Hockey Time

It's been a while.  Miss me?  Of course not.  I don't have a note to explain my tardiness from the pre-NHL Regular Season blogging hysteria.  That is just the way it works.  My Halo-gaming expertise was needed on a little site called Examiner.com.  Check out my articles, if you get a chance.

I'm coming back full force, though.  Caps Hockey starts back up tonite.

The team is starting its 2010-2011 season away against the Kovalchuk-less Atlanta Thrashers.  The team is, understandably, pissed.  Their President's trophy winning season amounted to nothing after getting eliminated by the lowly Montreal Canadiens.  I will feel sorry for the first person that Ovie checks on open ice.  He will probably knock him out.


Line-Up:
Forwards
Ovechkin - Backstrom - Knuble
Laich - Fleischmann - Semin
Chimera - Johansson - Fehr
Hendricks - Steckel - Bradley

Defense (Not official)
Green - Schultz
Carlson - Alzner
Erskine - Poti


Goalie
Neuvirth
Sabourin

Who will win this opening night thriller though?

Ehhh, I honestly don't know.  It doesn't matter to be honest.  The Caps could lose but most of us will be happy if we see some certain things:

• Ovie taking short shifts - Boudreau has to have this team under control.  Start now.  Do good, and you get a garden salad.
• A calm Michal Neuvirth - Varly is on injured reserve.  The only backup for this game, I believe, is Dany Sabourin.  Try not to get pulled Neuvy - Sabourin looked good in Pre-Season, but that was Pre-Season.
• A penalty-free game from Semin - ...  ...  I'm just screwing with ya on this one.  No way this happens.
• A drug-free Mike Green - ... ...  Well, same as the last one.
• A good team Face-Off percentage - The Caps aren't the greatest in the Face-Off Circle right now.  Backstrom is OK, Flash, is terrible, MarJo is an unknown for me, and Steckel is awesome.  The Swedes will have to step it up.  I'm not expecting much from Flash.
• A PK that looks like it has a system - The Penalty Kill of the last few years has been atrocious.  We have some good PKers, but they never seem to have a set system.  That should change this year.
• Leave the Lines alone - It is going to be the first game of the season.  Most of these line haven't had time to find their chemistry, this year or last.  So what if they are down by 2 with 7 minutes to go?  Let the lines mesh and figure it out.

I will give a prediction on the outcome however.  Caps triumph 4-2.  Come on.  Atlanta hasn't exactly meshed yet either.