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GDT: Canes v. Caps 4/5 7:00

A

andyt

Canes Moderator
Staff member
The Canes get an immediate chance to wash last night’s stink away.

Last night’s game was over halfway through the first period. Leaving Pastrnak and Marchand alone at the blue line isn’t a great idea. And I’m not sure what Seth Jarvis was thinking, leaving Pastrnak alone on the goal line. But whatever. They won’t have a skate this morning, so we’ll have to wait until later for lineup changes. Expect Kochetkov in goal.

After briefly moving into 3rd in the division, the Caps have crashed into reality. They’re out of the Wild Card, 5th in the division, 1 point behind the Flyers and Isles but with a game in hand on each. They’ve lost 4 in a row and are 5-4-1 in their last 10. They lost to Pittsburgh last night. They’ve also allowed 33 goals in their last 8 games, including 6 to the Canes on March 22. Alex Ovechkin has climbed above Dylan Strome to lead with 28 goals, 1 more than Strome. John Carlson has 39 assists. Ovechkin has 33, if he finishes with more assists than goals, it will be the first time that’s happened since 2016-17 and only the 4th time in his career. Charlie Lindgren was in goal last night so we should see Darcy Kuemper tonight. He’s at 3.32/.888 in 32 games. The Caps are 28th in goals per game. Since their 7 goal outburst against the Canes, they’ve only scored 13 in their last 6 games and 7 of those were in the last 2 games that they won before the 4 game losing streak. They’re 19th in goals against. Their special teams are mid-pack, the PP is tied for 16th, the PK is 19th.

Black jerseys tonight, Bally Sports South for TV.
 
Time to focus up and treat this like the possible playoff matchup that it is. By which I mean, just go get the basics right.
 
Washington will have the desperation meter cranked up to 11, so we'll need to deliver a solid performance if we're going to crush their playoff hopes. Kuzy, Orlov - this would be a good time to stick it to your former team.
 
Ok, I know I'm a glass half empty kinda person, but I just don't have any faith that they can come out charging tonight, especially since the Caps will be in beast mode. They've got to start on time and get their heads (and legs) in the game early.
 
ThinIce said:
Washington will have the desperation meter cranked up to 11, so we'll need to deliver a solid performance if we're going to crush their playoff hopes. Kuzy, Orlov - this would be a good time to stick it to your former team.
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I mean, I hear you ... but the Caps have been in whatever passes for desperation mode for a couple of weeks now and have managed a 5-4-1 record in their last ten and are on a 4 game losing streak. Carolina needs to focus on just playing their own game.
 
I know some people don't agree with me on this, but I am strongly in the camp that teams need to be playing their best at this point in the season to gear up for the playoffs - this is not the time to play like they did last night - period. If they can't get focused for the stretch run, when they still have/had something to play for (seeding) then they will bow out early in the playoffs again. It's time to leave that switch on alllll night, no more switching it on and off whenever the hell you feel like it.
 
Fayettenamcanesfan said:
I know some people don't agree with me on this, but I am strongly in the camp that teams need to be playing their best at this point in the season to gear up for the playoffs - this is not the time to play like they did last night - period. If they can't get focused for the stretch run, when they still have/had something to play for (seeding) then they will bow out early in the playoffs again. It's time to leave that switch on alllll night, no more switching it on and off whenever the hell you feel like it.
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It was a bad 10 minutes against a good team. That shouldn’t undo everything they did over the last month. They didn’t close great last year either, going 8-7-1 in March and 5-3 in April.
 
andyt said:
It was a bad 10 minutes against a good team. That shouldn’t undo everything they did over the last month. They didn’t close great last year either, going 8-7-1 in March and 5-3 in April.
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and 0-4 in late May.
 
andyt said:
It was a bad 10 minutes against a good team. That shouldn’t undo everything they did over the last month. They didn’t close great last year either, going 8-7-1 in March and 5-3 in April.
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1. It was a lot more than 10 minutes of bad hockey

2. My post was more about finishing strong over the last few weeks, than this one crapbag of a game against Boston
 
Fayettenamcanesfan said:
I know some people don't agree with me on this, but I am strongly in the camp that teams need to be playing their best at this point in the season to gear up for the playoffs - this is not the time to play like they did last night - period. If they can't get focused for the stretch run, when they still have/had something to play for (seeding) then they will bow out early in the playoffs again. It's time to leave that switch on alllll night, no more switching it on and off whenever the hell you feel like it.
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Meh. I understand that take, but history only kinda, sorta holds up on that. I'm not saying you just hand waive away bad showings, that's dumb. But this idea of having to be "hitting on all cylinders at the right time" and then extending the right time out into the regular season would hold a lot more water if the records in the last ten games of the season really translated to Cup winners. Looking at the last 5-6 seasons, the eventual winners were playing well in their last ten but only once in that stretch did the winner have the best record in the NHL over the last 10 ... and that was that insanely hot St Louis team.
 
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andyt said:
It was a bad 10 minutes against a good team. That shouldn’t undo everything they did over the last month. They didn’t close great last year either, going 8-7-1 in March and 5-3 in April.
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You also can’t just look at the last month as all roses. They won some they shouldn’t have. They lost to the Rangers. They still are shut down offensively by teams like the Rangers or Bruins and the Pens even.

You can’t have a bad 10 minutes. A bad 10 minutes against the top teams means you’re losing and chasing the game which leads to losing a close series. At this point the team should always look good and always look dangerous.

This team is very good but I don’t get a vibe that they’re good enough consistently enough to win the cup. Svetch and KK absolutely have to pick up or find or build or whatever their game. You can’t have guys you need to be key contributors not contributing.
 
I would not be surprised if the only time you see KK for the rest of the season is if someone else get's hurt or just to rest some key players down the stretch. KK has completely played himself out of the lineup, I don't expect that to change. Svech will get a longer leash.
 
To win the Cup a team is gonna play 22 to 25 games over a two month stretch. They don’t have to play and wont be playing their best every game. Heck the Canes got shellacked by the Devils in one game and lost handily to the islanders once. They won both series fairly convincingly. The series that they didn’t take at least one lopsided loss in they lost. Vegas lost a couple by 4 goals in the early rounds too. If you’re good enough to win the Cup (and the Canes are) you should be able to get through the first round without peaking. Second round maybe. CF and then SCF is when you need to be playing up to your potential and even then you can have some stinkers. Remember Game 6 in Edmonton? The Canes got beat every which way. Still won the big prize though.
 
I wouldn't think a blind drop pass from Jarvis would be the thing to try after Caps scored, but hey, I'm just an armchair fan
 
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