Caps @ Canadiens 2-10-2010 Preview

Washington Capitals (41-18; 88 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) @ Montreal Canadiens (28-32; 62 points; 3rd Northeast Division, 7th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):
Caps Game #60, Road Game #31, NHL Game #886

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: 20 Atlanta
Southeast Division Championship: 23 Tampa Bay
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 34 New Jersey
President's Trophy: 45 San Jose

Bell Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 7:37 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM.  Montreal TV: None. Radio: CJAD 880-AM.  Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French) NHL Center Ice: Comcast SportNet Mid-Atlantic and TSN feeds.

Tonight, the Caps take their winning streak on the road for the start of a three game road trip in four nights when they face the Montreal Canadiens for the fourth and final time this season.  After dropping the first game in D.C., the Caps have come back to win the last two games in the series this season with their other visit to Bell Centre ending in a 4-3 gimmick win.  The Canadiens are one of about 13 teams hanging onto a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference and have been streaky recently.  They had a three game winning streak snapped on Sunday by the visiting Boston Bruins, 3-0.  However, before that three game winning streak was a three game losing streak for the Canadiens.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post.  Examiner.  Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com.  AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

The Gazette: more injuries, passing the torch again, letting history decide.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Bruce Bourdreau has turned into a college football coach who spends the entire week talking up lesser teams in an attempt to make everybody believe that the next opponent is an almost insurmountable challenge to his team.  Maybe he didn't see how the Washington Redskins completely fell apart after Vinny Cerrato was resigned from his position and Bruce Allen was brought on board?  Of course, when that happened, the Redskins were out of the playoff picture unlike Montreal who is still in the playoff hunt in the Eastern Conference.  However, even if the Canadiens want to put a good show on for their new boss and be known as the team who ended the Caps winning streak, they're simply running out of talent capable of doing such a thing.  Montreal is working with a patched together lineup with six players currently on injured reserve including Andrei Kostitsyn, Mike Cammalleri, Paul Mara, and Marc-Andre Bergeron.  Sure, like just about any other team in the NHL, the Caps have to take Montreal seriously enough or they will end up getting beaten, but there isn't enough here for Montreal to do much damage.  Jaroslav Halak has taken over as the starting goaltender for now in Montreal but has posted some unimpressive numbers in his last two starts.  The biggest key for the Capitals tonight is to move their feet in the defensive zone.  That alone will cut down on the penalties which could be problematic because Montreal has the second best Power Play and the Caps have the second worst road Penalty Killing unit in NHL.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 4
Canadiens 2
Winner by Laich
(32-27 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps vs. Penguin Scum 2-7-2010 Wrap Up

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: 20 Atlanta
Southeast Division Championship: 23 Tampa Bay
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 36 New Jersey
President's Trophy: 45 San Jose 

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post: Captain A.O. Show, making it in. Examiner.  Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com.  AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Olympic breakdown, life on the road.  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: power failure, no excuses.  Penguin Scum.com.

Final Thoughts:

We find it highly comical that a long time teammate of Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Lowblow Cindy Crosby would dare to publicly criticize another player on another team of "embellishing" and "whining."  We would have to wonder what they player thinks of his own team Captain?  It is also laughable when that same player attacked an opponent after the whistle for nailing him with a clean hip check.  Aren't you glad there's no rivalry here?  Things would be really ugly if there was.

59 down, 23 to go.

Caps vs. Penguin Scum 2-7-2010 Post-Mortem

It wasn't ending like that...  Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• After botching two first period chances and getting the hose turned on him with the instigator penalties, Mike Knuble had the presence of mind to poke home the rebound for the Game Winning Knoal in overtime.  He must have been the only one to realize that Captain A.O.'s shot hit the goal post and did not go in.  Good thing he did because his doing so must have been a message to the Yinzers that the steel mills were re-opening because we have never seen those fools disappear so fast.  And why?  It was only a regular season game.
• Yeah Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore gave up four goals on 24 shots through two periods.  However he came up with a H U G E save on Canadian Diving Team Captain, Secondary Assist Lowblow Cindy Crosby on the 5-on-3 late in the second period.  That save right there kept the game close enough for the Caps to launch the comeback in the third period everybody knew was coming even though it was only a meaningless regular season game.
• And for the first time all season, the Two-Time Regeining NHL MVP, Captain A.O. notched a Hat Trick and an assist.  The three goals gave him a three goal lead over Lowblow Cindy (who passed on a prime chance of her own to put the Penguin Scum ahead late in the game.  We thought she was shooting more this season???) for the Rocket Richard.  The four points gives him an eight point lead over Henrik Sedin for the Art Ross another meaningless regular season trophy.  The cherry-picking defensive zone slouch also increased his league-leading +/-  3 points to 41 over Jeff "Sergeant" Schutlz (who was also a +3 today).  The complete all-around players, Lowblow Cindy and Evgeni Malkin-Lindros, were a -1 and even despite two goals and two assists respectively.

