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GDT: Canes v. Caps 4/2 7:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
The Canes get their first chance to clinch without needing help.

Anything other than a regulation loss puts the Canes in the playoffs. And a chance to make up ground on a long shot division title, with the teams meeting twice in the next 8 days. The Canes woeful PP has sort of come to life, notching goals in 4 straight games. It’s the 3rd longest streak of the season, behind a couple of 5 game streaks in October and November, before it turned to the brown stuff. They’ll skate this morning but we'll probably see the same lines we saw at practice yesterday unless Staal makes a miraculous recovery from whatever ails him. Expect Andersen in net.

The Caps won in Boston last night, moving them to within 1 point of Winnipeg for the cursed President’s Trophy. They have a game in hand on the Jets. They’re 6-3-1 in their last 10. Ovechkin leads with 38 goals, he had 1 last night putting him 4 away from breaking Gretzky’s record. Tom Wilson has 32, his first 30 goal season. Alieksei Protas also has 30, a big jump up from the 6 he had last year. The Caps have 3 others with at least 20 goals, including dman Jakob Chychrun. Much maligned Pierre-Luc Dubois seems to have found a home, he has 19 goals. Dylan Strome leads with 48 assists, PLD and John Carlson also have at least 40. Charlie Lindgren was in goal last night, so we’ll see Logan Thompson tonight. He’s at 2.43/.912 for the season but his last 2 starts have been stinkers, giving up 10 goals on 47 shots to Buffalo and Winnipeg. The Caps lead the league in goals per game and are 7th in goals against. For all their offensive firepower, they’re only 15th on the PP. They’re 7th on the PK.

Red jerseys tonight. National TV on TNT/Max, FanDuel and WRAL are also carrying the game.
 
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Staal was not at the morning skate, so he’s out. We’ll see which line RBA deploys against Ovechkin. Carrier skated again in a yellow jersey. Andersen was in the starter’s crease.

Jarvis - Aho - Blake
Hall - Roslovic - Svechnikov
Martinook - Kotkaniemi - Stankoven
Robinson - Jankowski - Jost

Slavin - Burns
Orlov - Chatfield
Gostisbehere - Walker
 
Brindy noted Staal's absence as mostly precautionary at this point. So, that's good for the big picture. KK gets a few games carrying the checking line load and Staal gets to rest and recover before crunch time. To my eyes that line looked pretty good against the Isles, but Brindy gave Aho the good on good matchup in that game, so they were only dealing with the Islanders' second unit. It's a lot less easy against Washington, who for all intents and purposes have 2 first lines. That they've added young Ryan Leonard in the top 6 only makes that balance more difficult to matchup with. That shift makes a deep team even deeper.

Carolina has split with the Caps so far, but like most everyone else they had trouble establishing possession against Washington. Seeing them twice in 8 days this late in the season is a good kick in the pants for a potential playoff matchup. For some reason, people are still sleeping on the Caps, but they're a nasty matchup for anybody in the league. That record is no fluke. That team is very, very good. This game means next to nothing in terms of the standings, but I expect both benches to take it quite seriously.
 
jeffbear said:
Brindy noted Staal's absence as mostly precautionary at this point. So, that's good for the big picture. KK gets a few games carrying the checking line load and Staal gets to rest and recover before crunch time. To my eyes that line looked pretty good against the Isles, but Brindy gave Aho the good on good matchup in that game, so they were only dealing with the Islanders' second unit. It's a lot less easy against Washington, who for all intents and purposes have 2 first lines. That they've added young Ryan Leonard in the top 6 only makes that balance more difficult to matchup with. That shift makes a deep team even deeper.

Carolina has split with the Caps so far, but like most everyone else they had trouble establishing possession against Washington. Seeing them twice in 8 days this late in the season is a good kick in the pants for a potential playoff matchup. For some reason, people are still sleeping on the Caps, but they're a nasty matchup for anybody in the league. That record is no fluke. That team is very, very good. This game means next to nothing in terms of the standings, but I expect both benches to take it quite seriously.
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The backed into the playoffs last year when no one else wanted it. This year was supposed to be all about Ovechkin so he could get the record and they could move on with their rebuild. No one told them though. I don’t think anyone had them in contention for the President’s Trophy.
 
Yeah, nobody had any expectations, but that doesn't excuse STILL not noticing that they're actually good when we're 10 games from the end of the season.
 
Canes are allowing STMs to sell their tickets back to the Canes for account credit up until 5PM today, likely in hopes there will be enough people willing to buy those tickets again off of Ticketmaster for the extremely inflated dynamic prices that the Canes have cooked up.

The price for the seat right in front of me, LL North section? $294 a ticket ($250 base price). That is $220 more per seat than my season ticket price.

I could see trying to get that price if Ovechkin was 1 or 2 goals away from tying the record, but he is 3 goals away. That price is ridiculous, especially so given the large number of 'better' resale seats available for over $100 less than that price.
 
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cmaleski2 said:
Canes are allowing STMs to sell their tickets back to the Canes for account credit up until 5PM today, likely in hopes there will be enough people willing to buy those tickets again off of Ticketmaster for the extremely inflated dynamic prices that the Canes have cooked up.

The price for the seat right in front of me, LL North section? $294 a ticket ($250 base price). That is $220 more per seat than my season ticket price.

I could see trying to get that price if Ovechkin was 1 or 2 goals away from tying the record, but he is 3 goals away. That price is ridiculous, especially so given the large number of 'better' resale seats available for over $100 less than that price.
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Is that a new gig to sell those tickets back? I had to miss tonight and sold mine back. I didn’t remember that from the past
 
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