Game #52 Washington Capitals vs. Montreal Canadians

Where: Verizon Centre, Washington, DC

When: January 31, 2008, 7:00 PM

History:
Caps Record on this Date: 6-4-2-0
Caps Game 52 Record: 12-9-10-0
All-Time vs. MON: 47-65-17-1
Last Season vs. MON: 1-3-0
Last Meeting: 1/29/08, WAS 0 MON 4

This Year:
WAS Record: 23-23-5
Standings Points: 51
Division Rank: 2^nd
Conference Rank: 10^th
Last Game: 1/29/08, WAS 0 MON 4
Streak: Loss 1

MON Record: 27-15-8
Standings Points: 62
Division Rank: 2^nd
Conference Rank: 4^th
Last Game: 1/29/08, WAS 0 MON 4
Streak: Won 3

Game 1: 12/20/07, WAS 2 MON 5
Game 2: 1/5/08, WAS 5 MON 4
Game 3: 1/29/08, WAS 0 MON 4

Probable Line-Ups:
Washington
Forward Line 1: 8 OVECHKIN, 19 BACKSTROM, 25 KOZLOV
Forward Line 2: 28 SEMIN, 15 GORDON, 43 FLEISCHMANN
Forward Line 3: 53 LAING, 39 STECKEL, 10 BRADLEY
Forward Line 4: 87 BRASHEAR, 21 LAICH, 18 PETTINGER
Defense Pair 1: 26 MORRISONN, 52 GREEN
Defense Pair 2: 23 JURCINA, 55 SCHULTZ
Defense Pair 3: 4 ERSKINE, 3 POTI
Goalie: 37 KOLZIG
Back-up Goalie: 1 JOHNSON

Montreal
Forward Line 1: 46 A. KOSTITSYN, 14 PLEKANEC, 27 KOVALEV
Forward Line 2: 21 HIGGINS, 11 KOIVU, 73 RYDER
Forward Line 3: 22 BEGIN 74, 20 SMOLINSKI, 84 LATENDRESSE
Forward Line 4: S. KOSTITSYN, 40 LAPIERRE, 6 KOSTOPOULOS
Defense Pair 1: 44 HAMRLIK, 8 KOMISAREK
Defense Pair 2: 79 MARKOV, 51 BOUILLON
Defense Pair 3: 32 STREIT, 26 GORGES
Goalie: 39 HUET
Back-up Goalie: 41 HALAK

Injuries:
Washington – 14 FEHR (hip) IR, 92 NYLANDER (shoulder) IR, 17 CLARK (groin) DTD, 2 POTHIER (head) IR
Montreal – 3 O’BYRNE (broken thumb) IR, 71 BRISEBOIS (broken foot) DTD

Caps Milestones:
Viktor Kozlov needs 4 assists to reach 300 for his career
Matt Pettinger needs 2 Points to reach 100 for his career
Donald Brashear needs 2 Points to reach 200 for his career
Donald Brashear needs 7 PIM’s to reach 2,400 for his career
Chris Clark needs 1 SOG to reach 800 for his career
Matt Pettinger needs 1 SOG to reach 500 for his career
Alex Ovechkin needs 6 SOG to reach 1,100 for his career

Preview:
The Capitals were worked hard by Head Coach Bruce Boudreau after the 4-0 defeat at Montreal on Tuesday. A full speed, full contact scrimmage was conducted. The Caps cannot afford to take any games off as teams in 5^th to 15^th place are within 15 points of each other in the eastern conference standings. The Caps should be getting Shaone Morrisonn back for Thursday’s rematch with Montreal. This will help the defense who has had a lot of injuries lately. Look for the offense to come out hard and establish a lead. The Alexes need to get some points in this one. This should be a hard hitting game and have quite a bit of scoring.

Joe’s prediction: Caps 5 MON 4

Official Preview