THE BAD:

• The Caps are usually a good team in the faceoff circle, not so today as they were 34-39.

THE UGLY:

• Well first things first, Tyler Sloan was returned to the lineup for some reason today and comes up with a lazy outlet pass that Lowblow Cindy easily picked off and scored upon.  That barely nudges out Tom Poti's ugly turnover at the blueline leading to the Penguin Scum's fourth goal for the John "Coach's Pet" Erksine Bowles Bonehead Play of the Game.  Poti's bad pass had to be knocked down, Sloan's poor outlet had nobody intended for it and all Lowblow Cindy had to do was skate up to it.
• Paired on Friday night with Tom Kowal, Tim Peel called a pretty good game.  I guess he and Frederick L'Ecuyer were upset about all the museums being closed yesterday because this was a hose job today reminiscent of the Second Round last year.  First of all, when the Nothing But Cindy announcing crew are calling Barbara Streisand on your calls in favor of the Penguin Scum more than once, you know something is up.  Secondly, even us with our bad eyesight at the opposite end of the rink could tell that Sarge didn't slash anybody and that the stick broke on its own.  That call with 4:08 left in the third ensured at least a Bettman point for the Penguin Scum.
• But our favorite hose job of the day came on Nicklas Backstrom's 10 minute misconduct in the second period.  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot did he do to deserve that?  Furthermore, how in the world did the guy who started the whole scrum after the goal get off scott-free?  Brooks Orpik going after Brian Pothier for a clean hit went completely unpenalized but the top two scorers for the Caps were sent to the Sin Bin from the melee.

Well folks, the game was playing out about as we had expected until Chris Kuntiz ran over Theodore.  That got the Caps angry and forced the zebras to get out the hoses to keep it close.  Sure, the Yinzers will say, "it's only the regular season" and "we didn't get into D.C. until 2:15 a.m." but once again, the Penguin Scum took a pretty good shot at the Caps and came up on the short end of the stick.  Once the Caps got going it was clear that the only way to keep the game close was the parade the Caps to the penalty box and kick 2/3's of the top line out for a half a period at different points.  As the streak moves forward, it is going to be harder and harder to keep it going because everybody wants to be the one who ends it.  Luckily the Caps were dead set against the Penguin Scum being the ones who ended it because they have to have growing doubts that they can beat us.  And the better news is that if we can survive the hose jobs now, we can survive them in the Spring.

It has been... A TWO POINT DAY!!! 

Caps vs. Penguin Scum 2-7-2010 Preview

Washington Capitals (40-18; 86 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Pittsburgh Penguin Scum (35-23; 72 points; 2nd Atlantic Division, 4th Eastern Conference, 8th Overall):
Caps Game #59, Home Game #29, NHL Game #870

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: 22 Montreal and Atlanta
Southeast Division Championship: 25 Tampa Bay
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 38 New Jersey
President's Trophy: 47 San Jose

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 12:08 pm. Washington TV: None. Radio: WFED 1500-AM.  Pittsburgh TV: None . Radio: WXDX 105.9-FM.  U.S. National TV: NBC NHL Center Ice: None.

