Our defense was very responsible last night. Green played great both ways, Poti was his usual solid self and had a nasty pass to Ovie on his second goal, Juice played smart which is what has been lacking from his play, Morrison was quietly our best defenseman last night and Erskine and Pothier played so well together. Pothier had the hit of the game with his hipcheck. I didn't miss Schultz at all that's for sure!!!! Right Vice!!!
The offense played very well once we calmed things down after the first ten minutes. They didn't get too cute with the puck which is usually what pisses me off with the Ovie, Backsy, Semin line, but they played very well, and I liked the Laich, Knuble, Morrisson line a lot.
Laing, Clark, Gordon, and Bradley played their games to a T, and Steckel who is usually our most consistent player probably had his worst game and he was still over 65% in the circle.
And last but not least, Theo had a wonderful game, he looked so confident and calm out there and his positioning was great. Way to go Theo!!!!
I don't see why you're hating on Schultz and my opinion of his potential when I said he'd be the 7th defenseman this year, but okay. He's got potential and has shown that he has the skill and attitude to succeed in the NHL, just needs to improve his skating. He was drafted as a project, afterall.
Theodore will always play well in a contract year. It's almost a guarantee at this point.
I thought we played pretty good for our first game of the year, the special teams looked great, Ovi looked to be in mid season form, as well as Backstrom, the defensmen were pinching a little more than I'd like to see, but those are just things you have to adjust as the season goes on
Bruce mentioned the key to sucess is to stay consistent.
Quote:
"The biggest thing we want to do is stay consistent and not make it a one game, 'Hey, look, we can play good for one game.' Good teams do it over time. That's what we want to do: do it over time and get the same effort today that we got the other day."
Also...
Quote:
*Boudreau said he expects Eric Fehr to be back within a week. He also expects Tomas Fleischmann to be cleared to practice within 10 days. That's definitely bad news for Boyd Kane.
The first two periods were great, the Caps absolutely outplayed the Leafs but they kinda stopped playing in the third and let the Leafs score 3 times.
I was surprised how weak the Leafs' defense is.
If the Caps continue playing like this and improve their play after they are in a lead we have a team capable of winning the Stanley Cup.
I agree, the 1st two periods we looked crisp, but then in the 3rd we looked very flat, and kina left varlamov out to dry, but overall good performance, and if ovechkin keeps playing like he does he might score 70 goals this year
We were losing slightly in the shot count after the 2nd period, but we were winning 6-1!! Gotta love that. Varly played absolutely great the first two periods, then didn't get any help in the 3rd. Our defense could have played better all game, I think Varly bailed them out a few times early. The offense looks unstoppable so far but Philly will be the big measuring stick. GO CAPS!!!!
The regular season thread
The regular season thread
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