Saturday, November 5, 2011

Who Wants to Watch- er, Read Previews?

Well, I am admittedly awful already at keeping this blog up to date (haha, see what I did there? Alliteration!). What can I say? The Islanders have dropped six of the last six and only gotten two of a possible twelve points, and now they're coming in to face the multi-headed monster that is the Washington Capitals. The Caps have won nine of eleven games played so far and are fresh off of a 5-1 drubbing of Carolina.

Is this a huge case of David vs. Goliath or what?

To be honest, though Capuano has switched around lines, putting Bailey as the fourth-line center and moving Grabner up to top line RW among other things, I don't know if the Isles are in the right mindset to succeed tonight. This Washington team of course has PLENTY of offensive weapons, not the least of which is captain Alexander Ovechkin, so the defense will have its hands full. (Here's a telling stat: the Caps have forced 4.00 goals per game since the start of the season, according to capitals.nhl.com.) Rick DiPietro gets another start tonight, with Al Montoya backing up, and while I don't doubt Ricky, I'd love to see Monty in net again. He does have the best save percentage and GAA of the three goalies New York has suited up, so why not put a little bit of faith in him once more?

Either way, I'm not the coach. And we'll see whether the Isles possess the right frame of mind to at least be competitive tonight. They can do it- they've done it in the past, and though Washington owned them in the season series, sweeping four of four, all four games were decided by just a goal. And that was with a depleted roster for much of the season. So imagine what COULD happen tonight, provided the boys in blue and orange bring their A game.

We shall see.

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