Game 2 Caps vs. Canadiens 4-17-2010 Preview

Series A: Washington Capitals (54-29; 121 points; 1st Southeast Division, 1st Eastern Conference, 1st Overall) vs. Montreal Canadiens (40-43; 88 points; 4th Northeast Division, 8th Eastern Conference, 19th Overall):
Caps Playoff Game #2, Home Playoff Game #2, NHL Playoff Game #112

Verizon Center, Washington, D.C. 7:07 pm. Washington TV: Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic. Radio: WJFK 106.7-FM. Montreal TV: None. Radio: CJAD 880-AM.  U.S. National TV: Versus.  Canadian National TV: TSN, RDS (French).  NHL Center Ice: None.

Tonight, the Caps look to even the score in their series with Montreal when they host Game 2.  The Caps are 14-17 All-Time in Game 2, 9-8 on home ice, and 6-5 when trying to forge a tie in the series.

What The Natives Are Saying:

(Com)Post: taking one for the team, reading too much into one game.  Examiner.  Caps.com.

Neutral Views:

NHL.com: Preview, can only get better.  AP Wire.  CBC.com.  ESPN.com.

Open Source Intelligence:

Montreal Gazette: more work to do, just take it easy, nothings changed, can he keep it up, feeling snubbed.  Canadiens.com.

What Do We Expect Tonight?:

We've said it before and we'll say it again, the Montreal Canadiens are not going to let Captain A.O. beat them.  That doesn't mean Captain A.O. is going to go the entire series without a shot on goal or a single point, but that it isn't going to be as simple as him just turning it on and taking over the series.  As for tonight's game, we think that Captain A.O. will figure out a way to be a bigger factor but if the Canadiens are going to devote three players to stopping him, maybe Bruce Boudreau should put Alexander "Slappy" Semin on the top line to take advantage of the open ice.  No knock against Mike Knuble but Slappy just does better with the open ice.  But the biggest thing we're looking for tonight from the Caps offensively is patience.  For whatever reason in the second period and in overtime on Thursday night, the Caps got impatient in the offensive zone.  Instead of retaining puck possession, the Caps would get across the blue line and fire a shot at the Montreal goal.  Jaroslav Halak would make a routine save and Montreal was taking the puck back the other way.  That allowed Montreal to hem us in our own zone for good stretches.  The times that the Caps did show patience was when they would wait until getting to the top of the circles on the rush before taking a shot.  If the Caps can posses the puck in the offensive zone more, they will continue to wear down this Montreal team.

Caps Nut Official Prediction:

Caps 4
Canadiens 2
Winner by Semin
(0-1 in the playoffs, 47-38 for the year with two perfect games)