Caps @ Islanders 10-24-2009 Preview

Washington Capitals (5-4; 12 points) @ New York Islanders (1-7; 5 points):
Caps Game #10, Road Game #6, NHL Game #132

Nassau County Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale, NY, 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WFED 1500-AM. New York TV: MSG Plus. Radio: WMJC 94.3-FM. NHL Center Ice: MSG Plus feed.

Tonight the Caps head up to Long Island to face the Islanders. While the Caps swept the season series last year, the two wins in Uniondale required overtime. The Islanders finally picked up their first win this season on Wednesday night when they beat the Carolina Hurricanes at home 4-3 in a gimmick. The Islanders were in Montreal on Thursday night where they lost to the Canadiens 5-1. Tonight will be their third game in four nights.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post. Times. Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com. AP Wire.

Open Source Intelligence:

New York Daily News.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

Well folks, after the first nine games so far this season, it looks as if the Caps are back to their old tricks of playing up or down to their opponent. Tonight's game will help serve confirmation of that as the Islanders so far are nowhere near as improved as many thought they would be. Therein lies the dilemma for the Caps. If the Caps come out strong tonight, they have a good chance of burying the Islanders quickly, but as games against Toronto and Nashville showed, they lose focus late in the game and make things closer than they should be. If the Caps have another slow or so-so start, the Islanders will hang around and the Caps will have to work harder than they should to pull out a win. The last three times the Caps have gone to Uniondale, the games have ended up in overtime with the Caps winning the last two in the extra session. This game should not require overtime but considering the way the Caps have played their last five periods of hockey, this game very well could. We don't know if it is good news or bad news that the Islanders are struggling with only one win in their first eight games but we do know that half of the Islanders games so far have gone into overtime where the Islanders have only won one of the four games, Wednesday night's gimmick win over Carolina which was their third gimmick of the season so far. So we're thinking this is going to be closer than we want it to be.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 3
Islanders 2
Winner by A.O.
(3-6 on the season, at this rate, we can't pick cotton right now...)