Remember that time you showed up at the party and your ex was there? You’ve both moved on, and you’re both doing pretty darn well, but now the rest of the night is about posturing to see who truly won the breakup?
The home stand is over. Now the Caps have to prove they can win on the road, and they’ve gotta do it against the hottest team in the league. The Nashville Predators are also the Caps head coach’s former team and the home of a prospect who was frittered away two years ago and has since rose to stardom.
Barry Trotz and the Caps vs Filip Forsberg and the Predators. Dramaaaaaaa.
8 PM on CSN Plus.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 24-11-8 | 52.0% | 100.8 | 23.6% | 79.4% |
| Nashville Predators | 29-9-4 | 53.2% | 103.0 | 15.2% | 81.8% |
Projected Lineup
No changes. There will never be any changes again. From Alex Prewitt.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Burakovsky
Johansson – Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Laich– Fehr – Ward
Chimera – Beagle – Wilson
Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Hillen – Green
Holtby
About Nashville and Forsberg
The Predators are the number-one team in the league, but they won’t stay that way. They play a fast, wide-open style, but proportionately they’re not a much better possession team than Washington (0.6 percent, adjusted for score). Their power play and penalty kill are sorta mediocre (11th in both shot attempts generated and suppressed, respectively).
Their PDO, 103.2, is highest in the league, indicating a good bit of luck in their favor. They’ve got the best goalie save percentage by almost a whole percentage point, but that won’t last– particularly now that Rinne is hurt. And they’ve got the third best shooting in the league. Regression is coming.
But the Preds aren’t a paper tiger. They’re a really good team, a playoff team, and they might still win their division, but they are not the monsters their record makes them look like right now.
And while it burns to watch former Caps prospect Filip Forsberg killing it for another team, he’s not as good as he looks either. He’s got the third highest PDO among forwards in the whole dang league, and he’s been the beneficiary of a lot of good bounces. His with you/without you numbers look good so far, but I’m not sure he’s been through enough adversity yet to draw conclusions. At this point it’s safe to say he’s a real good NHL player, but it’d be premature to say he’s a future phenom.
Be sad, but don’t despair.
It was still a bad trade. (Though Adam Oates’ usage of Martin Erat made it way worse than it should’ve been.)
Best Thing on the Internet Today
The wonderful Lena Headey on playing Cersei Lannister…
That head tilt. Let me know if you want to argue about the nature of Cersei’s character and whether or not that was a poop-heel question.
Storylines
- The best goalie in the league, Pekka Rinne, is out tonight with an injury.
- Barry Trotz coached 1196 games for the Predators, a team which he might have named. Friday night is his first return home, and it’s all anyone is talking about. Josh Cooper has a great item for Puck Daddy, and Alex Prewitt has a great item in the Post. Becca collected a lot more on Japers Rink this morning.
- And we’ve got a passion for Filip Forsberg, whom you read about above.
- Nate Schmidt is smiling through a scary injury that might have him laid up through the trade deadline.
- Jimmy Howard, hurt in a game against the Capitals, will be out until after the All-Star Game.
- Mups mups mups. Did I mention I’m skipping the ASG?
- Nick Backstrom should have played in the gold-medal game. Let’s fight about it.
What You’re Missing on TV Tonight
Nothing is on TV and the temperature is above freezing. Go start a little bonfire, cook some beer brats, and smoke a legal Cuban cigar or something.
It’s the freakin’ weekend, baby, I’m about to have me some fun.
