitive list of things I will not be doing on gorgeous Sunday in August at noon:
- sitting inside watching a hockey game
Hooray for the internet
The best possible lineup.