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Capitals vs. Leafs - Dec. 18th, 7:00pm - SN

CarltonTheBear

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WSH_light.svg
TOR_light.svg
Washington Capitals
18-11-4, 40 points
vs.
Toronto Maple Leafs
155-12-5, 35 pts
Projected Line-ups
Ovechkin-Strome-Beauvillier
Protas-Sourdif-Wilson
Milano-Lapierre-Frank
Duhaime-Dowd-McMichael

Fehervary-Carlson
Chychrun-Roy
Sandin-TVR

Thompson​
Knies-Matthews-Nylander
Cowan-Tavares-Robertson
Joshua-Roy-McMann
Lorentz-Laughton-Domi

Rielly-OEL
McCabe-Stecher
Benoit-Thrun

Woll
Scratches
Bogdan Trineyev
Declan Chisholm
Dylan McIlrath​
Calle Jarnkrok
Matias Maccelli
Philippe Myers
Injuries
Ryan Leonard - Shoulder - Injured Reserve
Pierre-Luc Dubois - Abdomen - Injured Reserve​
Brandon Carlo - Lower Body - Injured Reserve
Chris Tanev - Upper Body - Injured Reserve
Dakota Mermis - Lower Body - Injured Reserve
Anthony Stolarz - Upper Body - Injured Reserve
Game Notes
WSH
-Logan Thompson will likely start for the Capitals
-Washington's season has seen them go through some big hot and cold streaks: they went 6-1 after losing their season opener, then 2-6-2 in their next 10 games, then 9-1 in their next 10 games. Since then they've gone 1-2-2 while being winless in their last 3 games
TOR
-Joseph Woll will likely start for the Leafs
-Toronto's lines are based on how they ended their game against Chicago, we'll see in the morning skate if those lines stick or if other line-up changes are coming
Streams
 
I kind of want to see this again, especially in an away game to spread out the scoring drivers:
Knies-Matthews-Cowan
McMann-Tavares-Robertson
Joshua-Roy-Nylander
Lorentz-Laughton-notDomi
 
Normally I'd say "just win". But winning just delays the inevitable at this stage so I dunno if I even care if they do.

Well, I do. Cos even when they turned up for 6 minutes the other day and completely flipped the game I was screaming with joy like everyone else.

But imagine how much fun it would be if they turned up and played competently for 60 minutes with a defined style of attacking possession hockey instead.
 
I kind of want to see this again, especially in an away game to spread out the scoring drivers:
Knies-Matthews-Cowan
McMann-Tavares-Robertson
Joshua-Roy-Nylander
Lorentz-Laughton-notDomi
I said it in the last GDT and I'll stick with it: don't touch the Joshua-Roy-McMann line. It's the only thing all season that's worked consistently and provides the closest thing we've had to an identity line in god knows how long.
 
It's also probably worth acknowledging that none of our players are rallying driving a line right now.

Nylander keeps putting up points but his overall game has been really hollow this year. Matthews just does isolated moments of greatness but really isn't dominating the ice. Knies does a lot of good things but still feels like a secondary player on a line to me. Tavares probably has the best argument for a guy who was driving play earlier in the year and he hasn't scored on a goalie in the last month.

I don't think splitting the lines up means all that much right now because we don't really have anyone on fire in a way that helps drive play.
 
How in the f#@k does Domi stay in the line up and Maccelli's scratched again? Like c'mon already. He has 3 less pts then Domi, one more goal and played in 9 less games. This is ridiculous. Give him a shot.
 
How in the f#@k does Domi stay in the line up and Maccelli's scratched again? Like c'mon already. He has 3 less pts then Domi, one more goal and played in 9 less games. This is ridiculous. Give him a shot.
Domi is a team worst -12

Tavares and Nylander got off to a good start this season - why not try them together again? (maybe I've forgotten why they would be split aside from defensive issues ...)

Knies-Matthews-_______
_____-Tavares-Nylander
Joshua-Roy-McMann
Lorentz-Laughton-Cowan

To me, those 10 have worked in portions of the season/preseason where they are in those lines
So fill in the blanks with the other forwards on the roster or give a Marlie a try
And try it for 5 to 10 games
There has been too much turmoil to develop/rekindle chemistry

Maybe it is a little like shuffling chairs on the Titanic ...
 
I said it in the last GDT and I'll stick with it: don't touch the Joshua-Roy-McMann line. It's the only thing all season that's worked consistently and provides the closest thing we've had to an identity line in god knows how long.

No disagreement there, but I just want to see more Roy-Nylander. The complement there is arguably better than the other two lines. If we had kept Minten and he got fully seasoned for NHL duty, he'd be the perfect centre match for Nylander.

Matthews-Nylander can work and is being used right now to try to get them both going again after their respective injury/illness returns, but this shouldn't be the playoff plan (if they get there). Saw off L1/2 matchups and kill them with a disgusting third line.
 
No disagreement there, but I just want to see more Roy-Nylander. The complement there is arguably better than the other two lines. If we had kept Minten and he got fully seasoned for NHL duty, he'd be the perfect centre match for Nylander.

Matthews-Nylander can work and is being used right now to try to get them both going again after their respective injury/illness returns, but this shouldn't be the playoff plan (if they get there). Saw off L1/2 matchups and kill them with a disgusting third line.
I agree it'd be great to see a Roy-Nylander line crushing their minutes, I just don't think it's the best option for the team as it's assembled.

First it diminishes the talent of the top-6 too much. We're already short a top-6 forward with two of Domi, Cowan, Robertson, or Maccelli taking turns occupying spots there all season long. Putting 3 of them there full-time with this version of Matthews and a 35-year old Tavares just isn't going to cut it against good teams.

Then it also completely negates the reason we got Roy here in the first place which was for him to handle tough minutes to lessen the load on the top-6. The one game Nylander played on that line Roy only took 2 defensive zone faceoffs with Matthews and Tavares taking 7 each. The 3rd line had the most offensive zone starts on the team, with Roy taking more offensive zone faceoffs than he had in any other game this season. That's just not what we need him doing.

That game's actually a perfect illustration of all of this: while Roy was great (xGF of 78.48%) Matthews and Tavares got dominated (9.55% and 32.57% respectively).
 
No disagreement there, but I just want to see more Roy-Nylander. The complement there is arguably better than the other two lines. If we had kept Minten and he got fully seasoned for NHL duty, he'd be the perfect centre match for Nylander.

Matthews-Nylander can work and is being used right now to try to get them both going again after their respective injury/illness returns, but this shouldn't be the playoff plan (if they get there). Saw off L1/2 matchups and kill them with a disgusting third line.
Can we somehow ‘undo’ the Minten trade ? Thanks :)
 
Yeah, I don't really care one way or the other with Maccelli...other than Domi gets 1000 feet of rope to play garbage hockey and I'm kind of tired of it. Every time Domi looks like he might start doing something positive he just blindly forces passes into the middle of the ice that lead to turnovers.
 
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