Round 2: (7) Washington Capitals vs. (1) Montreal Canadiens

[Knut]

Playoff Leaders:
Montreal Washington

Eriksson and Nash (8)- Points - Jason Blake (7)
Eriksson (4) - Goals - Blake and Langenbrunner (3)
Nash (6) - Assists - Blake and Arnott (4)
Martin and Keith (6) - Dman Points - Rafalski (5)
3players @ +3 - +/- -Blake (+5)

Miller (0.923) - SV% - Mason (0.932)
Miller (2.51) - GAA - Mason (2.01)

Season Series:

MTL 3 wins over Washington (1 win).

This will be a very tough series. We think the Capitals have the ability to match up with MTL in the Goaltending and top line scoring department. The Caps need Arnott, Briere and Whitney to have better efforts this round than last as MTL has a deeper team overall.

Should be a good one!!!

[simmer2]

Thanks for posting this Hesla. With the teams in the East, anybody can win a series and this one is no different. The Caps made a number of acquisitions near the end of the year that have made them better. It was no easy feat beating the #2 seed in the Rangers, so we have to be sharp.

Keys to success for the Habs is to have the 1st line continue to build on the last few games. Nash and Koivu started getting it going again. We may have to shuffle our 2nd line as they have struggled a little bit. Miller needs to continue his impressive play in the playoffs; he is the main reason we got through the first round over the Pens.

Hesla is one of those teams that has always managed to make it into the playoffs and always performs well so we're looking for this series to stretch out to 6 or 7 games as well.

[Knut]

I think the Capitals can win if we shutdown Nash and Koivu... Going to be interesting to see if it is better to try and match goal for goal... or to stifle the Habs defensively.

It really comes down to how well Chris Mason plays.