The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!! -- Caps versus Thrashers, November 22nd

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! . . . in this, the last installment before the holiday.

Tonight, the Caps take to home ice once more to host the Atlanta Thr—

“BAM!”

Well, well, it’s the man, himself . . . Emeril, shouldn’t you be thick in the middle of preparing Thanksgiving goodies?

“I have a little secret . . . I don’t cook anymore. I just shout, ‘BAM!’, throw a spice or two on top, and let others do the cooking . . . I HATE cooking!”

What would you rather be doing?

“Well, I’ve always dreamed of being a hockey player . . . “

Ah, you grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts, so it figures . . .

“Yeah, I actually started shouting ‘BAM!’ when I saw Bobby Orr checking guys into the boards.”

Who knew? . . . so, do you have a recipe for a Caps win tonight?

“Hey, knock it off with the cooking references . . . didn’t I tell you I HATE cooking??”

Uh . . . ok, so what brings you to DC, anyway?

“I wanted to see a different bird cooked –wink wink—“

Uh, didn’t you say . . .

“yeah, yeah . . . I can’t help it.”

So, what do you see as the keys to the game?

“Well, the Thrashers have just the right combination of meat on the blue line with Andy Sutton, Vitaly Vishnevski, Garnet Exelby, and Greg DeVries . . . and a spicy combination of Ilya Kovalchuk, Marian Hossa, and Vyacheslav (hey, ya like the way I said that?) Kozlov . . . but the ‘essence’ is Jon Sim. He really is the ingredient always seems to come through when they play the Caps.”

Good point . . . Sim is 10-5-15, +6 in 17 career games against the Caps. But Kovalchuk . . . 13-17-30, +11 in 25 games against the Caps in his career.

“Amazing, considering he’s -70 against the rest of the league in his career. But they seem to have goalie problems – Kari Lehtonen is 1-4 in his last six appearances and got yanked in his last outing against Dallas after giving up three goals on seven shots. Johan Hedberg had a fine game against Montreal last time out in a loss, and he has a pretty good record against the Caps going back to his Pittsburgh days.”

You have a pretty amazing command of the stats.

“Hey, like I told ya, I don’t cook anymore . . . I just play one on TV!”

As for the Caps, they’ve been on the short end of three one-goal games against Atlanta so far this year. They’ve experienced each kind of loss – regulation, overtime, and shootout. If the stars are aligned, they have filled that scorecard out and will now experience one of the three types of wins. To do that, the Caps are going to have to prevent the usual suspects – Kovalchuk and Sim – from getting into any kind of offensive rhythm. That means controlling the puck (to reduce the number of shots their goalie – presumably Olaf Kolzig – has to face) and making them – especially their forwards -- play defense. In turn, that will mean smart decisions on the part of defensemen getting out of their own end and the ability to win faceoffs (the Caps have been on the short end in two of the three games against Atlanta this year).

The Caps have stubbed their toe in recent games – 0-1-2 in their last three. This is a chance to enjoy the Thursday turkey rather than choke on dry stuffing, courtesy of Atlanta stuffing goals in the Capitals’ net. It’s a division game, and it’s a chance to climb back into the top eight and close the distance with Atlanta for the division lead.

Caps 5 – Thrashers 3

Happy Holidays, Hockey Fans!!!