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GDT #55 Caps at Lightning @ 7pm

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alta:
February 22 vs Lightning at Amalie Arena
Time: 7:00
TV: ESPN
Radio: 106.7 FM, Capitals Radio 24/7

Washington Capitals 25-21-8
PP% 16.3(25th) PK% 80(14th) Faceoff% 46.8(29th)
Tampa bay Lightning 30-22-5
PP% 30.2(1st) PK% 80(15th) Faceoff% 51.3(9th)

Caps anticipated lines:
Ovechkin(C) 8 - Strome 17 - Oshie(A) 77
Mantha 39 - McMichael 24 - Wilson 43
Pacioretty 67 - Sgarbossa 23 - Milano 15
Malenstyn 47 - Protas 21 - Aubé-Kubel 96

van Riemsdyk 57 - Carlson(A) 74
Sandin 38 - Jensen 3
Edmundson 6 - Bear 25

Lindgren 79

PP1: Ovechkin, Oshie, Strome, Pacioretty, Carlson
PP1: Ovechkin, Mantha, Wilson, McMichael, Sandin

scratched:
Kuemper 35 - backup
Dubé 72
Alexeyev 27
Dowd 21 - upper body - day to day?

IR:
Fehervary 42 - lower body

LTIR:
Backstrom 19 - hip - season
Kuznetsov 92 - player assistance - indefinite

Bolts anticipated lines:
Stamkos 91 - Point 21 - Kucherov 86
Hagel 38 - Cirelli 71 - Chaffee 41
Eyssimont 23 - Paul 20 - Koepke 45
Motte 64 - Glendening 11 - Sheary 73

Hedman 77 - Raddysh 43
Fleury 7 - de Haan 44
Martinsen-Lilleberg 78 - Perbix 48

Vasilevskiy 88
Johansson 31 - backup

tonight’s zebras:
Brian Pochmara 16, Peter MacDougall 38
Caleb Apperson 77, Jonny Murray 95

https://www.nhl.com/capitals/news/caps-take-trip-to-florida

scoring summary
1st period:
Aubé-Kubel(6) from Malenstyn(9) at 2:30
McMichael(11) from Edmundson(4) and Wilson(10) at 16:19
2nd period:
Hagel from Point and Kucherov at 9:16
Mantha(18) from Strome(19) and Oshie8) at 12:14
3rd period:
Paul from Sheary and de Haan at 2:42
Motte from Perbix at 3:06
Sandin(3) from Protas(19) and Strome(20) at 15:01
McMichael(12) ENG from Ovechkin(26) and Wilson(11) at 18:58

Caps win 5-3

Mickstix:
Scratching my head, but if we win tonight we'll be tied with NYI and NJD @ 55 games each and only 4 pts behind Detroit for the last wildcard. And we have 3 games in hand on Tampa. If we won those we'd only be 1 pt behind them. Crazy right? Seems like just last week we we're tanking for a top 6 draft pick.  :huh:

alta:
Yup. Mathematically the Caps are very much in the wild card race.

BlackIce:

--- Quote from: alta on Thursday February 22, 2024, 06:33:02 PM Eastern ---Yup. Mathematically the Caps are very much in the wild card race.

--- End quote ---


The key word here is "mathematically."  We are hanging in there in the standings, but we really aren't competitive with the top teams in the league.  However, I'm concerned that if we are still hanging around in a couple of weeks, management might try to gather resources to make a push for the playoffs, giving up draft assets.  I really don't want that to happen because it is hard to imagine that anything they could acquire before the trade deadline would make them anything like a significant Cup contender.  Management really needs to be thinking ahead to the rebuild that is going to be absolutely necessary in the next couple of years.  The threat here is that, with Backstrom and quite possibly Kuznetsov unavailable for the rest of the regular season, there is a lot of salary cap exemption room for the Caps to acquire salary at the deadline, making acquisition tempting if they are still "in the hunt" the week before the deadline.


The Caps' upcoming schedule is interesting -- 6 games between now and March 3, then days off until a game at Pittsburgh on March 7, the night before the trade deadline.  I don't think the Pittsburgh game should be a determining factor in what the Caps do at the deadline.  The real determinant should be the next 6 games, beginning tonight.  The schedule isn't easy, so I am thinking the Caps may not pick up many points between now and March 3, which would hopefully commit them to go into sell mode.  That would be the best thing for the franchise in the long run.

alta:
GOOOAAALLLL

AUBÉ-KUBEL

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