Gameday Preview: Caps vs. Senators

Who: Your Nation’s Capitals vs. Their Nation’s Capitals
Where: ScotiaBank Place
1000 Palladium Dr.Kanata, Ontario K2V 1A5 CANADA
When: Tuesday, January 16, 7:30 pm

Broadcast Info: CSN, WTEM 980 AM; Sportsnet, The Team 1200

Media Notes:
WashingtonCaps.com
OttawaSenators.com
NHL.com
Washington Post
Globe and Mail
Ottawa Sun
Ottawa Citizen

2006-07 Season Series: Caps 2-0-0, Senators 0-1-1

2006-07 Standings: Caps 19-19-7, 45 points – 4th in division, 13th in conference; Senators 26-19-2, 54 points – 3rd in division, 5th in conference

Last Game: December 6 in Washington, Caps won 6-2
- The Senators’ final visit to DC would cap off a season high 4-game winning streak for the home team and ended a winning streak of the same length for Ottawa
- Clark finished the night with 2 goals including the game-winner late in the second period – his second GWG against the Sens in as many games.
- The game was marked by a parade to the penalty box on a series of both good and bad calls, as the two teams combined for 15 penalties (not including a series of fights over the first two periods). Ottawa’s Peter Schaefer was later fined for waving a towel on the end of his stick in surrender after yet another Senators penalty.
- Ovechkin and Zubrus both finished the evening with three assists, while Bradley added a goal and an assist and Brooks Laich scored his first of the season.
- The shots continued the pattern set by the Caps at the beginning of the winning streak – outshoot the opposition in the first (19-11), get outshot and outplayed in the second (4-14) and draw even in the third (14-12).

Things to Look for:
- The Caps continue their streaky ways, bouncing back from 3 straight wins to drop two in succession. Meanwhile the Senators have rebounded from the Northeast Division basement and now sit in fifth place in the conference. They have put together two 4-game winning streaks and are 9-1-1 in their last 11 games.
- While the Senators are celebrating a decisive 8-3 win over the Canadiens on Hockey Day in Canada (grumble), the Caps will need to bounce back from one of their worse games so far this season, a 7-2 rout at the hands of the suddenly potent Panthers.
- The Caps have won both meetings with Ottawa this season and now look to take the season series with a win on the road. It would be their first win away from Verizon Center since beating Toronto before Christmas as they have dropped below .500 on the road for the first time since the end of October.
- Semin continues to light it up and seems to have found some consistency since returning from injury – he is currently nursing a goal-scoring streak that includes 8 goals in his last 5 games. Ovechkin has a point-scoring streak of his own to defend, with 3 goals and 6 assists in his last 6 games.
- I don’t want to overanalyze this one too much – the bottom line is that the Caps have to play at least as well as they did against Tampa and better than they did against the Panthers and Flyers. Their consistency is starting to falter and as a result so is their position in the conference. What was a tight race is starting to open up a bit - we’ve still got a lot of hockey to go, but the Caps need to go into the All-Star break strong. I hate saying this, but these next few games are probably must-wins for the Caps if they want to stay in the playoff hunt for much longer.

Possible Lineup for the Caps
Forwards:
8-Alex “Aiming for Sid” Ovechkin, 9-Dainius “Shanked It” Zubrus, 17-Chris “Looks Like a Hockey Player Now” Clark28-Alexander “the Overlooked” Semin, 24-Kris “the Invisible Man” Beech, 18-Matt “GOOOOOOOAAAL!” Pettinger

21-Brooks “Love, Not” Laich, 16-Brian “Hot Hands” Sutherby, 27-“Hot Hands II” Clymer

87-Donald “Speak Softly and Carry a Big Fist” Brashear, 15-Boyd “Killer” Gordon, 10-Matt “the Unassisted” Bradley

Defensemen:

2-Brian “the Capital Capital” Pothier, 26-Shaone “Gotta Go to Mo” Morrisonn

3-Lawrence “the All-Star” Nycholat, 44-Steve “Was That an Assist?” Eminger

6-Jamie “Johnny’s Dinner Date” Heward, 52-Mike “the Young Star” Green

Goaltenders:

1-Brent “Big Money” Johnson, 37-Olie “the Leader” Kolzig

Possible Lineup for the Sens
Forwards:
15-Dany "Packing" Heatley, 22-Chris "Machine Gun" Kelly, 11-Daniel "Alfie" Alfredsson
37-Dean "of Students" McAmmond, 20-Antoine "We Ne-" Vermette, 44-Patrick “All Hallows” Eaves

27-Peter "Wave the White Flag" Schaeffer, 89-Mike “Desert Diva” Comrie, 25-Chris "Brashear's Punching Bag" Neil

16-Brian "I Miss Erskine" McGrattan, 17-Denis "Dorothy" Hamel

Defensemen:
6-Wade “in the Water” Redden, 14-Andrej Meszaros

4-Chris "I Miss Chara" Phillips, 24-Anton "Chekhov" Volchenkov
7-Joseph "Ivan" Corvo, 42-Tom "What's So" Preissing

5-Christoph "Franz" Schubert

Goaltenders:
1-Ray Emery “Board”, 29-Martin Gerber “Baby”