Round 2 Preview: Washington Capitals vs. Pittsburgh Penguins

 Here we go, the biggest series of the Ovechkin era may be this one. The President's Trophy winning Caps, take on the red hot Pittsburgh Penguins. Here is the schedule that just was released in the last hour.

Game 1 Thurs. April 28th at. Washington 8:00 p.m on NBCSN
Game 2 Sat. April 30th at. Washington 8:00 p.m on NBC
Game 3 Mon. May 2nd at. Pittsburgh 8:00 p.m on NBCSN
Game 4 Wed. May 4th at. Pittsburgh 8:00 p.m on NBCSN
*Game 5 Sat. May 7th at. Washington TBD
*Game 6 Tues. May 10th at Pittsburgh TBD
*Game 7 Thu. May 12th at Washington TBD



My Thoughts:

*First I think the Caps have to try to keep the Pens speed in check. They have plenty of it with Crosby, Kessel, Malkin, and Hagelin. The Caps defense corp will have their hands full, they will need to play even better than they did against the Flyers.

*Braden Holtby was dominant in Round 1, and he needs to continue that. The question is who will the Pens have in net? Marc-Andre Fluery is still having concussion symptoms, so I would expect Matt Murray to start the series. Murray has been good so the Caps have to put a lot of pucks at him.

*Caps have to forecheck, they need to make Kris Letang and Olli Matta tired and have to pressure them in their zone. Make them play defense.

*On the Caps end, they need more from their 2nd line, Andre Burakovsky had problems in the first round. I expect Marcus Johansson to play more on the second line as he had a very good series against Philadelphia. Also, Evgeny Kuznetsov needs to come to life and play like he did in the playoffs last year.

*The Pens power play is good, and the Caps PK has been great. It will be very important that the Caps stay out of the box, however if they take penalties the PK needs to continue to step it up.

*When the Caps get the power play they have to shoot the puck, they did that very well in the beginning of their series against the Flyers. However, they did not take advantage of a couple of opportunities as well. They need to test Murray and fire everything at him on power plays.

*The Caps had a great first round series even though they were pushed to 6 games. However, I think that might help them that they had to work to win the series. I like the fact that even tough the fans were panicking, the players just stepped up and won. This series will need a focus like that to win.


My Prediction:

 These teams are very evenly matched, the Pens won the season series as the Caps went 2-2-1. One game was decided by a 3 on 3 OT which of course is not happening in the playoffs. I believe that this will be a tough series but the one thing I think the Caps have going in their favor is Braden Holtby. Holts is and will need to carry this team. As long as he is on his game and the defense is helping out, goals will come. This series is sure to give me gray hair, but I am going to keep my faith in this team. Caps in 7