Game #58 Preview: Washington Capitals at Anaheim Ducks

Where: Honda Center, Anaheim, CA

When:  February 16, 2011, 10:00 PM

History:           

Caps Record on this Date: 5-4-0-0

Caps Game 58 Record: 17-14-2-1

All-Time vs. ANA: 9-12-1-1

All-Time at ANA: 4-6-1-0

Last Season vs. ANA: 1-0-0

Last Meeting: 12/15/10, WAS 1 ANA 2

Season Series: 0-0-1

This Year:

WAS Record: 29-18-10

Standings Points: 68

Division Rank: 2nd

Conference Rank: 6th

Last Game: 2/14/11, WAS 2 PHO 3

Streak: Loss 3

ANA Record: 32-21-4

Standings Points: 68

Division Rank: 2nd

Conference Rank: 4th    

Last Game: 2/13/11, ANA 4 EDM 0

Streak: Win 4

Probable Line-Ups:     

Washington

Forward Line 1: 8 OVECHKIN, 19 BACKSTROM, 22 KNUBLE

Forward Line 2: 21 LAICH, 85 PERRAULT, 28 SEMIN

Forward Line 3: 26 HENDRICKS, 90 JOHANSSON, 25 CHIMERA

Forward Line 4: 39 STECKEL, 15 GORDON, 10 BRADLEY

Defense Pair 1: 23 HANNAN, 55 SCHULTZ

Defense Pair 2: 27 ALZNER, 74 CARLSON

Defense Pair 3:89 SLOAN, 4 ERSKINE

Goalie: 1 VARLAMOV

Back-up Goalie: 30 NEUVIRTH

Phoenix

Forward Line 1: 9 RYAN, 15 GETZLAF, 10 PERRY

Forward Line 2: 33 BLAKE, 11 KOIVU, 8 SELANNE

Forward Line 3: 64 MCMILLAN, 14 LAPIERRE, 42 SEXTON

Forward Line 4: 28 CHIPCHURA, 22 MARCHANT, 16 PARROS

Defense Pair 1: 17 VISNOVSKY, 32 LYDMAN

Defense Pair 2: 4 FOWLER, 24 BEAUCHEMIN

Defense Pair 3: 5 SBISA, 25 SUTTON

Goalie: 1 HILLER

Back-up Goalie: 31 MCELHINNEY

Injuries:

Washington – 3 POTI (upper body) IR, 16 FEHR (upper body) IR, 52 GREEN (inner ear) DTD

ANA – JAFFRAY (knee) IR

Caps Milestones:

Jason Chimera needs 4 goals to reach 100 in his career.

Brooks Laich needs 5 goals to reach 100 in his career.

Alex Ovechkin needs 5 assists to reach 300 in his career.

Preview:

The Capitals task is simple. Come out of Anaheim with a win. To do this they will need to play a tough disciplined hockey game and for God’s sake score on the power play. Washington’s power outage is has reached epic proportions with no goals in the last 4 games with 15 man advantage chances. This is the number one key and until they can consistently score on the power play they will be stuck in this position. Tonight’s opponent is on a 4-game winning streak and has been play some really good hockey. Expect a very physical game and look for the Capitals to continue to crash the net in search of goals. I think it will be another close contest with the winner prevailing on special teams.

Joe’s prediction: Caps 3 ANA 2

Official Preview