Game #1 Washington Capitals at Atlanta Thrashers

Where: Philips Arena, Atlanta GA

When: October 10, 2008, 7:30 PM

History:

Caps Record on this Date: 6-4-0-0

Caps Game 1 Record: 16-15-2-0

All-Time vs. ATL: 24-16-5-5

All-Time At ATL: 10-9-2-4

Last Season vs. ATL: 4-3-2

Last Meeting: 3/21/08, WAS 5 ATL 3

This Year:

WAS Record: 0-0-0

Standings Points: 0

Division Rank: na

Conference Rank: na

Last Game: na

Streak: Loss na

ATL Record: 0-0-0

Standings Points: 0

Division Rank: na

Conference Rank: na

Last Game: na

Streak: na

Probable Line-Ups:

Washington

Forward Line 1: 8 OVECHKIN, 19 BACKSTROM, 25 KOZLOV

Forward Line 2: 21 LAICH, 91 FEDOROV, 28 SEMIN 14 FEHR

Forward Line 3: 14 FLEISCHMANN, NYLANDER, 17 CLARK

Forward Line 4: 87 BRASHEAR, 39 STECKEL, 10 BRADLEY

Defense Pair 1: 26 MORRISONN, 52 GREEN

Defense Pair 2: 4 ERSKINE, 3 POTI

Defense Pair 3: 55 SCHULTZ, 23 JURCINA

Goalie: 60 THEODORE

Back-up Goalie: 1 JOHNSON

Atlanta

Forward Line 1: 17 KOVALCHUK, 12 WHITE, 14 WILLIAMS

Forward Line 2: 13 KOZLOV, 9 CHRISTENSEN, 20 ARMSTRONG

Forward Line 3: 11 PERRIN, 19 REASONER, 21 STERLING

Forward Line 4: 36 BOULTON, 23 SLATER, 27 THORBURN

Defense Pair 1: 39 ENSTROM, 28 HAVELID

Defense Pair 2: 2 EXELBY, 6 HAINSEY

Defense Pair 3: 4 BOGOSIAN, 18 SCHNEIDER

Goalie: 32 LEHTONEN

Back-up Goalie: 1 HEDBERG

Injuries:

Washington – 2 POTHIER (concussion) IR

Atlanta – HOFFMAN (broken hand) IR

Caps Milestones:

Victor Kozlov needs 4 points to reach 500 in his career.

Matt Bradley needs 5 points to reach 100 in his career.

Michael Nylander needs 5 points to reach 100 with the Capitals.

Preview:

Washington starts the new season in Atlanta tonight. The club returns most of the team it finished last season with the exception of goalie. The team is counting on free agent acquisition Jose Theodore to handle the duties in net. There are a lot of expectations going into this season as Head Coach Bruce Boudreau starts his first full campaign behind the Caps bench. The team embraced his high octane, offensive system last season which allowed players like Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green to flourish. With the return of Michael Nylander and Chris Clark from injury, this is as strong a team as I have seen in a long time. My big question is whether or not the Caps, with the constraints of the salary cap, can keep the intensity up over the long haul of the season. My hunch is that they can.

Tonight’s match up pits Coach Boudreau against his good friend John Anderson. Anderson was hired to coach the Thrashers in the offseason and it will be the first NHL opener for both coaches. Look for Alex Ovechkin to try and get things started early for the Caps. He loves playing the Thrashers with 20 goals and 20 assists in 24 games. The Caps just completed a very good preseason finishing 5-1-1 and the last game looked liked they just wanted to be done and get on to tonight’s game. I think the team will explode out of the gate and put a bunch of goals on the board.

Joe’s prediction: Caps 5 ATL 1

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