Dabura

Agreed. It's like not converting on a 5-on-3 -- you know it'll come back to bite you in the ass. I like the pressure we've been able to generate in the o-zone. A little too much passing, not enough shooting. Failed to connect on the same backdoor setup two or three times in that period. If it connects, the puck is in the net. I'm not in the "Tatar and Nyquist suck, trade them" camp, but they have to start burying their chances.

So, once again, we've got a very winnable game against a very good opponent. Get those two points, boys.

Wings to the PP. End of 2nd. 1-1. I feel like we're playing about as well as this roster is capable of playing, at least against a really good team like the Caps. Then again, without Mrazek's heroics, we could easily be down 7-1 right now.

Caps score. Could see that one coming. 1-1.

Mrazek wants Jimmy's job.

So we're pretty much doing what we did in that game where Ovie put 15 shots on Mrazek: letting him shoot and trusting Mrazek to shut him down. I'm not even being snarky. It's clearly what we're doing. Cover the other four guys and just let Ovie shoot.

Wings have a transition game tonight. This is weird. Wings to the PK. Not Frk's best night tonight. Mrazek's saving our bacon.

Great kill.

HELM! SHG!

Wings to the PK.

End of 1st. 0-0. Mostly good period, but leaning a little too much on Mrazek for my liking. As Ozzie's saying right now, gotta spend more time in Holtby's kitchen. This is where we could really use a guy like Svechnikov.

It's not the arena lighting, it's the dark cloud hovering over the franchise.

Wings to the PP.

Mrazek with a big stop shorthanded. Make that two big stops shorthanded. Mrazek came to play tonight. He's slippery. If a Cap shreds us tonight, I'm thinking it'll be him. Just a gut feeling. Reminder that the Caps drafted Mike Green with a pick we traded to them. What could've been...

Frk's gonna have to clean it up on the power play. Can't give Blashill a reason to sit him when AA returns. Wings to the PK.

Good pressure early. Yeah, the Caps' first PP unit is ludicrous. We already have seven shots on goal. Keep shooting, boys. Wings to the power play.

LGRW

DeKeyser to LTIR, perhaps?

I will riot.

Our long national nightmare is over. ...Until next summer...

I hear ya, lol.

For what it's worth, Elliotte Friedman is reporting it. He's one of the most credible rumormongers in the business.

I don't really have a strong preference re: who I'd keep as the two spare forwards. TBH, I didn't put any thought into that part of it. Helm has always played kind of a reckless game. I don't think playing center makes him more likely to be injured, though I suppose that's a possibility, since a centerman has more responsibility than a winger and has to do more skating. I'm kind of "Eh, whatever" regarding the fourth line, don't really care if it's Helm or Glendening playing center. I think Helm is the better centerman and the better winger, for what it's worth. But it doesn't really matter to me. I'm guessing Kronwall hits LTIR at some point in the season and quite possibly for the rest of the season. His legs are completely gone, he has zero lateral mobility, and he holds back the power play. I'd honestly much rather have Ericsson in the lineup.

HYPE!

I'm thinking the same thing, except switch around AA and Svechnikov. Nyquist Zetterberg Mantha Tatar Larkin Svechnikov Athanasiou Nielsen Frk Abdelkader Helm Glendening DeKeyser Daley Ericsson Green Ouellet Jensen I thought Svechnikov showed some good chemistry with Larkin in that Ottawa game last season. I love that he loves crashing the net and stomping around in goalies' kitchens and just generally mucking it up in all those dirty places in the o-zone where the Wings tend to lose a lot of battles for pucks and positioning. He's like a bigger Tatar in that sense. I think we need more of that in the top six. Tatar-Larkin-Svechnikov could be really effective on the forecheck and the cycle. Athanasiou-Nielsen-Frk would, in theory, be like Athanasiou-Nielsen-Vanek. The problem with the Athanasiou-Nielsen-Vanek line was that Vanek and Athanasiou had to be sheltered...and yet at the same time we needed that line to be a solid, formidable second line. Now that Nielsen's been bumped down to 3C and Larkin is playing big minutes, the sheltering thing isn't as much of a concern. I left Bertuzzi out because one of Booth/Witkowski, Sheahan, Glendening will always be in the lineup. And, to be honest, I was really disappointed with Bertuzzi's preseason performance, so I don't feel too bad about leaving him out.