The Washington Capitals’ all-time outdoor scoring leader, Eric Fehr.
Let me start with this: Welcome to 2015, RMNB. I hope it’s a safe and happy one for you, and I hope you eat delicious food. That’s important.
In a few hours, or– if it’s sunny, a few hours after that– the Washington Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks will drop the puck at Nationals Park in DC for the Winter Classic. There’s gonna be pageantry, patriotism, and marked-up merchandise. There’s also going to be hockey. Let’s talk about that last part.
The game starts 1 PM on NBC, unless it starts later, which we don’t know yet.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 18-11-7 | 51.1% | 100.3 | 22.9% | 77.8% |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 25-10-2 | 54.9% | 100.7 | 18.7% | 90.5% |
Projected Lineup
Here’s how they looked at practice yesterday, according to Alex Prewitt:
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Beagle
Johansson – Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Laich– Fehr – Ward
Chimera – Latta – Wilson
Schmidt – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Hillen – Green
Holtby
RMNB Winter Classic Coverage, So Far
- The PuckBuddys pregame with our friend Jen LC contains a lot of good insight about the Blackhawks, who really are the best team in this league.
- Caps fans (including Rachel!) hung out with some Caps stars of days of yore last night.
- Brooks Laich and Julianne Hough were unbearably cute at the family skate yesterday.
- All the Caps were pretty adorable though. The ice looks really good for outdoors, btw.
- Ian nerded out over the pretty faceoff dot because Ian is a nerd about that kind of stuff.
- Chris nerded out over Nate Schmidt and winter clothes because Chris is a nerd about that kind of stuff.
- The Caps Winter Classic team photo.
- Brooks Orpik has had a miraculous recovery to what looked like a severe leg injury. We kinda think he’ll play today.
- Alex Ovechkin went Instagram wild.
- Braden Holtby’s pads are snazzy. He’s wearing an Olie Kolzig tribute mask, which I think is mighty big of him after last season.
- There actually was sort of an alumni game after all.
- We’re not crazy about the musical performances today. How hard would it have been to get the Foo Fighters?
- Exception: Bob and Caleb are going to do the anthem. That’ll be great.
- It’s gonna be cold and sunny, according to Amelia Segal.
- Ugly shirt for sale.
- Help Barry Trotz get dressed.
- And finally: CM Punk says the Hawks will win 3-0. Only in wrestling are the outcomes that predictable.
Storylines
- We don’t know if the game will be delayed due to sun glare yet. We might know at noon. We will let you know ASAP.
- Brooks Orpik is a game-time decision, but we think he’ll play.
- Top-line Beagle was the situation at practice. The other team has had the puck 62.4 percent of the time when Ovi and Beagle skate together, so that’s not good– particularly against the possession team in the world.
- Japers Rink had a good item yesterday about the Caps’ struggling power play. The Blackhawks PK is really, really good (90%), so this could be a thing.
- The Capitals are distracted.
- All-time Capitals outdoor leading scorer, fresh off three goals in two games, Take Eric Fehr to #thebank.
Let’s End it on This
The 2011 Winter Classic was a big deal for Caps fans. It came at a time when the team needed some happiness (that December was brutal). The Caps of 2015 are a world away from that team in a number of ways, but maybe we can see them recapture some of that same magic today. At the very least, let’s make some new memories as wonderful as the one above.
Crash the net. Happy new year.