Today break out the snow shovels, rock salt, ice picks, snow blowers, sand bags, snow shoes, flamethrowers, snow chains, cross-country skis, or whatever it is you need to get out of your house because it is GAME ON!  The Caps are looking for their 14th win in a row against a Penguin Scum team that is starting to climb back into the race for the Atlantic Division Championship.  This is the second meeting between the two teams this season and the Penguin Scum's first visit to the Phone Booth this season.  Caps skated off with a 6-3 win back in January for win #5 on the current streak.  The Penguin Scum have won four of their six games since the teams last met 17 days ago.  However, they dropped an ugly 5-3 decision in Montreal yesterday to the Canadiens.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post.  Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com.  AP Wire.  NBC

Open Source Intelligence:

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: rink rust, best chance at the Hall, notebook.  Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: disappointing, improving health, memory lane, GAME ON!  Penguin Scum.com.

What Do We Expect Today?:

Well folks, thank the Nothing But Cindy network's desire for its 1.0 rating for forcing this game to go on today even though it could easily be played tomorrow night.  None the less, after a Homeric Odyssey that put the Penguin Scum in D.C. roughly 8 hours after their game yesterday in Montreal and less than 12 hours before today's faceoff there is a game in Downtown D.C. today.  While the Caps had their practice yesterday canceled, removing 20-30 inches of snow so you can get out of your house is a lot of work, trust us, we know.  The Caps are once again playing their fourth game in six days and the Penguin Scum are playing the back end of a back-to-back set of games on the road in addition to the minor leaguesque travel.  Because we were horribly wrong about the expected crowd on Friday night, we'll refrain from making predictions on today's crowd but we do think you'll see two tired hockey teams trudging up and down the ice today as the adrenaline wears off rather quickly.  After all, there is no rivalry here if you listen to the Yinzers.  Furthermore, they also tells that no matter who wins today, it is only a regular season game and doesn't really matter anyway.  Penguin Scum Head Coach Dan Bylsma was expecting to play Marc-Andre Fleury in both games this weekend because the Penguin Scum had four days off before yesterday's game.  However, M.-A. F. got yanked in the third period after a lackluster performance.  Could we see Brent Johnson in goal instead today?  Who knows, we have to get outside and start de-icing our car so we can get to a Metro station that is actually open.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 6
Penguin Scum 2
Winner by Semin
(31-27 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps vs. Thrashers 2-5-2010 Wrap Up

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: 22 Montreal and Atlanta
 Southeast Division Championship: 25 Tampa Bay
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 40 New Jersey
President's Trophy: 47 San Jose

 
The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post.  Examiner.  Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com.  AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Final Thoughts:

20 inches down, 10 more to go...

Oh wait...

58 down, 24 to go.

Caps vs. Thrashers 2-5-2010 Post-Mortem

How's it going to end???  Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• First of all, a shout out to the 16,000 other maniacs who joined us in coming out to the game tonight.  Bandwagon fans aren't going to turn out in the numbers we saw tonight with what we're experiencing around here this weekend.
• Captain A.O. keeps trucking along.  Another goal and an assist upping his season points total to 82 points and extending his lead in the Art Ross race over Henrik Sedin to four.  He's broken the tie with Patrick Marleau for the Rocket Richard but holds the tiebreaker (fewest games) over him anyway.
• Michal " Bebe" Neuvirth gets recalled from Hershey, rings up 43 saves, and gets the win.  Maybe he is ready for full time duty?

THE BAD:

• While the Caps seemed to have cured their first period funk, it simply moved 20 minutes later as the Caps had all sorts of trouble in the second period.  The Caps allowed 22 shots on goal and as has also been the case in this winning streak, the goaltending bailed out the team out as no goals were allowed and the Caps carried a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
• Nicklas Backstrom with the migraines in the third period again.  We noticed three other Caps head off to the bench in pain and while Brooks "and Dunn" Laich and Jason Chimera specifically missed some shifts, they returned to the game and contributed with much needed points in the third period.  But the grueling stretch of games is starting to take its toll.
• And part of the funk that the Caps fall into tends to come from a lack of puck possession.  The Caps don't help this cause when they get impatient with the puck and try to force passes that aren't there instead of retaining the puck.  The Caps also skated the puck into danger numerous times tonight which also leads to short possessions and turnovers.

