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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Game #35 Washington Capitals Vs. Montreal Canadians

Where: Verizon Center, Washington, DC

When: December 20, 2007, 7:00 PM

History:
Caps Record on this Date: 5-3-4-0
Caps Game 35 Record: 15-12-5-0
All-Time vs. MON: 46-63-17-1
Last Season vs. MON: 1-3-0
Last Meeting: 3/24/07, WAS 3 MON 4

This Year:
WAS Record: 13-18-3
Standings Points: 29
Division Rank: 5th
Conference Rank: 15th
Last Game: 12/17/2007, WAS 3 DET 4 (OT-SO)
Streak: Loss 1

MON Record: 16-12-5
Standings Points: 37
Division Rank: 3rd
Conference Rank: Tied 5th
Last Game: 12/18/2007, MON 2 FLA 3
Streak: Loss 1

Probable Line-Ups:
Washington
Forward Line 1: 8 OVECHKIN, 19 BACKSTROM, 25 KOZLOV
Forward Line 2: 18 PETTINGER, 92 MICHAL NYLANDER, 28 SEMIN
Forward Line 3: 43 FLEISCHMANN, 39 STECKEL, 10 BRADLEY
Forward Line 4: 87 BRASHEAR, 21 LAICH, 53 LAING
Defense Pair 1: 26 MORRISONN, 55 SCHULTZ
Defense Pair 2: 2 POTHIER, 52 GREEN
Defense Pair 3: 3 POTI, 23 JURCINA
Goalie: 37 KOLZIG
Back-up Goalie: 1 JOHNSON

Montreal
Forward Line 1: 21 HIGGINS, 11 KOIVU, 27 KOVALEV
Forward Line 2: 46 A. KOSTITSYN, 14 PLEKANEC, 84 LATENDRESSE
Forward Line 3: 74 S. KOSTITSYN, 28 CHIPCHURA, 25 DANDENAULT
Forward Line 4: 22 BEGIN, 40 LAPIERRE, 6 KOSTOPOULOS
Defense Pair 1: 44 HAMRLIK, 8 KOMISAREK
Defense Pair 2: 79 MARKOV, 51 BOUILLON
Defense Pair 3: 3 O’BYRNE, 71 BRISEBOIS
Goalie: 31 PRICE
Back-up Goalie: 39 HUET

Injuries:
Washington – 14 FEHR (hip) IR, 17 CLARK (groin) IR, 15 GORDON (hand fracture) IR
Montreal – 84 LATENDRESSE (upper body) DTD, 20 SMOLINSKI (knee) IR

Caps Milestones:
Matt Pettinger needs 3 Points to reach 100 for his career
Brian Pothier needs 2 Points to reach 100 for his career
Michal Nylander needs 4 Goals to reach 200 for his career
Donald Brashear needs 5 Points to reach 200 for his career

Preview:
The Capitals will take on the Montreal Canadians Thursday at Verizon Center. They will try and build upon the good play in Monday’s shoot out loss at Detroit and get two points instead of one. The Caps were dominant at times against the Red Wings and will have to continue the aggressive forecheck and dictate the pace of the game. They did a good job getting Detroit out of their game plan but like the Red Wings they will have to respect a Canadians power play that is ranked 2nd in the NHL. Look for this one to be another fast paced game. The specials teams will most likely decide the game. Alexander Semin made be poised for a breakout performance.

Joe’s prediction: Caps 3 MON 2

Official Preview

2 comments:

Shmee said...

I thinks it going to be interesting to see one of the league's best PP units against our excellent PK unit.

Joe said...

If they cannot neutralize the Canadians power play then they will have to do what they did in Detroit on Monday and counter with power play goals of their own.

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