Washington Capitals

While Habs' nation waits to hear whether it will be Jaroslav Halak or Carey Price in goal for tonight's Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against Washington, Bruce Boudreau pondered the history he and the Caps' organization have with Price. Boudreau's Hershey Bears faced Price and the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs in the 2007 Calder Cup Finals, falling in five games. Price was outstanding in the series, ultimately earning the Jack A. Butterfield Trophy as playoff MVP. "We played five games against him, I think we averaged 42 shots, and they won in five games," Boudreau said yesterday. "He was quite a difference-maker at that point, and he still is. We know he's a good goalie. If ...

Based on reports from Washington Post beat writer Tarik El-Bashir, Semyon Varlamov was the first goaltender off the ice after the Wasghington Capitals' pregame skate today, which nine times out of 10 would indicate he will get the starting nod tonight. Jose Theodore, who was pulled from Game 2 Saturday and has allowed goals on the last three shots he has faced, stayed on the ice for extra work. In addition, it appears as though Eric Belanger, who has won 80 percent of his faceoffs thus far in the series, will be moved to the second line. If that's the case, the Washington lineup would look like this: Ovechkin-Backstrom-Knuble Fleischmann-Belanger-Semin Laich-Morrisoin-Fehr Chimera-...

It appears as though Capitals head coach Bruce Boudreau will be juggling his lineup a bit for tonight's Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals aganinst the Montreal Canadiens. Perhaps looking for a spark or maybe a little more offense up and down the lineup or maybe some veteran leadership in the dressing room, Boudreau appears to be leaning toward dressing versatile veteran center Brendan Morrison and playing him on the second line at center instead of Tomas Fleischmann. Fleischmann will be returned to his customary left wing position, most likely on the third line. Ah, the luxury of what baseball manager Earl Weaver used to call "deep depth." The question is, who sits? Appar...

By Scott Lowe In scanning the blogosphere – at least the D.C. version – there are a lot of people saying that the Washington Capitals controlled play and dominated in the shot, hit and faceoff department in last night’s Game 1 NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinal overtime loss to Montreal. No need to panic is the battle cry. Washington was the better team. Once a game gets into overtime anything can happen, and the Habs capitalized on an opportunity. That’s playoff hockey. A closer look, however, reveals that last night’s 3-2 Montreal victory was truly a tale of two games, and the lesson that the Caps need to learn can be found easily enough by watching the opening 20 minutes o...