Washington Capitals Fan Forum
Talk about Capitals hockey & more! => Washington Capitals & Other Hockey Discussion => Topic started by: alta on Saturday April 07, 2018, 09:58:03 AM Eastern
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this was anticipated, and good news for the Caps...
https://sports.yahoo.com/caps-avoid-first-round-matchup-014855339.html
looking for further updates
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http://www.espn.com/nhl/playoffs/matchups
Our matchup as today NJD. It should be an interesting preview today!
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Once again, the Caps have only one tiny thing to play for today -- eventual home-ice advantage in the 3rd round over Toronto IF they happen to be the ones advancing out of the Atlantic. That's it.
NJ on the other hand, probably wants to win to avoid 5th place and being moved to the Atlantic for the playoffs. (Philly, a point behind them, has a non-playoff team tonight.) I wouldn't want to have to beat two of Tampa/Boston/Toronto to get to round 3. On the other hand, if Philly finishes 4th they open against Pittsburgh, who has been tough on them this year.
Interestingly, not only is the Metro tightly bunched for the season, but ALL FIVE TEAMS have played very well over the last 10 games. The standings have hardly changed. In a way, it doesn't matter who plays who -- any series might be pretty close to 50/50.
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Yea, home ice "advantage".. :wackysmile: lol
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For us to have home ice advantage the Caps fans would have to be armed. :wackysmile:
(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6eBZ4Z9qWF4/hqdefault.jpg)
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So now we are moved to play against Columbus BJ.
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Caps opponent won't be final until tonight
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So, who we get? :hearts: Can hardly wait!! :clown:
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the CBus game needs to end before Caps first round opponent will be secured,
.......
just read a thing at NHL.cum that said Pilly gets the Hens in round 1, which means the Caps get the Blue Jackets
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this sure bodes well...
"This is the first time the Blue Jackets have qualified for the playoffs in consecutive seasons; they have never won a series. They were eliminated in five games by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round last season.
Washington and Columbus have never played a playoff series."
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https://www.nhl.com/stanley-cup-playoffs
Winner of Caps vs CBJ will play winner of Pens vs Flyers.
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https://www.nhl.com/stanley-cup-playoffs (https://www.nhl.com/stanley-cup-playoffs)
Winner of Caps vs CBJ will play winner of Pens vs Flyers.
in the other half of the East, matchups could change if Boston wins tonight, but it won't effect the Caps til round 3(optimism)
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Was hoping to play NJ or Philly, not Columbus. They are a bad match up for us, they got bounced by the Pens last year after a good season, play a good hard playoff style and are coached decently well. Plus Bob, while Holtby is struggling and we still don't know if Gruby can do #1 in playoffs.
It's not unwinnable but we better be ready for playoff hockey come Thursday.
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Was hoping to play NJ or Philly, not Columbus. They are a bad match up for us, they got bounced by the Pens last year after a good season, play a good hard playoff style and are coached decently well. Plus Bob, while Holtby is struggling and we still don't know if Gruby can do #1 in playoffs.
It's not unwinnable but we better be ready for playoff hockey come Thursday.
I we can't pass BJ, forget about Pens. May be those teams more preferable, but it's more or less a marginal difference.
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Was hoping to play NJ or Philly, not Columbus. They are a bad match up for us, they got bounced by the Pens last year after a good season, play a good hard playoff style and are coached decently well. Plus Bob, while Holtby is struggling and we still don't know if Gruby can do #1 in playoffs.
It's not unwinnable but we better be ready for playoff hockey come Thursday.
Yep! Just play like we did last night and “we’ll have a chance”
>:(
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Say what you will about the worth or non-worth of the Caps as a "tough, resilient" hockey team. I'll make one observation.
On Saturday the Caps played what was virtually a meaningless game for them against a NJ team that had a lot more to play for, to stay out of the last playoff spot and migrate to the Atlantic for the playoffs where they will need to get through Boston/TB/Toronto. The Caps won the game.
Yesterday the Bruins, envisioned as much more of a "tough, playoff-type team" had a chance to win the Atlantic Division and get the #8 seeded playoff team rather than playing Toronto in the first round. They were playing a Florida team that had just been eliminated from the playoffs and had nothing to play for. The Bruins couldn't get it done.
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Say what you will about the worth or non-worth of the Caps as a "tough, resilient" hockey team. I'll make one observation.
Doing it once vs random teams is neat.. We'll see how tough and resilient they are when the 7 game series' begin..
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yea, Florida was playing spoiler, that's a big incentive for a team that still has some pride
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Say what you will about the worth or non-worth of the Caps as a "tough, resilient" hockey team. I'll make one observation.
