[01-OCT-2009] Caps at Bruins - Pre Game Musings...
One day after the Chris Bourque Fiasco, the Caps have their home opener against the Boston Bruins. The puck drops in a little over seven hours now, and I couldn't be more excited - or more nervous. The Caps will have to contend with the Bruins doing their banner-raising ceremony, which will hopefully be short enough that the Caps' muscles don't get cold waiting.
Rumor has it (according to Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post) that the forward lineups will start out looking like this:
* Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin
* Laich-Morrison-Knuble
* Laing-Steckel-Clark
* Kane-Gordon-Bradley
and that the defensive pairings are:
* Morrisonn-Green
* Poti-Jurcina
* Erskine-Pothier
I seriously doubt this will be the way things shake down for the entire game. Boudreau is notorious for line-shuffling, both between practice and puck drop, and within the context of a given game if a line isn't producing the way he expects it to. His response when asked about tonight's goaltender was a succinct, "yes."
Personally, I would expect the first two lines to fluctuate. Semin and Knuble will very likely swap places multiple times during tonight's matchup, and a lot of that will depend largely on whether we are spending more time 5-on-5, 5-on-4, or 4-on-5. This, in turn, will largely depend on how sloppy we are playing, how sloppy the Bruins are playing, and who the referees on ice are tonight.
There have been a lot of questions on why the Caps are choosing to play Boyd Kane over much-maligned Michael Nylander. The primary reason for this, according to a Bruce Boudreau interview published yesterday, is that Nylander is a center and Kane is a wing; Nylander does not play well at wing, and we need a wing for the fourth line. Nylander does not play well on the checking line, in any case; he is more of a "top six" guy if he plays at all, so the decision to play Kane makes sense.
Furthermore, the decision to play Kane over Giroux was due to the risk of putting Giroux through re-entry waivers. We could just as easily lose him to the Islanders or the Lightning, for half his $500k salary, as keep him, and he would be an offensive upgrade for either team. Because of this, we will not likely see Giroux in a Caps uniform again before the trade deadline is passed. The same very likely goes for Keith Aucoin, which is unfortunate, because he missed making the team by just about a hair this year... a Chris Bourque hair. Aucoin, at 5'9", is another undersized forward, with a sparkplug attitude, a wicked pair of hands, and a good work ethic. While I'll be glad to see him up in Hershey again, I really wish he'd made the big club instead.
It's a bit over 3-1/2 hours to puck drop now, and I'm still waiting to hear who the on-ice officials will be. No announcements have been posted by either club, and I will probably already be on the way to ESPNZone in DC, where I'm meeting friends (old and new) to watch the game by the time the announcement is made, so I have my handy-dandy list of referees and linesmen and their respective sweater numbers. That way, even if I miss puck drop (hope not to!), I will still be able to figure out who's who amongst the on-ice officials, a piece of information that will definitely factor into my post-game recap.
Now, it's all over except for the hard part: the rest of the wait.
C-A-P-S! CAPS! CAPS! CAPS!
Rumor has it (according to Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post) that the forward lineups will start out looking like this:
* Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin
* Laich-Morrison-Knuble
* Laing-Steckel-Clark
* Kane-Gordon-Bradley
and that the defensive pairings are:
* Morrisonn-Green
* Poti-Jurcina
* Erskine-Pothier
I seriously doubt this will be the way things shake down for the entire game. Boudreau is notorious for line-shuffling, both between practice and puck drop, and within the context of a given game if a line isn't producing the way he expects it to. His response when asked about tonight's goaltender was a succinct, "yes."
Personally, I would expect the first two lines to fluctuate. Semin and Knuble will very likely swap places multiple times during tonight's matchup, and a lot of that will depend largely on whether we are spending more time 5-on-5, 5-on-4, or 4-on-5. This, in turn, will largely depend on how sloppy we are playing, how sloppy the Bruins are playing, and who the referees on ice are tonight.
There have been a lot of questions on why the Caps are choosing to play Boyd Kane over much-maligned Michael Nylander. The primary reason for this, according to a Bruce Boudreau interview published yesterday, is that Nylander is a center and Kane is a wing; Nylander does not play well at wing, and we need a wing for the fourth line. Nylander does not play well on the checking line, in any case; he is more of a "top six" guy if he plays at all, so the decision to play Kane makes sense.
Furthermore, the decision to play Kane over Giroux was due to the risk of putting Giroux through re-entry waivers. We could just as easily lose him to the Islanders or the Lightning, for half his $500k salary, as keep him, and he would be an offensive upgrade for either team. Because of this, we will not likely see Giroux in a Caps uniform again before the trade deadline is passed. The same very likely goes for Keith Aucoin, which is unfortunate, because he missed making the team by just about a hair this year... a Chris Bourque hair. Aucoin, at 5'9", is another undersized forward, with a sparkplug attitude, a wicked pair of hands, and a good work ethic. While I'll be glad to see him up in Hershey again, I really wish he'd made the big club instead.
It's a bit over 3-1/2 hours to puck drop now, and I'm still waiting to hear who the on-ice officials will be. No announcements have been posted by either club, and I will probably already be on the way to ESPNZone in DC, where I'm meeting friends (old and new) to watch the game by the time the announcement is made, so I have my handy-dandy list of referees and linesmen and their respective sweater numbers. That way, even if I miss puck drop (hope not to!), I will still be able to figure out who's who amongst the on-ice officials, a piece of information that will definitely factor into my post-game recap.
Now, it's all over except for the hard part: the rest of the wait.
C-A-P-S! CAPS! CAPS! CAPS!