I'm Not Worried About The Caps, I'm Just A Little Concerned
Yesterday me and Marina had a really awesome conversation about the upcoming Caps/Bruins series. I just finished listening back and we honest to goodness crushed it. It was lots of fun and a great preview of the series that starts tomorrow night. And during the show, I gave the Bruins a tonnnnn of respect. A ton. I think they're really, really good. Taylor Hall scares me. Pasta scares me. Tuuka Rask is good. And it dawned on me, I'm not worried about the Caps- I've seen them be the underdogs time and time again and overcome all sorts of adversity. I haven't been worried about them in years. Down 0-2 to Columbus in 2018 was the last time I got slightly worried, but then we put in Holtby and the rest is history. So I'm not worried...but I am concerned.
Why am I concerned? Because the entire team got injured at the absolute worst time. At one point last week the entire top PP unit was hurt- Ovi, Backstrom, Kuzy, Carlson, Oshie. Not great! Ovi is now said to be 100%...so I'm not worried...but there is a concern he's not a full 100%. Oshie probably will not play game 1, reason for concern. And don't get me started on Kuznetsov. Talk about a guy who will be left unprotected in the expansion draft, just buy him his ticket to Seattle now. He's on the COVID list for the 2nd time this season, along with Ilya Samsonov who has gone from "future Vezina winner" to "what the fuck dude? Seriously, what the fuck?".
I still have hope for Samsonov because of his age and raw talent, but I have seen more than enough of Kuzy at this point. After 8 years of bad stick penalties, questionable defense, and an overall empathetic style of playing, I think it's time to move on. Not to say he can't still help this team in the playoffs, of course he can and I hope he does, but beyond this year I think he needs a change of scenery.
So what do I expect from this series? Carnage. A healthy Ovi can always put this team on his back, both with goal scoring and physicality. And you know the B's aren't going to back down either. There is bad blood between the two teams stemming from, well, SCC Tom Wilson. And he will be under the microscope from the refs, who will be looking for any reason to penalize him. He needs to be on the ice for the Caps to win, not just because he can score goals, but because he draws more penalties than anyone else in the league. If we can get the Bruins in the box and use this top PP unit, that's the key to the series. That, and we need Vitek Vanecek to stand on his head. The Bruins can flat out score. Marchand, Hall, Pasta, and Bergeron- it'll be hard to stop them all. So Vanecek will need to forget he's a rookie and turn in a superstar performance this series, no doubt about it.
My prediction: I will never count the Caps out of anything. I think it'll be a hard fought series, and I think the Bruins are very good, but give me Caps in 7. Home ice prevails, and we move on.
Watch the full episode with me and MnM: