Caps at Blue Jackets Pregame: There is No Second Line

December 18, 2014 3:45 pm

The Caps still haven’t lost in #rego since December 2nd, so it’s important to not be a cranky grinch when they lose games in the 20th round of the shootout or make harebrained lineup decisions. We’ve had both of those things this week.

Washington will be hosted to a night of dating, discussion, and more by the Columbus Blue Jackets. Starting at 7 PM and airing on CSN, the Caps intend to keep their point-streak alive.

Team	Record	Possession	PDO	Power Play	Penalty Kill
Washington Capitals	14-10-6	50.8%	99.2	27.1%	77.5%
Columbus Blue Jackets	13-15-2	46.3%	98.2	22.5%	77.8%

Projected Lineup

This is wild. Latta’s getting a peek at the top six, Kuznetsov to the dungeon. From Prewitt:

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Wilson
Johansson – Latta – Brouwer
Laich– Fehr – Ward
Chimera – Kuznetsov – Beagle

Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Schmidt – Green

Holtby

Best Thing on the Internet Today

This GIF set.

Merry Christmas, meatheads.

Storylines

Trotz confirms: the third line is the second line and the second line is the third line. I am vindicated!
Related: whatever happened to ~~second~~ third line?
No WJC, no Caps, maybe Andre Burakovsky should go down to Hershey. Really?!
Travis Yost on how good possession teams actually are good possession teams. The Caps don’t exactly shine when it comes to getting extra shot attempts per entry.
Bob is perfect this month. We’ll see him tonight. Crash the Bob.
Ian is tenacious on the whole no-alumni-game brouhaha.
Mumps map! Stephen S. of the Pensblog is the best.
Fedor contemplates what the Russian ruble crisis may mean for the KHL.
James Neal = diver.
And, finally, two tweets of interest.

That red line is the #Caps' cumulative YTD score-adjusted Corsi (blue is game-to-game). MT @Stringhama pic.twitter.com/9j0qFIfjJg

— Japers' Rink (@JapersRink) December 18, 2014

Caps forwards in December, aka the third line is the second line http://t.co/qA166K6OBA pic.twitter.com/3DQ2saM9dv

— Good Tweet Pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) December 18, 2014

What You’re Missing on TV Tonight

The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball 2014 (8:00 PM on CW) celebrates the death of the monoculture brought about by the consolidation of terrestrial radio permitted by Bill Clinton in the late 90s. Scheduled to perform: Taylor Swift; Iggy Azalea; Maroon 5; Ariana Grande; oh god make it stop; Pharrell Williams; OneRepublic; Meghan Trainor; this is worse than the shootout; Charli XCX; Jessie J; Shawn Mendes; stab me in the face with a soldering iron; and Nick Jonas.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Blue Jackets