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eabkin

EAbkin
Member Since
Apr. 25, 2017
Favourite Team
New Jersey Devils
2nd Favourite Team
Washington Capitals
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Forum: Washington CapitalsApr. 12, 2017 at 9:05 p.m.
Thread: Can we Take Down Pittsburgh?
I do think we beat them this year. Of course, I've thought that about every year, but I have a different feeling this year. The two teams are very similar, for sure. They both have three lines that can score, a fourth that dominates possession, three defense pairings that can push the puck and play solid defense, and elite goaltending. But the Caps do these things better than the Pens.

For starters, Sidney Crosby isn't the best player in the world. He's not even the best player on his team. That'd be Malkin. Crosby was invisible against the Caps last year in the playoffs, while Malkin was the reason they won Game 2. All four of our lines have better than average possession numbers, and any of them are capable of shutting down Malkin. Crosby won't do anything against us anyways, he hasn't since 2009.

Letang being out for Pittsburgh wouldn't be nearly as big a blow if we didn't get Shattenkirk. Now we have the elite puck moving defenseman, to go along with John Carlson and Matt Niskanen. Orlov pushes the pace as well from the left side, and then Alzner and Orpik provide excellent defense. At the end of the day, there's no way the Pens beat us.

UNLESS we get no bounces (like last year) and the refs seem like they were born and raised in Pittsburgh (also like last year). It's ridiculous some of the bounces that they get. For example, Alzner was blocking a shot and instead of the puck hitting his shin pad and falling right in front of him, it bounced underneath his shin pad, then took a wicked bounce over Holtby's glove. They also scored goals off of a player's back, and multiple goals that should've been called dead for penalties (most notably Hagelin when he tripped Schmidt right in front of the net). We dominated that series last year, we should've won 5 of the 6 games played. If there's another series like that, we have no chance. But if the bounces are even, or even just less favored, and the refs are a little more consistent, we're winning.