THE UGLY:

• While we salute John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles for catching Marty Reasoner with a clean open ice hit in the Caps zone, we're livid over him accepting Chris Thorburn's invitation to a fight.  Erskine Bowles fight thwarted a rush that the Caps had going and cost the team a good scoring chance.  Ultimate Fighting on Ice Fans are having a harder and harder time defending the sacrosanct "Crock" when clean hits lead to fights like tonight's which is the John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles Bonehead Play of the Game.
• The Penalty Killers were 3 for 3 tonight but usually do a good job on home ice.  They're ranked third after all.  But the unit allowed 12 shots on goal during the six minutes they were killing them off.
• Alexander "Slappy" Semin lost an edge trying to stop on a backcheck after coughing up the puck at the Atlanta Blueline and knocked the puck into the net to give Rich Peverley a shorthanded goal after Bebe had stopped the initial shot.  And that wasn't the only Keystone Kops routine the Caps pulled tonight either.  Only the most glaring.

It seems to us as if teams facing us now and seeking to end the streak are trying to come out firing from the drop of the puck.  The Caps however are turning things on in the third period to either complete the comeback, pull out in front, and/or blow the game wide open.  It's looking like it will either take an insurmountable lead in the first period or a third period collapse to end this steak.  But the truth is, for tonight the fast start by Atlanta it wasn't that bad on an idea.  Though if you remember earlier this season, the Caps had all kinds of trouble closing out games in the third period.  Finally, you aren't going to string together 13 wins in a row without a healthy measure of luck in your favor.  Some of the bounces tonight lead us to believe that our good luck is starting to run out but there's still enough to keep it going.

It has been... A TWO POINT NIGHT!!!

Caps @ Rangers 2-4-2010 Wrap Up/ Caps vs. Thrashers 2-5-2010 Preview

The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post.  Examiner.  Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com.  AP Wire.

The Other Side:

New York Daily News.  New York Post: 12th in a row, cap strapped, decent move.  New York Times.  Rangers.com.

Final Thoughts:

57 down, 25 to go.


Washington Capitals (39-18; 84 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Atlanta Thrashers (24-31; 56 points; 4th Southeast Division, 11th Eastern Conference, 24th Overall):
Caps Game #58, Home Game #28, NHL Game #851

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: 26 Atlanta and Boston
Southeast Division Championship: 27 Tampa Bay
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 42 New Jersey
President's Trophy: 49 San Jose

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM.  Atlanta TV: SportSouth . Radio: WCNN 680-AM.  NHL Center Ice: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic and SportSouth feeds.

Tonight, the Caps return home to face the Atlanta Thrashers looking to make it a Baker's Dozen provided that the impending doom doesn't swallow us whole.  This is the fourth meeting between the two teams this season and the first time the Thrashers have set foot in D.C. and they may be staying here for awhile.  The Caps swept the three games in Atlanta earlier this season by a combined score of 17-8.  The Thrashers have been hanging around the last few playoff spots in the Eastern Conference all season but are now expected to continue their fade away from playoff contention after yesterday's trade.  The Thrashers have lost two in a row and four of their last six games.  The Thrashers have been off since Tuesday when they fell at home, 2-1, to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

What The Natives Are Saying:

Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com.  AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: quick move, damage control.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

We have to admit folks, we don't know what to expect tonight other than a sparse crowd in the Phone Booth should the game be played tonight.  We were originally thinking that the Caps would be walking into a trap tonight.  They'd be playing their third game in four nights in three different cities and the second of back-to-back games.  The Thrashers have been off since Tuesday night and were in D.C. waiting for the Caps to arrive home from New York after playing the Rangers.  Add in the murmurings that Bruce Boudreau would start Braden Holtby tonight because of the quick turnaround from the Rangers game and the light crowd expected as the D.C. area does its usual snowdance; and we could easily see how the Caps could lose this game tonight and have their winning streak snapped.  However the Kovalchuk trade throws all of that into disarray.  When a team trades a superstar player that is a huge blow to the team's psyche.  Atlanta will likely be as flat tonight as the Caps are tired and the crowd is light.  With the luck the Caps have been experiencing of late, the streak may just end up continuing on as if nothing has happened.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 4
Thrashers 2
Winner by Knuble
(30-27 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Rangers 2-4-2010 Post-Mortem

How's it going to end???  Onto the Battle Damage Assessment...

