Sunday, April 13, 2008

Biron Dead-On, Series Tied 1-1

If only Alexander Semin's shot doesn't hit the post and finds it's way in, and if only Matt Cooke converted his two chances wide open chances in front of the net, then maybe the Caps find to way to win again and take a 2-0 series advantage into Philly. But that didn't happen, a combination of bad luck on the offensive side and great goaltending on the part of Martin Biron led to a Flyers shutout win and a series now shortened to a best of five. (Photo by Len Redkoles/Getty Images)

Heading into Tuesday night's contest, the Caps main focus needs to be on converting their power play chances, controling the puck on their way into the offensive zone, and preventing the home run pass on the defensive end.

As a result of today's events, a couple of lineup questions to ponder:

Jeff Schultz made his first career postseason appearance after missing game one and was clearly rusty. With as well as Steve Eminger played while Schultz was out, does Boudreau put Eminger back in the lineup for game 3? Might be a good idea.

A lineup change I would definitely like to see is Eric Fehr taking the place of Tomas Fleischmann. Fehr size and play in the corners would be a good matchup against this physical Flyers team.

Overall, the main thing the Caps have to do is just relax. This is going to be a long and tough series. Nobody expected them to win this series in four. One thing is for sure, this team will definitely be prepared for game 3, and having won both contests in Philly during the regular season, they should know what to expect from the Philly faithful.

1 comment:

jbo said...

I have been a fan of this franchise for a long time. They shared similarities with the other cursed franchises in sports The Cubs , The Red Sox ( until 2004)etc. It doesn't matter who they have, they always find a way to lose. Maybe that's why an NBC commentator called us the Crapitals on Sunday and why ESPN commentators laughed at our chances vs. the Detroit Red Wings in the Finals back in '98. This team doesn't even get top billing in the Washington Post sports section after an 11-1 run into the
playoffs. People in Russia are bigger fans of the caps than Washingtonians (because of Ovechkin, Kozlov, Federov etc.) I remember the Caps losing early in the playoffs when they had over a 100 points in the regular season one year. Do you remember the Easter Epic. The four hour playoff game that resulted in Pete Peeters being beaten from the blue line by the Islanders