GDT: Round 1 Game 3: Washington Capitals @ Montreal Canadiens 4/25/25 7:00pm EST SN, TVAS

[sandviper]

 

[BLONG7]

At least two lineup changes........insert Kap and The Sheriff....

Boys have to feed off the crowd. The Philosopher will make them realize we barely lost both games, so hopefully as they love to do, can come from behind in the series.

Game 3 is the kicker boys........if we lose it's over for this group. Playing with house money, and they have done well. We have a couple of holes and HuGo will have another busy summer.

One thing has surprised me about the Caps..............they have a few guys who go down very easily, Was glad to see Wilson get clipped for embellishment, but he has a few guys to keep him company. Strange for a big team to have a few divers on it ....

 

[waitin425]

That crosscheck to Caufield needs to be rectified. I don't care how the refs do it, but a makeup call needs to happen.

 

[Tuggy]

It's been a tight series. Caps have had the edge but not by a huge amount. Obviously Monty has been big but Thompson was great in the 3rd yesterday. Basically two 1 goal losses, with one being in OT. Puck bounces a little different and things could be 1-1 or 2-0 the other way.

I'm expecting the Habs to come out flying tomorrow. Need to find some goals though.

I'm confident in them winning Game 3.

 

[dinodebino]

The Bell Centre will be on fire. I suspect posters will get their wish and have Arber play. 3rd game will be wild.

 

[hardcorehabs]

Dowd with 3 dirty plays last night (Dvorak, Laine, Caufield). Hope he loses some teeth.

Arber needs to slot in for either Savard or Struble. Its painfully obvious

 

[waitin425]

Xhekaj needs to play.......and as if our building won't be on fire enough....he needs to drop the gloves in the first 5 minutes.

I expect nothing but passion and effort from everyone friday.

 

[Zorro]

It's been a tight series. Caps have had the edge but not by a huge amount. Obviously Monty has been big but Thompson was great in the 3rd yesterday. Basically two 1 goal losses, with one being in OT. Puck bounces a little different and things could be 1-1 or 2-0 the other way.

I'm expecting the Habs to come out flying tomorrow. Need to find some goals though.

I'm confident in them winning Game 3.

Better chances at winning the lottery.

 

[BergevinBurner]

The entire team aside from Montembeault is struggling. We're outmatched physically, we don't start on time and our powerplay has been ice cold this entire month.

It blows my mind that MSL is stapling Xhekaj to the bench and opting to playing geriatric Savard for 5 minutes a night instead. And our powerplay is anemic yet we're not giving arguably our most talented offensive player a look on the 1st powerplay unit...

 

[CristianoRonaldo]

That crosscheck to Caufield needs to be rectified. I don't care how the refs do it, but a makeup call needs to happen.

Hopefully, with a punch in the face from Arber, in prime.

 

[bobholly39]

At least two lineup changes........insert Kap and The Sheriff....

Boys have to feed off the crowd. The Philosopher will make them realize we barely lost both games, so hopefully as they love to do, can come from behind in the series.

Game 3 is the kicker boys........if we lose it's over for this group. Playing with house money, and they have done well. We have a couple of holes and HuGo will have another busy summer.

One thing has surprised me about the Caps..............they have a few guys who go down very easily, Was glad to see Wilson get clipped for embellishment, but he has a few guys to keep him company. Strange for a big team to have a few divers on it ....

Lineup changes....maybe. But we're not going to win or lose by who we put in/take out.

I'm more up for some lines reshuffling.

I still really want Demidov to be given a chance. I get he's only 19 years old and 4 games into the NHL, but he's immensly talented and show tremendous potential in his first game. Playing with Newhook and Laine isn't cutting it - i'd love to see him play with Suzuki and Caufield. And on PP1.

Montembeault has been excellent so far. But you can tell this team is different then Habs of preivous years. If it was Carey Price in nets - right now I'd be feeling "ok, Price will steal game 3 for sure, and maybe 1 more. We can still win this round". With Montembeault - I'm thinking the opposite, and hoping he doesn't mess up "wow, I hope he doesn't get blown up in game 3 to give our forwards a chance to win the game".

Either way - can't wait for friday, it should be a great game, and the bell center will be insane.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Gonna guess Laine will be out unless his limited usage last night was precautionary after getting hurt.



I won’t shit on him for last night but he hasn’t been effective for weeks anyways.

Monty has been pretty solid so far, but we need more run support for him. If there was any doubt we need an effective 2C, and likely a top-6 winger, it should be obvious now. Demidov is still NHL-raw will need that help next season.

Anyhow, despite being down 2-0, Caps don’t look that tough to me. Despite hitting us a lot, to be frank, I don’t feel we’re getting throttled as bad as the anti-smurf squad are saying. Don’t get me wrong, we could use more size up front, but I don’t feel Xhejak is going to tip the scales in this series.

We have to sit Laine for a game and let him get hungry and more focused. He's not a great 5/5 player and almost everyone knows it. However, in last nights game, he wasn't really effective on his PP one timers either.
It's one thing to live with his lack of 5/5 quality and you get goals from him on the PP but when the PP effectiveness is not there, what do we have? Someone who holds us back.

Big Laine fan but he's just not playing well and he needs a kick in the ass. "Hey Laine... how about you just keep ripping it and score a goal because that's what you are suppose to be good at... what's up with that bud"

Bring in Xhekaj and play him a forward. Might sound like a crazy out of the blue idea but we can put him in front of the Caps net and just tell him to beat up their D and cause havoc (good luck moving him from the front of the crease). Pretty sure Xhekaj can be just as effective as Laine at 5/5 (from what we have seen from Laine anyways).

