Game 1 Notes: Washington Capitals vs. Philadelphia Flyers

  It is here, it is playoff time. The Philadelphia Flyers are in town, and it is time. The Caps had the best regular season in team history, now we will see if they can make it the best season in franchise history. It all starts tonight for Game 1.

Forwards:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Richards-Johansson
Winnik-Beagle-Wilson


Defense and Goalies:

Orpik-Carlson
Alzner-Niskanen
Orlov-Schmidt


Holtby
Grubauer





Other Notes:

*As advertised we will see Steve Mason in net for the Flyers, he has played well the last month or so of the season. The Caps will have their workhorse Braden Holtby in between the pipes.

*Like I said in my preview the other day, the key to this series and it will be true tonight as well is the Caps have to shut down Claude Giroux, Wayne Simmonds, and Jakub Voracek. Those are the best forwards the Flyers have to offer.

*The Flyers have a good power play, but the Caps have a good penalty kill this season. However, the Caps have to stay out of the box, because things like that can swing a game back and forth. The Flyers will test everyone's patience, but they have to turn away unless they injury someone or go after  Braden Holtby.

*Defensively the Caps have to be in good positioning, don't pinch unless they know for sure if they can get the puck. The Flyers speed could end up playing a factor if that were the case.

*I would like to see the Caps have a strong puck possession game, I think if they do that they can make it tough for the Flyers defense corps.

*Nate Schmidt and Dmitry Orlov will be making their playoff debuts tonight, they will need to work together and play a simple game. Both have played a lot this season so they will get to start the series together.

*Mike Richards will be the third line center, I think this is a good move with his experience. With that Marcus Johansson will move to wing on that line. We will see how they do together with Jason Chimera.

*Overall this is a chance for the Caps to make a statement and get off to a good start. With that said it is a 7 game series, the season isn't on the line tonight but I think it will be nice to protect our home rink. Should be a fun start to the postseason.


Gametime 7:00 p.m on CSN