THE GOOD:

• Jose "Alvin, Simon," Theodore had a strong game despite allowing 5 goals, many of which he could do nothing about.  Though we would have liked a save on Vaclav Prospal's first goal just 10 seconds after the Caps tied up the game in the first period.  However, Theodore came up with 16 saves in the first period alone and 33 for the game.
• Captain A.O. with two goals and an assist tonight running his career total to 501 points, 80 on the season taking over the top spot in the NHL in the Art Ross race.  His 38 goals are also good for the NHL lead (he has the tie breaker over Patrick Marleau).
• Nicklas Backstrom with the game winning goal and four assists.  He now has 69 points on the season and is quietly turning into a superstar player.
• Where the Power Play couldn't come through on Tuesday night, it cashed in tonight against a good Penalty Killing unit going 3 for 9.

THE BAD:

• Make that three bad first periods in a row.  We thought the Caps owned the first period?
• For a team with one of the worst Penalty Killing units on the road, the Caps played with fire by taking six penalties.
• We noted this morning that it was either feast or famine for the Rangers.  The Rangers scored five goals but Marion Gaborik did get any of them.  Figure that one out...

THE UGLY:

• The Penalty Killers were just 2 for 6 tonight.  That just can't happen if this team wants to win.
• We're trying to figure out why Joe Beninati and Craig Laughin were heaping all the praise Tom Poti.  Poti was on the ice for all four Power Play goals scored against the Caps tonight and made some really sloppy plays.  Though we now understand why Bruce Boudreau won't use Poti on the Power Play.  Twice tonight he telegraphed point-to-point passes on the Power Play that were picked off by Ryan Callahan.  The first one was somewhat understandable, but the second one was downright inexcusable as Poti should have learned the lesson the first time.  That's why it is the John "Coach's Pet" Erskine Bowles Bonehead Play of the Game.

Well, all we can say right now is WOW!  The Caps keep on winning here while playing seemingly worse and worse.  As long as the winning continues, the play won't improve and when the winning stops, it will take more than a couple of games to get back in stride.  Maybe it is not so bad that the Olympic break is coming up because we wonder just how much longer the Caps can get away with this.  However, we march on racking up the wins and the points in the standings.  And a quick note on the Kovalchuk trade tonight.  We're not sure this is the home run for New Jersey many think it is.  Plenty of big names have moved late in the season like this and were of no help to their new teams.  We really don't see Kovalchuk fitting in New Jersey's defense first system and he becomes the obvious target to shutdown the Devils offense.  Furthermore this trade does nothing to address the fact that Martin Brodeur is currently on pace to play 78 of 82 games this season in the NHL along with possible action in Vancouver.  Brodeur has broken down in the playoffs in each of the past four seasons and with Marty about to turn 38 in May, we see no evidence it won't happen again this year.  But as it relates to the Caps, the Caps aren't likely to see the Devils until the Conference Finals anyway.  And if the Caps want to advance that far, they'll need to play better.

It has been...  A TWO POINT NIGHT!!!

Epic Bummer Brewing?

Well folks, the National Weather Service has already issued a Winter Storm Watch for the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Area starting Friday morning and running through Saturday evening.  The NWS is saying that this storm could be like the one we got almost two months ago that dropped around 20 inches in the area.

And as we all know there is a rather highly anticipated hockey game in this area starting at High Noon on Sunday.  Now, by all accounts, the storm is supposed to be gone by Sunday morning.  However, there might be a little problem starting the hockey game on time.

We had a little extra time this morning and we decided to check out the NHL schedule for the rest of this week and saw that the Pittsburgh Penguin scum are scheduled to play the Canadiens in Montreal on Saturday in a game that starts at 2 pm.  That game will be over around 4:30- 5:00 pm and therein lies the problem.

What are you talking about???

During that December 19th snow storm, all three D.C. Metropolitan area airports, DCA, IAD, and BWI closed for extended lengths of time because they couldn't keep their runways cleared.  As a matter of fact, the Chicago Bears had all kinds of trouble getting into BWI for their game with the Ratbirds in Bhawlmuher on the 20th.  If the airports close down again, the Penguin Scum won't be able to get into town and if the Penguin Scum can't get into D.C., the Caps can't play them.

