The Caps host division rival Carolina today in the middle game of there season long five game home-stand.The Caps had won 13 straight home games a franchise record before falling to Dallas Monday night 4-3 in a shoot-out. In that game Marty Turco was superb for a career high 49 saves,but it was a third period meltdown of poor penalty killing and a bad goal given up by the not yet in game shape Semyon Varlamov. It seems at this time the PK is the Caps Achilles heel, and it better be improved upon down the stretch. The PK is the toughest aspect of the game to work on in practice because you don't  want to face live fire when not in a game.It seems as if the Caps will rotate Varly with Theo all the way to the end of the season before anointing there playoff starter. By the looks of it they really want Varly to regain that form and take the job, even though Theo has shown he is prepared.

Tonight the Caps take on the Canes winners of eight of there last nine games in a Southeast division showdown. Despite a 36 point lead on the Canes, the Canes are one of the NHLs hottest teams. The Caps will welcome back Brian Pothier tonight, hopefully to a standing ovation. Pothiers story is a great one. Out for a season with what appeared to be concussion symptoms and seemingly losing his career to the injury, only to find out that the concussion had affected his vision and all he needed was a correction in his eyes and just like that he was ready for a return to the ice. Truly a great return story and Pothier is a very solid defender. Also tonight Scott Walker and Joe Corvo will face there former team,and will look to get the Caps to 99 points on the season.

The Caps have got to improve that PK, if they want the Cup. They are a disciplined bunch and don't take too many penalties,but they need to improve on the kill. Based on what we have heard about  the goaltender rotation it is safe to assume we will see Theo go against Manny Legace tonight. I don't know who the caps five scratches will be tonight  but its safe to assume Tyler Sloan and Quinton Laing will be two of them. Walker who was scratched against Dallas will play and I can't imagine that Thomas Fleischmann will be scratched again. My guess is Dave Steckel will be a scratch, other than that we will just have to wait and see.

My prediction Caps 5 -Canes 2

Keep Rocking the Red!! Cap fans.

Update: Fehr,Chimera and Erskine appear to be the scratches along with Sloan and Laing

Latest Update: the lines for tonight per Tarik El-Bashir will look as follows

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Knuble
Fleischmann-Morrison-Semin
Laich-Belanger-Walker
Gordon-Steckel-Bradley

Written by :

Avi Schecter