After our first Friday and Saturday off in forever, man, the Capitals will play host to the Florida Panthers for an afternoon matinee at Verizon Center. If you’re searching for a narrative, “Winter Classic hangover” should be a good one.
Watch with us at 3 PM on CSN-DC.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 19-11-7 | 51.1% | 100.3 | 23.0% | 78.0% |
| Florida Panthers | 17-10-9 | 52.2% | 99.4 | 14.6% | 81.0% |
Projected Lineup
Here’s how they looked at practice on Saturday, according to Alex Prewitt:
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Burrakovsky
Johansson – Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Laich– Fehr – Ward
Chimera – Beagle – Wilson
Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Hillen – Green
Holtby
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All dogs should be slo-mo dogs.
Storylines
- Please read the Sunday Snapshot, once it’s up, in a little bit [UPDATE: here it is!]. It’ll make you smart.
- Or, even better, read this stirring piece by my friend Doug Johnson of PuckBuddys: “Even the Homer-iest McFanBoy knows deep down that hatred of a rival isn’t truly hate. Extreme dislike, perhaps, but not hate. Name me one politician on the national stage who isn’t behaving as if the other team is out to destroy America, let alone saying it. Crickets.”
- Justin Peters is like, “Hello? Is anyone there?”
- Top-line Burracuda. Trotz on Burra’s recent struggles: “He’s thinking he must’ve failed, and he didn’t fail. He’s 19 years old playing in the National Hockey League. That’s not failure. To me, that’s success.”
- Our beloved CapGeek.com has shut down. We’re broken up about this and wish all the best for Matthew.
- Me on Saturday: Get ready for reheated clammy jokes about “Winter Classic Championship” banners at Verizon Center (I first heard those five minutes after the buzzer went off at Heinz Field.)”
- Puck Daddy on Saturday: “Sadly it doesn’t appear a 2015 Winter Classic champions banner will join the ranks of others in the Verizon Center rafters any time in the near future.”
- Lemme just direct you to Japers Rink for more Winter Classic links. There’s too many to keep up with, though I wanna make sure you see Al Jazeera’s coverage.
- Zemgus Girgensons, all-star. I just like saying his name. Zemgus Girgensons. Say that next time you’ve got a sore throat and are holding salt water in your mouth.
- Shut up about Jaromir Jagr, who became the oldest dude to score a hat trick on Saturday night. I hate him, his awful, awesome self. Ugh. Never retire, you miserable old excellent stupid hockey player.
What You’re Missing on TV Today
Football! Cincinnati (10-5-1) at Indianapolis (11-5) in an AFC wild-card game. The Bengals’ fourth-straight playoff trip brings them to Indy, where they fell 27-0 to the Colts in Week 7. I keep looking for information about the Pittsburgh Steelers’ next game, but I don’t see any until the fall. What’s the deal there?
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