CBC-Sports

This week's work: Toronto at Washington

October 2, 2009 06:31 PM | Posted by   Jim Hughson  

Read up on the latest tidbits and trends as Hockey Night in Canada's play-by-play voice Jim Hughson takes you behind the scenes and into the game.

This week's work: Toronto at Washington | Saturday, Oct. 1 7 p.m. ET (CBC, CBCSports.ca)

The script:

So much for the unbeaten season!

Many denizens of Leaf nation are lamenting that Game 1 was far too much of the “same old.” But before the new baby goes out with the bathwater it’s probably a good idea to re-examine the opening night OT loss to Montreal. There really were some good things to go with a few foibles.

The Leafs were the more cohesive team in Thursday’s game. They look fast and the top two lines - Stajan, Stalberg and Blake and Grabovski, Ponikarovsky and Hagman - look like they’ll create lots of chances.

They had good ole “truculence and belligerence” in the lineup as well. It’s clear this Leaf group won’t be pushed around and they’ll stick up for each other. They’d have won opening night if Habs goalie Carey Price had been ordinary.

On the other side of the ledger, you could see from the reaction of the Canadiens that other teams will brace themselves and refuse to roll over and be intimidated. The Leafs have told the world how tough they’re going to be, so other teams will rise to meet the challenge.

The Leafs’ defence didn’t look particularly quick, so they’d best be smarter with passes and tidy up their coverage, especially on the penalty kill.

For the most part though, I bet the Leafs like a great deal of that first game.

The Capitals liked everything about their opener, a 4-1 win in Boston.

They blitzed the Bruins after the opening 10 minutes. Alex Ovechkin had two goals and an assist, four hits and directed 14 shots at the net. Nicklas Backstrom had three assists as well. Get used to that.

Ovechkin has started on a line with Backstrom and Alex Semin, while the second wave features Brendan Morrison centring Mike Knuble and Brooks Laich. Against a Leaf team that will try to play Ovechkin tough, look for Knuble to switch with Semin so he can play against Mike Komisarek.

And who knew Laich was the secret weapon? Laich joined a four forward power play, which also features Backstrom, Semin and Mike Green, and scored twice, making Capitals fans forget the banished Michael Nylander for a night.

This Leafs and Caps’ game will be fast and offensive and the over-under shot total should be 70.

On the hot stove:

Brendan Morrison was once the centre on one of the league’s most dynamic lines with Markus Naslund and Todd Bertuzzi in Vancouver. Morrison has always counted on his speed and injuries robbed him of his greatest asset the last two seasons. With a full summer of conditioning, the Caps are counting on his jump being back. He’s starting the season as the team’s second-line centre with a chance to win a prominent position again.

ISO camera on:

Mike Knuble was a great unheralded signing for the Caps in the off-season. He’s a big net presence who can hit and score and play with top players. Knuble will be counted on for his usual 25-30 goals and he’ll open up some room for his smaller linemates. The Capitals named him an assistant captain after two weeks in training camp and that tells you a lot about what they think of his leadership qualities.

Tape-room topic:

How will the Caps react to Colton Orr and Jay Rosehill now that Donald Brashear isn’t around? Be ready John Erskine! And while we won’t pin the opening night loss on Vesa Toskala, the Leafs did outshoot Montreal 46-27. Go ahead and take save percentage and goals-against average, I’ll take the timely save and the win.

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