On Saturday the Caps played what was virtually a meaningless game for them against a NJ team that had a lot more to play for, to stay out of the last playoff spot and migrate to the Atlantic for the playoffs where they will need to get through Boston/TB/Toronto. The Caps won the game.
Yesterday the Bruins, envisioned as much more of a "tough, playoff-type team" had a chance to win the Atlantic Division and get the #8 seeded playoff team rather than playing Toronto in the first round. They were playing a Florida team that had just been eliminated from the playoffs and had nothing to play for. The Bruins couldn't get it done.
In theory you're right - it should've meant more for the Devils than the Caps, but the reality is they sat a number of starters and their #1 goalie was watching the game in the nosebleed section with his Chipotle girlfriend. So, the Devils didn't exactly but too much stock in the importance of this game if it wasn't even worth dressing their #1 goalie, let alone their MVP candidate [Taylor Hall] and other top 6 forwards including Zajac and Palmieri, as well as defenseman Vatanen.
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Say what you will about the worth or non-worth of the Caps as a "tough, resilient" hockey team. I'll make one observation.
On Saturday the Caps played what was virtually a meaningless game for them against a NJ team that had a lot more to play for, to stay out of the last playoff spot and migrate to the Atlantic for the playoffs where they will need to get through Boston/TB/Toronto. The Caps won the game.
Yesterday the Bruins, envisioned as much more of a "tough, playoff-type team" had a chance to win the Atlantic Division and get the #8 seeded playoff team rather than playing Toronto in the first round. They were playing a Florida team that had just been eliminated from the playoffs and had nothing to play for. The Bruins couldn't get it done.
The issue is not as much of win or loose. Its about how its done.
The games when you clinch a spot "should" be practice, tring a few adjustments and slowly working on playoff systems while not giving anything away to the other scouts.
Most of the other teams assuredly care very little if it all who they face, because they have had success. CBJ, Toronto, and us are the ones who haven't made it past the second round.
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It's interesting when you look at the NHL site and see who their "experts" predicted who would win their round one series. I've no idea what the track record of these experts are, but 14 were asked to give their prediction.
All 14 chose Nashville over Colorado and Pittsburgh over Philly.
13 out of 14 chose Winnipeg over Minnesota.
So in 3 of the 8 match-ups there was an overwhelming favorite.
There were two close to tossups.
The closest series in these experts eyes was Vegas and LA, where 8 out of 14 chose Vegas.
The next closest thing to a toss-up was the Caps-Blue Jackets where 9 chose the Caps and 5 chose the Blue Jackets.
The other three series, Tampa-Jersey, Boston-Toronto and San Jose-Anaheim were all 10-4 votes in favor of Tampa, Boston and San Jose.
2 weeks from now we can look back and see how they fared.
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In theory you're right - it should've meant more for the Devils than the Caps, but the reality is they sat a number of starters and their #1 goalie was watching the game in the nosebleed section with his Chipotle girlfriend. So, the Devils didn't exactly but too much stock in the importance of this game if it wasn't even worth dressing their #1 goalie, let alone their MVP candidate [Taylor Hall] and other top 6 forwards including Zajac and Palmieri, as well as defenseman Vatanen.
So what? The players they had out there STILL should have had more motivation than the Caps, and they didn't get it done. How many times do people on this board complain about lesser teams having more motivation and beating the Caps, when they don't have the talent to begin with? The bottom line is that the Caps had enough oomph to get by the Devils, and Boston, who WASN'T resting players, didn't get by a Florida team that had just been eliminated from the playoffs.
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fukin NHL, I've been sitting on Nats tickets for Thursday for almost 3 weeks
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yea, Florida was playing spoiler, that's a big incentive for a team that still has some pride
The Panthers are a decent team. They had a bad first half if the season but turned it on in the 2nd half. They started one game too late. They actually had more wins than Philly but Philly had a bunch of loser points.
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It's interesting when you look at the NHL site and see who their "experts" predicted who would win their round one series. I've no idea what the track record of these experts are, but 14 were asked to give their prediction.
All 14 chose Nashville over Colorado and Pittsburgh over Philly.
13 out of 14 chose Winnipeg over Minnesota.
So in 3 of the 8 match-ups there was an overwhelming favorite.
There were two close to tossups.
The closest series in these experts eyes was Vegas and LA, where 8 out of 14 chose Vegas.
The next closest thing to a toss-up was the Caps-Blue Jackets where 9 chose the Caps and 5 chose the Blue Jackets.
The other three series, Tampa-Jersey, Boston-Toronto and San Jose-Anaheim were all 10-4 votes in favor of Tampa, Boston and San Jose.
2 weeks from now we can look back and see how they fared.
That SUCKS that VGK and LAK play each other in the first >:(
That will probably be the best series of the whole post season, it also sucks it’ll be at 10pm