The visiting Colorado Avalanche (27-30-1, 55) are last place in the West, but we all know that the Caps (37-16-5, 79) seem to falter against teams from the opposing conference. As proof, the Caps have suffered nine of their 16 regulation losses and three of their four home regulation losses to Western Conference opponents (7-9-0). Thankfully, there's only one more tilt against the West left on the schedule (March 10 in Nashville).
The Caps are 19-10-4-1 at home against the Quebec/Colorado franchise and are 7-1-1-1 over the last 10 meetings in Washington/Landover. There's only been one Caps home shutout, though, Nov. 23, 1985. Conversely, the Caps notched 12 on the then-Nordiques on Feb. 6, 1990 and Peter Bondra registered the only Caps home hat trick on March 6, 1997.
Former Avs goalie Jose Theodore, who lost to the Caps last season while he was still on that team (21 saves). In last year's meeting, Donald Brasher and David Steckel scored for the Caps in the third period, while Marek Svatos netted the Avs' only goal.
Theo is 14-4-2 with a 2.39 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage since Dec. 23.
Meanwhile, Alex Ovechkin (28 goals, 12 assists in his last 30 games) is good. OK, we knew that already, but how about yet-another-column that he's better than Sidney Crosby, who visits Verizon Center on Sunday. The Caps better not look past the 'Lanche or they will pay the price.
Note: While the 2009 Frozen Four at Verizon Center is sold-out, $10 tickets for the April 10 skills challenge go on sale Monday.
February 20, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
0 stormer(s) wrote:
Post a Comment