Washington Capitals

Game #2 Preview: Toronto Maple Leafs at Washington Capitals

Where: Verizon Center, Washington, DC

When: October 3, 2009 7:00 PM

History:
Caps Record on this Date: 1-0-0-0
Caps Game 2 Record: 11-20-3-0
All-Time vs. TOR: 53-48-10-3
All-Time at home vs. TOR: 33-21-4-1
Last Season vs. TOR: 2-1-1
Last Meeting: 3/24/09, WAS 2 TOR 3 (OT-SO)

This Year:

WAS Record: 1-0-0
Standings Points: 2
Division Rank: 1st
Conference Rank: 1st
Last Game: 10/1/09, WAS 4 BOS 1
Streak: Win 1

TOR Record: 0-0-1
Standings Points: 1
Division Rank: 2nd
Conference Rank: 4th
Last Game: 10/1/09, TOR 3 MON 4 (OT)
Streak: Lost 1

Probable Line-Ups:
Washington
Forward Line 1: 8 OVECHKIN, 19 BACKSTROM, 22 KNUBLE
Forward Line 2: 21 LAICH, 9 MORRISON, 28 SEMIN
Forward Line 3: 53 LAING, 39 STECKEL, 17 CLARK
Forward Line 4: 34 KANE, 15 GORDON, 10 BRADLEY
Defense Pair 1: 26 MORRISONN, 52 GREEN
Defense Pair 2: 23 JURCINA, 3 POTI
Defense Pair 3: 55 SCHULTZ, 2 POTHIER
Goalie: 40 VARLAMOV
Back-up Goalie: 60 THEODORE
Scratch: 92 NYLANDER

Toronto
Forward Line 1: 55 BLAKE, 84 GRABOVSKI, 23 PONIKAROVSKY
Forward Line 2: 9 HAGMAN, STAJAN, STALBERG
Forward Line 3: 12 STEMPNIAK, 39 MITCHELL, 51 WALLIN
Forward Line 4: 28 ORR, 18 PRIMEAU, 38 ROSEHILL
Defense Pair 1: 15 KABERLE, 22 BEAUCHEMIN
Defense Pair 2: 2 SCHENN, 8 KOMISAREK
Defense Pair 3: 3 EXELBY, 7 WHITE
Goalie: 35 TOSKALA
Back-up Goalie: 50 GUSTAVSSON

Injuries:
Washington - 16 FEHR (shoulders) IR, 14 FLEISCHMANN (blood clot) IR

Toronto - 37 BRENT (undisclosed) IR, 26 VAN RYN (knee) IR, 81 KESSEL (shoulder) IR

Caps Milestones:
Tom Poti needs 5 points to reach 300 in his career.
Mike Green needs 8 assists to reach 100 in his career.
Mike Knuble needs 4 penalty minute to reach 500 in his career.
Alex Ovechkin needs 4 shots on goal to reach 1,800 in his career.

Preview:
The Capitals return to the friendly confines of the Verizon Center after a decisive win over Boston on Thursday. The Caps will raise the Southeast Division banner to the rafters and then take on the revamped Maple Leafs. Toronto is coming off an opening night, overtime loss to Montreal. The Capitals played a complete game against the Bruins and want to repeat that performance. This should be a hard hitting affair as the Leafs have been built to be a bruising team this season. Watch the Caps forwards in this one as they did an excellent job coving for the pinching d-men in the offensive zone against the Bruins. This is one of the areas they need to be more consistent than they were a year ago. They tended to get cute against teams they should beat and allow them to hang around. I expect the Caps with start with an extraordinary pace in the first ten minutes. Look for the second line to come up big and if the Leafs want to rough up the Caps, the boys in red need to make them pay on the power play.

Joe’s prediction: Caps 4 TOR 2

Official Preview