Capitals @ Leafs - Apr. 14th, 7:00pm - TSN4, TSN 1050

[CarltonTheBear]

@
41-22-10, 92 points | 47-20-6, 100 points
Projected Lines

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Hathaway Mantha-Backstrom-Wilson Johansson-McMichael-Oshie Eller-Dowd-Larsson Fehervary-Carlson Orlov-Jensen TvR-Schultz Samsonov

Bunting-Matthews-Marner Mikheyev-Tavares-Kerfoot Nylander-Kampf-Engvall Abruzzese-Blackwell-Spezza Rielly-Liljegren Brodie-Holl Giordano-Lyubushkin Campbell

Scratches

Conor Sheary Axel Fjallby-Jonsson Michal Kempny Matt Irwin

Kyle Clifford Wayne Simmonds    Jake Muzzin

Game Notes

WSH
•Samsonov (22-9-4, 2.93 GAA, .899 Sv%) will likely start for the Capitals

TOR
•Campbell (27-9-5, 2.72 GAA, .912 Sv%) will likely start for the Leafs
•Keefe said the other day that the plan was for Campbell to start this game, although we'll have to wait for the morning skate to know for sure
•Muzzin was also only expected to miss one game with his minor injury so he's another player we'll have to wait for more information on

Injuries

•Carl Hagelin - Face - Injured Reserve          •Conor Sheary - Illness - Questionable

•Rasmus Sandin - Knee - Injured Reserve •Ondrej Kase - Head - Injured Reserve •Petr Mrazek - Groin - Injured Reserve •Jack Campbell - Undisclosed - Questionable •Wayne Simmonds - Illness - Questionable •Jake Muzzin - Undisclosed - Probable

Stream Options

Sportsurge.net
NHL66

[Kaberle15]

Great job CtB (as always).

I am very confortable that the real Leafs will show up tonight. Huge needed win for home ice.

Go Leafs Go!!!

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/dalter/status/1514611922993250310

Holl takes a turn in the press box, 4th line continues to shuffle, and Campbell confirmed to start.

[herman]

4th line is in Tom Wilson mode, even though they should never see ice at the same time.

[CarltonTheBear]

Clifford and Simmonds have probably had the most impact of the rotating 4th line wingers since the deadline, although they've also had games where they were invisible or worse hurt the team (Clifford's late penalty comes to mind). Spezza continues to unfortunately look like he's past his due date and Abruzzese is on the opposite end of that (everyone raves about his hockey IQ and that certainly looks like it's at a NHL level, but I think pretty much everything else needs more developing in the AHL). Unfortunately I doubt we can count on Kase returning so we won't have be able to put a guy like him or Kerfoot on the 4th line to really give it a massive boost. Might be worth calling up Robertson at some point before the season ends to give him another whirl there.

[Dappleganger]

https://twitter.com/dalter/status/1514611922993250310

Holl takes a turn in the press box, 4th line continues to shuffle, and Campbell confirmed to start.

About time they sit Holl.

[L K]

My concern level is at 0% right now because he is still putting up points and doing good things on the ice but I hope Bunting can break his shooting slump before the playoffs. It's giving me visions of Hyman not being able to finish everything as the 3rd wheel against Montreal last year.

[Highlander]

https://twitter.com/dalter/status/1514611922993250310

Holl takes a turn in the press box, 4th line continues to shuffle, and Campbell confirmed to start.

About time they sit Holl.

Ya, staple him to the press box and Abruzzese should be on the Marlies now.  Bring up Steeves and Robertson.

[CarltonTheBear]

https://twitter.com/dalter/status/1514635600715988999

Think Keefe gives a pretty good breakdown of the Leafs D situation here. At the end of the day right now there's going to be a pretty good defenceman sitting in the press box, two of them when Sandin joins him. And the choice for who sits isn't anywhere near as easy as some might want it to be. Any one of the 3 righties who sits is going to take away a pretty unique asset that the defence had with them playing.

[Zanzibar Buck-Buck McFate]

My concern level is at 0% right now because he is still putting up points and doing good things on the ice but I hope Bunting can break his shooting slump before the playoffs. It's giving me visions of Hyman not being able to finish everything as the 3rd wheel against Montreal last year.

Good point.

My concerns around this team are pretty much between the pipes.  I don't have a lot of confidence in Campbell and it goes downhill from there.

[herman]

https://twitter.com/ineffectivemath/status/1514567146981969924
Seems to be a good idea to take it to OT tonight

[princedpw]

With Kase, this:

Nylander-Kampf-Engvall
Abruzzese-Blackwell-Spezza

becomes this:

Nylander-Kampf-Kase
Engvall-Blackwell-Spezza/Robertson

Which would really be awesome.

But still, I hope Kase stays out forever and forgets about my dream line combinations.  I really don't like to see guys with head injuries risking their future years.

[Bender]

https://twitter.com/dalter/status/1514611922993250310

Holl takes a turn in the press box, 4th line continues to shuffle, and Campbell confirmed to start.

At this point I think I'd do

Rielly-Boosh
Giordano-Brodie
Muzzin-Holl

I do think that's a pretty balanced defense group, you can swap the 2nd and 3rd pairs depending on who's going. You add in Lily for some offense and do Muzz-Brodie and sit Holl. Holl is getting exposed over and over right now, and I think this lineup probably opens you up for the least overt exposure, especially considering the struggles of Muzz-Holl as a 2nd pair this year.

[princedpw]

I do wonder if these are our optimal defensive pairings:

Rielly-Lyubushkin
Muzzin-Brodie
Giordano-Liljegren

[CarltonTheBear]

I do wonder if these are our optimal defensive pairings:

Rielly-Lyubushkin
Muzzin-Brodie
Giordano-Liljegren

For me I think it's:

Rielly-Brodie
Giordano-Liljegren
Muzzin-Holl

All 3 pairings have had past success. I think the "Muzzin and Holl can't play together" stuff is overblown and overly focused on their earlier season struggles while ignoring the fact that they were very successful together last season. And I thought those early season struggles had more to do with just two defencemen who individually weren't playing well having to play together as opposed to some complete lack of synergy between the two of them.

I think Lyubushkin's been solid and his physicality is obviously appreciated but he'll never get PP time, he's only ever really gotten spot PK time here and there when someone else is in the box, and I think Rielly's 5-on-5 minutes would be better spent with Brodie than him. I wouldn't be surprised if in the end that physicality is valued more by than coaching staff and he gets in, in which case we still have 6 solid NHL defenders come playoff time.