The Washington Capitals have won three in a row just once this season– from November 7 to 11. Suiting up in Tampa tonight against one of the best teams in the league, the Caps will have a chance to go for three again. It won’t be easy.
Catch us at 7:30 PM as we follow along, begging quietly for some top-line offense. Game’s on CSN, so Joe B better be wearing something pretty for me.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 12-10-4 | 51.7% | 99.0 | 28.2% | 75.3% |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 18-7-3 | 54.8% | 101.3 | 22.7% | 80.4% |
Projected Lineup
I’ve got word on lines, but here’s the winning squad from Saturday.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Wilson
Johansson – Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Laich– Fehr – Ward
Chimera– Latta – Beagle
Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Schmidt – Hillen
Holtby
And here’s Tampa:
Same lines at #tblightning skate: Killorn-Stamkos-Callahan/Palat-Johnson-Kucherov/Paquette-Filppula-Connolly/Drouin-Boyle-morrow
— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithNHL) December 9, 2014
Best Thing on the Internet Today
Not sure why, but Javert GIFs took over imgur yesterday.
Storylines
- The Lightning are really good. I don’t have a link here.
- Alex Ovechkin hasn’t had a point in four games. Nick Backstrom in two.
- No Mike Green.
- The Caps might let Andre Burakovsky play at WJC. I think it’s a dandy idea.
- Aaron Volpatti is on the mend, scheduled to condition a bit in Hershey.
- Troy Brouwer is looking for consistency, which means I’m going to share my own tweet like a narcissist. (I was talking about football, btw.)
I don't understand why analysts say Washington needs to be more consistent. The last thing you want a bad team to be is consistent.
— Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) December 7, 2014
- More on how the Caps play with a lead from Adam and JP.
- Paul Bissonnete is trying out for the Kings’ AHL affiliate. Bullet sufficiently dodged.
- Semyon Varlamov has a nagging groin problem in Colorado.
- Ilya Bryzgalov has signed a deal with the Anaheim Ducks! Yes!
- NHL Expansion vs relocation.
- Paul MacLean’s ouster in Ottawa accomplishes nothing.
- Fanciful statistics of dubious pedigree on NHLN. (Is top 5-on-5 possession normalized or is it a counting stat?)
- Plus: there’s some RMNB news coming later this afternoon.
What You’re Missing on TV Tonight
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has its fall finale tonight and word on the street is it’s bonkers. The show somehow became a really good watch late last season, and I’m totally loving it now. The jokes are snappy, the spy stuff is tense, and your girl Adrianne Palicki (above) has some mondo action scenes as Bobbi “Mockingbird” Morse. 9 PM on ABC, and I’m totally switching over if the game sucks.