Conversely, the Caps opponent on Friday (when all this fun is supposed to start) is Atlanta.  Atlanta may not be able to leave D.C. after the game on Friday to go home and face the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.

Now the NFL went ahead and moved the Ratbirds-Bears game to a 4 pm start instead of its original 1 pm kickoff to allow the Ratbirds enough time to clear their stadium of snow.  However, the NFL has this little shindig on Sunday called Super Bowl XLIV.  The NHL might move the Caps-Penguin Scum faceoff back from High Noon, but not by three hours because we doubt that the Nothing But Cindy Network would go along with that move.  And if the NHL does move Sunday's start time back, how close is the NHL willing to get in the Super Bowl's shadow?

Stay tuned folks, this could get interesting...

UPDATE:  Upon further review of the Verizon Center and Peguin Scum Schedules, we could end up seeing Sunday's game postponed until Monday night.

Caps @ Rangers 2-4-2010 Preview

Washington Capitals (38-18; 82 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) @ New York Rangers (25-32; 57 points; 4th Atlantic Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 21st Overall):
Caps Game #57, Road Game #30, NHL Game #842

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: 28 Atlanta
Southeast Division Championship: 29 Tampa Bay
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 44 New Jersey
President's Trophy: 51 San Jose

Madison Square Garden, New York, NY 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM.  New York TV: MSG. Radio: WEPN 1050-AM.  NHL Center Ice: MSG feed.

Tonight, the Caps go for a dozen when they head into MSG for the second and final time this season to face the New York Rangers.  This is the third of four meetings between the teams this season and the road team has won both games so far this season.  Recently though for the Rangers it has been either feast or famine.  The Rangers have lost six of their last seven games and have been shutout four times in their last twelve games.  The Rangers are coming off a three game West Coast trip where after snapping a five game losing streak with a 3-1 win in Colorado over the Avalanche on Sunday night, the Rangers dropped a 2-1 decision in Los Angeles to the Kings on Tuesday night.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post.  Examiner.  Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com.  AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

Rangers.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Well folks, as the Caps go for the dirty dozen in tonight's game, we should know pretty quickly how things are going to turn out.  While the Rangers are being described as the "new look Rangers" the results so far have been pretty typical for them this season.  Basically, if the Caps can keep Marian Gaborik from scoring, the Rangers are going to have a hard time pulling out a win tonight.  Furthermore, the Rangers are playing their first game at home after a trip to the west coast.  That time change is never easy for an east coast team so even if the Rangers come out with a strong effort, expect them to fade as the game goes on.  But as has been the case recently for the Caps, their biggest enemy right now is themselves.  Will the Caps come out tonight and look to put a struggling team away early or will the string of bad games that the Caps pull out in the end continue?

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 6
Rangers 2
Winner by Semin
(29-27 on the season with one perfect game)

Caps @ Bruins 2-2-2010 Wrap Up

Caps "Magic Numbers" (Caps Points Earned+Lost by team named) to clinch:
Playoff Spot: 28 Atlanta
Southeast Division Championship: 29 Tampa Bay
Eastern Conference #1 Seed: 45 Buffaslugs
President's Trophy: 51 San Jose


The Local Yokels:

(Com)Post.  Caps.com.

The Neutral Observers:

NHL.com.  AP Wire.

The Other Side:

Boston Globe-Democrat: three strikes, surgery ahead frustrated.  Boston Herald: same results, sad sack town, fingering the problem, single shot.

Final Thoughts:

We're pretty sure you've seen the list of longest NHL winning streaks in the last 20 years that Comcast SportsNet couldn't stop showing last night.  We feel we should note that not a single one of those teams went on to win the Stanley Cup that season.  And of the comprehensive list posted by Brian McNally at the Examiner, only the 1982 Islanders (15 games) and 1968 Canadiens (12 games) won the Cup in the same season they posted a double digit winning streak like this.  Now, those were all very good hockey teams, with the exception of the 1985-1986 Flyers and 1998-1999 Avalanche, all of the teams finished first overall in the NHL.  So while the Stanley Cup is the ultimate goal, a President's Trophy shouldn't be frowned upon by a franchise that has never won one.

56 down, 26 to go.

We added the Boston Globe-Democrat late because their stories weren't available when we did the original post.