The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!
Well, guys, it’s New Year’s Eve, and the Caps are playing the Carolina Hurricanes to ring out the old year. Do you see a win in the cards?
Well, guys, it’s New Year’s Eve, and the Caps are playing the Carolina Hurricanes to ring out the old year. Do you see a win in the cards?
Fearless: Of
course. There is a beautiful symmetry to
nature, and it seems only fitting that the Caps would begin the year with a
rousing victory in the Winter Classic and end it with a win over a former
division rival.
Cheerless?
Cheerless: …
Cheerless??
Cheerless: “zzzzzzz…sknx…..”
CHEERLESS!!!
Cheerless: “…huh?...what??”
Caps?
Hurricanes? Hockey game?
Cheerless: “oh, yeah…”
Fearless: “Getting an early start on celebrating the new
year, cousin?”
Cheerless: “…hey, I gotta test the moonshine before I drink
it, don’t i?”
Can we get back to the subject? What do you think about the Caps and
Hurricanes tonight, Cuz?
Cheerless: Well, if their Corsi is any indication, the
Hurricanes have been all over the map this month. They have had problems stringing together any
sustained possession numbers and are sitting at 50.1 percent for the month,
48.1 percent in close score situations.
Fearless: Peerless,
is he really our cousin?
He does seem to have spent a lot of time at war-on-ice.com,
doesn’t he?
Cheerless: “ha-ha-ha…can’t a person better themselves?”
Sure, a “person” can.
You on the other hand…
Fearless: “He has a point, cousin. Folks actually read that piece, not like your
work…”
Hush up! OK, back to
the game. So, Carolina has inconsistent
possession numbers. Their record looks
similarly wobbly this month, 7-5-1 overall, and they are not making any headway
getting back into the playoff discussion, what with their being eight points
behind New Jersey for fourth place in the Metropolitan Division.
Fearless: Worse for them, they are a rather poor home team,
just 7-8-3 overall and 3-3-0 this month.
Cheerless: It’s hard to win many games when you can’t score
(2.35 goals per game, 25th in the league) and can’t stop people from
scoring (2.84 goals against per game, 24th in the league).
Fearless: They are a bottom-third team in special teams,
too, just 17.5 percent on the power play (20th) and 77.9 percent on
the penalty kill (25th).
Cheerless: And what’s with a defenseman leading them in
scoring? Justin Faulk has 30 points, and
Half of them (15) come on the power play.
Don’t they have, like, a bunch of Staals?
They have two – Eric and Jordan – who between them have 14
goals and 36 points.
Cheerless: That’s barely one “Kuznetsov” (11-22-33).
Very good, cousin…taking fourth grade math for the third
time seems to be the charm. So, Carolina
doesn’t score a lot, they give up a lot of goals, their special teams are
anything but, and their prize forwards aren’t producing very well. Think they have a chance?
Fearless: Sure…but not a good one.
Cheerless: A chance for what?
What, indeed. Even with
the Capitals limping into Raleigh with several key pieces missing due to
injury, they still have a formidable group at both ends of the ice. The year ends as it began.
Capitals 4 – Hurricanes 1
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