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GDT: Canes @ Caps 1/5 7:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
One road game before an extended homestand.

The Canes look to extend their season-long 4 game winning streak against the semi-slumping Caps. Noesen missed practice yesterday due to illness, Necas took a hard check into the boards but appeared OK after practice. RBA has a decision to make in goal, with a back to back followed by 4 days off. Does he keep rolling with Kochetkov against a Division opponent and let Raanta play against the West or does he use Raanta against the low scoring Caps. We’ll see.

The Caps have dropped to 6th in the Division but are tied for 4th on points percentage with 42 points in 36 games. They’re 4-4-2 in their last 10 and are coming off a 6-3 loss to the Devils on Wednesday. Dylan Strome leads with 13 goals, Tom Wilson (the Caps All-Star) and Anthony Mantha have 11. That Ovechkin Guy? He has 8, along with 16 assists for a team leading 24 points. He's on a 3 game point streak with 2 goals and 2 assists. In goal, the Caps have used Darcy Kuemper and Charlie Lindgren fairly evenly, but Lindgren was injured last week and put on IR. He’s not eligible to come off until Sunday. Rookie Hunter Shepard was recalled and played on Wednesday, so we should see Kuemper tonight. He’s at 3.15/.893 in 19 games. The Caps aren’t scoring a lot, they’re 30th in the league in goals per game at 2.36. Only the Sharks have scored fewer goals than the Caps. They’re 11th in goals against. Their PP isn’t good, 28th at 13.7% but like the Canes, it’s been hot lately, 8 for 29 over their last 11 games. The PK is 12th.

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We’re also going to see old friends Max Pacioretty and Ethan Bear tonight. Pacioretty made his season debut on Wednesday and played 11:47, all at even strength, with no shots on goal. He played with Dylan Strome and Matthew Philips. Today is also the 1 year anniversary of his first game with the Canes. Bear has played in 3 games since joining the Caps. He has 1 assist and is averaging just over 18 minutes per game.
 
Despite his drop in point production, Ovechkin still very much remains the engine of this team. In terms of play driving stats, he and Strome are the only ones really generating chances in the offensive zone 5v5. Wilson, Mantha, Carlson and McMichael also push the needle a bit but the whole rest of their crew is hanging around in the "barely registering" zone ... which illustrates why they have a general lack of offense. Still, they're scrappy and effective defensively and have managed to pretty much max out the amount of reasonable points you could expect looking at the situation. Carolina's on a bit of a roll, and this is a good game to determine if it has legs or not.
 
Pacioretty seems to have an uphill battle coming back from “two” torn Achilles. I’m pulling for the guy but boy that seems like a long road back at this point to be anything close to the player he once was.
 
Still, chances are good that Patches will be sufficiently fired up to play well tonight, regardless of lack of speed. He still had the hands last year this time and that's unlikely to have changed much. Best to keep them off the power play to the extent the refs will allow.
 
That likely means no Necas or Noesen tonight. With Fast already out we would have only had 10 forwards and 7 dmen.
 
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