RED ALERT: It's Caps and Rangers in DC tonight

Who can forget the brutal playoff series between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers in last year's Stanley Cup playoffs.  Caps fell behind 2-0 in the series, but won it in 7 games.   

The two teams clash again tonight in their series opener, but this year, both teams are a bit different.  Caps saw Sergei Fedorov, Victor Kozlov, and Donald Brashear depart, while the Rangers welcomed Brashear and scorer Marian Gaborik.  The Rangers come in at 2-1 and Caps are 2-0-1 after losing a gut wrencher in Philly in OT on Tuesday.

Here are some Game Previews:  Caps official site,  CBS Sports, Caps Hockey Analysis, NHL.com,  Caps Nut,  Simply Sensational  

Little bit of roster shuffling . . . Boyd Kane did not last in DC too long.  He was optioned to the Hershey Bears, thankfully.  If anything, it likely signals the return of Eric Fehr from injury.  But for now, the Captials are looking to get D Tyler Sloan on the ice.  They will do so by working Sloan out on offense on Line 4. 

"Left wing Boyd Kane was sent to Hershey today and to fill his place, Coach Bruce Boudreau put defenseman Tyler Sloan on the fourth forward line. Sloan hasn't played yet this season, but it appears he'll be in the lineup tomorrow as a forward and perhaps as a "swingman" if Boudreau elects to go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen.

"I did it for him a couple of times in Hershey," Sloan said. "It's been a while. We'll see how it goes. It's not where I want to be, but I'm playing."

This isn't an experiment or even something that's going to happen often, it seems. Sloan is just holding a spot for Eric Fehr, who is getting close to returning. It also gets Sloan into his first game of the season.

"

The Hot Four . . . Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Brooks Laich, and Nicklas Backstrom are off to super red hot starts.

First, Ovechkin has 9 points, 5 goals and 4 assists.  Last season, Ovie did not score goal #5 until 11/14, assist #4 until 11/6 and 9 points until 11/10.  Backstrom did not score his 8th helper until 11/12.  Then you have Brooks Laich, off to a 3 goal, 3 assist start.  Laich did not score his 3rd goal until 11/8 and did not reach 6 points until 10/25.

Those are awesome numbers.  The only troubling sign is --- where is the deeper line scoring?  Granted we are only in game 3, but the lower lines have to get involved in scoring.

Read it all .. ..    

http://dcprosportsreport.com/2009/10/red-alert-its-caps-and-rangers-in-dc-tonight.html