Who: Your Nation's Capitals vs Their Nation's Capitals (aka Ottawa Senators)
Where: ScotiaBank Place
1000 Palladium Dr.
Kanata, Ontario K2V 1A5
CANADA
When: Tuesday, January 30, 7:30 pm
Broadcast Info: NC8, WTNT 570 AM; Sportsnet, The Team 1200
Media Notes:
WashingtonCaps.com
D Holds the Key
OttawaSenators.com
NHL.com
Washington Post
Washington Times
Globe and Mail
Ottawa Sun
Ottawa Citizen
AHL All-Star Recap
2006-07 Series: Caps 2-1-0, Senators 1-1-1
2006-07 Standings: Caps 4th in division, 12th in conference; Senators 3rd in division, 5th in conference
Last Game: January 16 in Ottawa, Caps lost 5-2
- A game between some of the top young forwards should have yielded more exciting results, and with a score like 5-2 one might think this would be a good game to watch. But sitting through this was like watching paint dry, with goals coming in bursts to punctuate what was an otherwise snooze-inducing night.
- Shots were fairly even, both teams scored a shorthanded marker, there weren't too many penalties by either side, no one fought or made a sparkling save - zzzzzz.....
- A couple highlights from the game included Steve Eminger getting his first goal of the season, a nice shot that got through traffic to beat Emery, and Clark's shorthanded goal with 2 seconds remaining in the first. You know, back when the Caps were still in the game.
Things to Look for:
- The Caps seem to do well against teams playing in the second of back to back games, and luckily Ottawa will be coming in off a 3-1 loss in Montreal Monday night. The start of the game was delayed over an hour due to a ceremony honoring Ken Dryden, so hopefully the Sens will be nice and sleepy after flying home late. The Caps need to jump on the Sens early and get a lead to take advantage of any discrepancy in energy.
- Saturday night's decisive win against Carolina in front of an exuberant home crowd needs to get them pumped up. They played well and have all the momentum - now if only they can hang on to it.
- As always, this game is critical, but more so because it starts a set of three road games against teams with whom they're battling for playoff spots. A win to kick off the road trip will bode well for their chances in the next two, especially as they come against teams that have embarassed them recently (one of them twice).
- Semin and Ovechkin continue to light the lamp for the Caps, which is great and has been a big factor in many of their wins. However, the Caps need to cushion whatever offense can be provided by those two with some goals from secondary sources. The win against the Canes was a good start, with 4 of the goals coming from guys whose names don't end in "-in".
- Both Zednik and Bradley are possibilities for tonight's game, but knowing Hanlon's unwillingness to change something that's working it's uncertain as to where these guys will fit in to the lineup. I'd look for Zednik to get fewer minutes as they ease him back from such a bad injury, so he'll probably play on the 4th line. The question becomes, with whom...I guess we'll have to wait and see. I gave it a shot below, but left Bradley out because honestly I don't know where to put him.
Forwards:
8-Alex “You Can't Eat Just One” Ovechkin, 9-Dainius “Tossed” Zubrus, 17-Chris “4 Goals, One Off the Stick" Clark
28-Alexander “Multi-Goal” Semin, 21-Brooks “Earning Big Minutes” Laich, 14-Eric "the Sniper" Fehr
15-Boyd “Killer” Gordon, 16-Brian “Not Quite the Road Warrior” Sutherby, 18-Matt “Lion King” Pettinger
20-Richard "Medicare" Zednik, 87-Donald “Speak Softly and Carry a Big Fist” Brashear, 27-Ben “I'm Only -16 Now!" Clymer
Defensemen:
26-Shaone "Work the Body“ Morrisonn, 44-Steve "Roller Coaster Ride” Eminger
3-Lawrence “the All-Star” Nycholat, 52-Mike “Turnover” Green
6-Jamie “Scarface” Heward, 55-Jeff "the Silent Tower" Schultz
Goaltenders:
1-Brent “King of Softies” Johnson, 37-Olie “I Heart Shots” Kolzig
Possible Lineup for the Senators
Forwards:
15-Dany "Packing" Heatley, 22-Chris "Machine Gun" Kelly, 11-Daniel "What's It All About, Alfie" Alfredsson
19-Jason Spezzzzzzzza, 20-Antoine "We Ne-" Vermette, 44-Patrick “All Hallows” Eaves
27-Peter "Wave the White Flag" Schaeffer, 89-Mike “Newest Cap-Killer” Comrie, 25-Chris "Brashear's Punching Bag" Neil
16-Brian "I Miss Erskine" McGrattan, 37-Dean "of Students" McAmmond
Defensemen:
6-Wade “in the Water” Redden, 14-Andrej "YoungStar" Meszaros
4-Chris "I Miss Chara" Phillips, 24-Anton "Chekhov" Volchenkov
7-Joseph "Ivan" Corvo, 42-Tom Preissing
5-Christoph "Franz" Schubert
Goaltenders:
1-Ray Emery “Board”, 29-Martin Gerber “Baby”
4 comments:
Alright, you know how I feel about the nicknames (love them!) and since I am a closet Sens fan *gasp!* I have to ask... 15-Dany "Packing" Heatley? Interesting. Still nothing for Meszaros, eh? Andrej "YoungStar" Meszaros, maybe? And nothing for Spezza? I always type it with some extra zeds (zees for you)... Spezzzzzzzza... Anyways, have a good game!
A closet Sens fan, eh? Hmmm...we may have to be in a fight. :)
Ha! I like Dany "Packing" Heatley...you know, like packing heat? (I don't know if that phrase translates north of the border!)
I wimped out on Meszaros and Spezza, I know it. Preissing, too. I suck. Appropriate changes made, though, thanks for the suggestions! Too bad the Caps and Flames don't play again, I could have used your help on those as well...
Yippee! I had a hand in the nicknames!
It IS too bad the Flames and Caps don't meet again. In fact, it really sucks. Oh well, next time.
As for Preissing, two things: 1. At the beginning of the season or when he got signed, there was a copy of his college paper floating around so you could go with "Smarty Pants." 2. Sportsnet just had a feature on him about how nobody recognized him in Ottawa which leads to "Invisible." Sherry has links to both stories.
Hopefully this helps a bit more.
Back when I was still attempting to do player nicknames over on the Caps boards, I went with "Andrej '3000' Meszaros" for the 6 November game thread. I was doing a bit of an acting theme that day, which is how I also ended up with "Dany 'Glover' Heatley" and "Jason 'Mewes' Spezza".
Today's Ottawa Sun used the nickname "Joe 'Uh-Oh' Corvo", incidentally.
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