Canucks @ Washington SNET-P, TEAM 1040, 4:00 PM PST
39 straight days without a regulation loss until last night and already the bandwagon feels a little lighter. Let's be honest everyone, no team in the NHL is going to keep a streak up like that for the whole year. The Canuck's are currently first in the NHL and they deserve to be there. Tonight is a huge test for them and they really need to buckle down as a team and pick up an important two points. Great teams bounce back from tough losses and the Canuck's have been pretty good at that this year.
It's "Ovechkin vs the Canucks" night, but don't let that belief sink in. The Caps are a very solid team and have a lot of talent. If the Canucks sleep at all tonight they could find themselves in a big hole fast. Obviously we know about the Caps struggles to put in goals this season, but the same players are there from last year and have the ability to light up the scoreboard on any given night.
Kesler will more than likely get to match up with Ovechkin tonight. His job will not only be to shut down Ovie but to keep a lot of the play in the offensive zone. Last night this line looked good no matter what mix of wingers were together. Kesler and either Raymond, Hansen or Tambellini all had chances and played a lot of time on the attack. They will need to do that again tonight to keep the offensive guys for the Caps playing defense.
For the Caps defense they have Mike Green and rookie Carlson on defense. Neither of them see the Twins very often and neither super defensive defencemen. If the Twins can get out against these two more often then not I expect a good performance from them. It'll be up to AV to get them away from Hannan who knows them much better from his time in Colorado.
The PP needs to step up tonight. The Canucks lost the special team battle last night 1-0 and that was the deciding factor in the game. They have a great PP and a great PK, in a back to back situation they need to take advantage of those situations.
Finally in goal is Luongo tonight. In 31 games played vs Washington (a lot with Florida) Luongo has a 2.26 GAA and a .929 SV%. He is one of the teams leaders and has been on a great streak himself. He got the rest last night so he should be fresh tonight. As of late he's been playing lights out and the team would much appreciate another great game from their former captain.
It's time for a bounce back game against another very tough team. They are in the middle of their road trip and it would be really nice to pick up two more points right here. Detroit will be on the ice at the same time as the Canucks so by the end of the night we could be in first by as many as 5 points or holding on by only 1. A little separation in the standings could be pretty nice to have.
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