Caps/Maple Leafs Preview

Washington Capitals (24-30-12, 60 points)
at
Toronto Maple Leafs (31-26-9, 71 points)

Television: Comcast SportsNet
Radio: WTNT 570-AM
Gametime: 7:30 PM ET


The Capitals limp into Tuesday night's game in Toronto having lost 13 of their last 15 games on the road. However, they should get some much needed reinforcements back into their lineup.

Captain Chris Clark announced on Comcast SportsNet's Postgame Live after Saturday's loss at home to the Islanders his intentions to return for the game. He will be joined by defenseman Mike Green and winger Alexandre Giroux who were both recalled from Hershey on Monday, and center Kris Beech who was declared ready to play by team officials despite leaving the team's last game in the second period after he took a blocked shot off his knee.

Tuesday Morning Edit: The Washington Post is reporting that Chris Clark is ill and did not make the trip.

Mike Vogel is reporting that there is some talk of giving Frederic Cassivi his first NHL start of the season tonight. He appeared in two games this past week, both in relief of starting goaltender Brent Johnson. If Johnson gets the call instead, it will be his 10th straight start which would surpass Olie Kolzig's longest stretch of 9 straight earlier in the year.

This is a key game for the Maple Leafs as they find themselves tied with the New York Rangers for 10th place in the Eastern Conference just two points behind the 8th place Carolina Hurricanes. They spent their Monday preparing for the Capitals in a unique fashion, practicing outdoors in -20 degree weather while entertaining about 250 school children. Their longtime captain Mats Sundin described the experience as reported on TSN.ca. "We have a huge game (Tuesday) and a little break in the routine is all right. It was tough conditions out there with the wind and everything but it's great to come out and meet the fans."

Toronto will most likely be without their all-star defenseman Tomas Kaberle who suffered a concussion in last Friday's game against the Devils after he was the victim of a late hit to the head by tough guy Cam Janssen. The Toronto Star is reporting that his symptoms are no better or worse at the moment and that the team hopes he will be able to return to the lineup in 7 to 10 days. In his place the Maple Leafs are expecting the return of Pavel Kubina who has missed the past 5 games with a broken finger. He practiced fully with the team yesterday and only needs final approval from the medical staff in order to play.

Washington and Toronto have split their two meetings earlier in the season as each team won in the other's building. Toronto won the first meeting November 24th 7-1 before the Capitals won the rematch a month later 3-2.

Down on the Farm:

The Hershey Bears announced they have recalled forwards Matt Reid and Stephen Werner to replace Giroux and Green. Reid was briefly recalled to the AHL last week for one game by the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. He currently leads the Stingrays with 22 goals on the season. Werner has been in South Carolina since being demoted back on December 6th. While with the Stingrays he tallied 9 goals and 6 assists in 24 games.

The All-Star Break Begins

A much need break for the Capitals begins today. The team is off until they practice on Thursday before traveling to Raleigh again to take on a Hurricanes team that will be ready for revenge. Each Caps player needs to take a look at their own game personally and find out the best way for them to return to the team refocused and at the top of their game. Last year the Capitals were able to come off the Olympic break and post a winning record during the second half of the season. They must find a way to repeat that this year. Now, a look at some more morning thoughts:

• At the end of the game yesterday you could see on tv fans throwing trash on the ice. While I can understand being upset with the way the team played, I definitely do not condone this type of behavior. I would love to hear from anybody that was at the game that can describe how bad it was, because it has not been talked about at all in the media.
• The game was one of the most tightly called games of the season. But the officials cannot be blamed for the loss at all as the game was called evenly.
  
• Matt Pettinger provided one of the few highlights of the day when he brook up a quality scoring chance by diving on the backcheck and blocking a cross ice pass on a 2 on 1 break by the Panthers in the first period.
• Jeff Schultz and Jamie Hunt were reassigned to Hershey following the game, and Hunt actually played for the Bears last night against Bridgeport.
  
• I feel bad for Olaf Kolzig who was spectacular as usual stopping 38 of 41 shots, but had no help from his defensemen.

Down on the Farm: Hershey will look to rebound from a sub par effort against Bridgeport last night when they host the Wilkes-Barre Scranton Penguins today at 5:00 PM. For those of you who might not be football fans, or if the Bears game gets out of hand early, you can catch all the live action from b2networks by visiting the Hershey Bears official website.
After losing 5-0 in Friday night in Charlotte, the South Carolina Stingrays rebounded for a 4-3 overtime victory last night when they hosted the Columbia Inferno before a sell-out crowd of 10,496 at the North Charleston Coliseum. Seriously though 10,496 people? Between that and the 9,401 that came to see the Hershey Bears last night in Chocolatetown, it is nice to know that our minor league teams have such great support. From Stingrayshockey.com:

“The crowd was tremendous,” South Carolina coach Jason Fitzsimmons said. “The fans were like the seventh man and helped us to victory. It was an awesome finish to a great game.”
“The fans were amazing,” said center Matt Reid, who had four points on two goals and two assists. “The atmosphere was electric and they gave us the energy that we needed to pull out the win. We certainly appreciate the support from the fans.”

Defenseman T.J. McElroy also added 3 assists to lead the way for the Stingrays. Davis Parley stopped 28 of 31 shots to earn his league leading and career high 19th win. The game winning goal was scored by Evan Schwabe (pictured) at the 3:14 mark of the overtime period.
The Stingrays return to action for an 8:05 PM game Thursday night in Texas against the Wildcatters. Catch all the live action from b2networks by visiting Stingrayshockey.com.