Game Preview:
"So, what else is on?"
After an awful showing last night that only seemed to get worse as the game went on, the Jets have to turnaround immediately and find a way to turn themselves around and achieve a positive result against the same team that beat them 4-0 last night. A task easier said than done when you don't have time to practice, and minimal preparation and review time for what went wrong last night.
The Capitals now lead the season series 2 games to 1, with 2 left including tonight's tilt. Division games are always important, as you never know when the tiebreaker could decide who comes in third in the conference (1st in the Southeast). The last meeting of the season between these two teams will be the second last game for Winnipeg and third last for Washington, and should promise to be a dandy. As it isn't being played in Winnipeg, the Jets might actually score too!
Keys to the Game:
- Do the exact opposite of last night: Not a lot of positives to build off of in a very sloppy game for the Jets. Protecting and controlling the puck are two steps that could easily stand improvement after the amount of turnovers conceded by the Jets yesterday.
- Score: The two games in which the Jets have hosted the Capitals have seen Washington outscore Winnipeg by a score of 7-0. Hard to win games when you don't score.
- Pavelec: Once again, the bad version of Ondrej Pavelec reared his head. Stopping only 21 of 25 shots could mean that Al Montoya returns to action tonight.
Washington Capitals
- Do it again: As far as road games go, that might well have been the best Washington has mustered in an otherwise disappointing season. Hard to find a flaw in a dominant 4-0 win.
- Holy Holtby, Batman!: Braden Holtby now has 55 saves on 55 shots this year at the MTS Centre, and will likely see action again tonight as he really has the Jets’ number at home this year. The Caps will need him to be sharp if they are to climb up from 4th in the Southeast Division standings.
- Russian Spy: Alexander Ovechkin may be having a bad year by his standards, but he is still dominant against the Thrasher/Jets. For a guy with one move, the Jets sure don’t know how to stop him.
Player Person to boo mercilessly:
Trevor Maughan. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo!
Prediction:
Winnipeg 2
Washington 1 – F
