NHL Play-Off preview – Washington Capitals Vs Montreal Canadiens
What does locking up the top seed in the play-offs get you? The right to play the No.8 seed and for the Washington Capitals the first round of the NHL play-offs should be nothing more than a walkover.
The Capitals possess so much offensive firepower there will only be one victor and they were so much better than Montreal during the regular season they finished 33 points ahead of their first-round opponents.
The Caps finished the season with two players in the top 10 in scoring and three in the top 13. Alexander Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom finished third and fourth in overall points scoring and Alexander Semin finished 13th. And if the Canadiens thought the news could only get better from there they would be wrong. The top four leaders in plus/minus all came from Washington and Alex Semin was tied for fifth.
One bright spot for the Canadiens will be the fact they had a better goals against ratio than the Capitals finishing at 2.66 compared to the 2.77 the Caps finished at. In fact of all play-off teams, only Pittsburgh and Ottawa gave up more goals.
More bad news for Montreal comes in the form of the 300 goals the Caps scored this season, the first time that’s happened since 2005-2006, and if the defence is Washington’s weakness then having the league’s leading defensemen in points scored isn’t too shabby.
Ovechkin and the Caps only lost five regulation games at home all season a stat which Montreal will surely be unable to break. But the one shining light Montreal can take into the game is, if they get enough shots on goal they will score because Jose Theodore, simply put is not a championship calibre winning goaltender and if they can take the game to him he might start leaking goals.
Joint 21st in save percentage Theodore struggles to shut out opponents forcing the Caps to score that extra goal,
but that advantage isn’t so great when your own keeper is 19th in save percentage, although head coach Jacques Martin will likely go with Jaroslav Halak who was tied fifth in that category.
And if there is one time in the season where you want some momentum it’s coming into the play-offs but once again the Canadiens fall short winning just three of their last 11 games.
If you’re looking for a nailed on bet then look no further than for a Washington series win and if you want to make some more money bet on them to sweep the Canadiens, but don’t forget that this is sport and anything can happen.
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