Xhekaj roaming around on the offensive end not worried about playing D and looking to punish guys in their zone will make their D core think a bit more. Add Anderson doing that as well.

The Caps D core has it too easy IMO. Too much space for them and the Habs need to rattle their cage a bit. Change their mentality because they are not afraid of our forecheck one bit.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

 

[Habs Halifax]

The entire team aside from Montembeault is struggling. We're outmatched physically, we don't start on time and our powerplay has been ice cold this entire month.

It blows my mind that MSL is stapling Xhekaj to the bench and opting to playing geriatric Savard for 5 minutes a night instead. And our powerplay is anemic yet we're not giving arguably our most talented offensive player a look on the 1st powerplay unit...

The entire team is not struggling after Monty. We are the last seed facing the 1st seed and a team that has plenty of big boys that skate. Yes, they are having their way with us physically (mostly hits) but they are also crossing the physical line with their cross checks and the Refs are allowing it. Playoffs are more open to physical play but someone needs to remind the Refs that cross checking to the face is a penalty. If the Habs do this, I have no doubt it would be a penalty. Hate complaining about this but it's pretty obvious that the Habs should have more PP's over the caps but the stupid refs are trying to "even it out".

I'd bring in Xhekaj but my strategy would be to use him in front of the Caps net and just let him free as a froward who doesn't have to play D or stay back. Imagine how much havoc he would create in the offensive zone... punishing hits and very difficult to move from the front of the crease.

 

[Tyson]

You are down 0-2, might as well adjust the roster.
Demidov looked much better with Evans and Newhook.
There is a big 4th line center in Laval named Condotta that could help the team. He can give you decent 4th line minutes.
If you move Newhook to Evans's wing then you need a 4th line center.

 

[ahmedou]

 

[Habs Halifax]

Gonna guess Laine will be out unless his limited usage last night was precautionary after getting hurt.



I won’t shit on him for last night but he hasn’t been effective for weeks anyways.

Monty has been pretty solid so far, but we need more run support for him. If there was any doubt we need an effective 2C, and likely a top-6 winger, it should be obvious now. Demidov is still NHL-raw will need that help next season.

Anyhow, despite being down 2-0, Caps don’t look that tough to me. Despite hitting us a lot, to be frank, I don’t feel we’re getting throttled as bad as the anti-smurf squad are saying. Don’t get me wrong, we could use more size up front, but I don’t feel Xhejak is going to tip the scales in this series.

A few noticeable things for me:

1) When our D puts pressure on their forwards in the offensive zone along the boards, we tend to keep the puck in their zone. When our D is too conservative, the Caps exit the zone way to easily. I actually don't think they have a tremendous amount of skill (like the Leafs for example) so I'm not afraid of their 2/1 or 3/2 break outs if that were to happen. You can clearly see how effective the Habs are when we put pressure on them in their zone and that has a lot to do with our D.

2) Habs are just horrible at exiting our zone with possession. Caps are doing exactly what I said in point 1 above and we need to learn to move the puck north/south a bit more. Skating back with the puck to go behind the net only helps the Caps set up their forecheck strategy attack.

3) There is a fair amount of stupid mistakes (panic moves maybe).
* Newhook missing a one timer
* Evans not able to score on a open net... even with pressure on him from behind.
* Chipping the puck out of our zone is weak. Too many bobbles that keeps the puck in our zone.

I do agree that even though the Caps are taking it to the Habs physically, we are not backing down and it's not really holding us back from winning a game. It's the minor little mistakes we are making and we are not taking advantage on the limited opportunity that happens within the game. I want more killer instincts with the changes we get.

 

[Kennerback]

Dowd with 3 dirty plays last night (Dvorak, Laine, Caufield). Hope he loses some teeth.

 

[SannywithoutCompy]

Savard needs to come out of the lineup, plain and simple.

Just like he shouldn't have even been in the lineup the first 2 games, as I don't think even the biggest Savard or MSL fanboy can deny anymore.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

If Laine is in the lineup I am going to lose my mind

 

[TheBuriedHab]

Savard needs to come out of the lineup, plain and simple.

Just like he shouldn't have even been in the lineup the first 2 games, as I don't think even the biggest Savard or MSL fanboy can deny anymore.

Think Struble comes out not Savard. Based on what Marty said, he thinks they have to win the special teams war to win and the PK was 1 for 1 last night and has been good all year.

If Xhekaj comes in you're also at risk for taking more penalties.

 

[waitin425]

I don't necessarily agree with this guys proposed punishment....but I do agree that these are at minimum a penalty.





And finally......this guy gives a fair assessment here...but I have to say if this happened in open ice and Laine was tripped and fell to the ice, it would 100% be called a knee on knee trip.



I won't harp on these things as calls can go either way. But I will say that the refs need to do better. It is their job.....and yes....they are trying.....but this is the Stanley Cup playoffs and missing blatant calls like this on either team....is failing at your job. DO BETTER!

 

[Ozmodiar]

I think Laine has to come out of the lineup.

Go with a Nordic line:
Heineman - Kapanen - Armia

Stick Newhook on the wing:
Newhook - Evans - Demidov

… tell Demi to shoot because those linemates aren’t going to finish plays.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Even with all that BS you know the league will just punish Xhekaj for looking at the caps.

Hey, you can't look at them. They can't defend themselves against a guy like you, so we gotta let them push Caufield around to feel good about themselves, so you get 2 minutes for unsportsmanlike !

 

[sampollock]

If Laine is in the lineup I am going to lose my mind

ok if he is not and the team still struggles who you going to go over next?