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Caps vs Ducks Pregame: Bruce Boudreau’s Back, Burakovsky Bowed Out

By Peter Hassett

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February 6, 2015 3:34 pm

boudreau

The Ducks are the most interesting team in the league. Using the validated, near-consensus measurement for small-sample 5v5 success– i.e. puck possession– the Ducks are nothing special. Their perch atop the league is perhaps due to their record in one-goal games, which all you thousands of Orioles fans know isn’t something you can sustain forever.

But there’s also this widespread belief that Bruce Boudreau is somehow making his team better at scoring without making them better at having the puck. I’m skeptical, but it’s undeniable that they’re a fun team to watch.

That’s exactly what we’ll do at 7 PM tonight on CSN. Go Caps.

Team Record Possession PDO Power Play Penalty Kill
Washington Capitals 27-15-10 52.4% 100.8 23.5% 81.2%
Mighty Ducks of Anaheim 34-12-6 51.5% 100.5 17.8% 81.5%

Projected Lineup

Here’s how the Capitals lined up last night, but they definitely won’t look like this tonight. Plus, look who’s in net.

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

Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Hillen – Green

Grubauer

Best Thing on the Internet Today

The Internet is cats.

Storylines

  • The Capitals have called up Phillip Grubauer from Hershey. We expect him to start tonight. (Sorry, Justin Peters; that sucks.) Grubi hasn’t played in the bigs since the beginning of March 2014. He’s got a 0.924 in 29 AHL games this season.
  • The Caps had to make a move to fit Grubauer in under the roster limit and Andre Burakovsky drew the short straw. He doesn’t have to go through waivers, so that’s the right move even though many of us will be sad for Burra, who is probably better than about five forwards who will get a sweater tonight. But the lines will never be perfect; we get that.
  • Always love Bruce. Probably the best coach in franchise history. If you disagree, enter Thunderdome with me in the comments.
  • Ducks star Ryan Getzlaf is a game-time decision with a lower-body injury.
  • Great Japers Rink piece on the anniversary of Snovechkin. Looking back at RMNB tweets from that day– was I drinking? Fun recap though.

  • And so ends the Evander Kane hype. Out for months.
  • Also injured: Hank Lundqvist for a month. Could be interesting.
  • Do read Fedor’s lovely multimedia scouting report on Christian Djoos.
  • Finally, per the every-other-game policy, Alex Ovechkin will do nothing awesome tonight. He scored the game-winner like a home-run slugger while getting hung on by Karlsson last night. Tonight he’ll go oh-fer.

What You’re Missing on TV Tonight

Resident Evil: Afterlife (7:00 PM on AMC)

Five years after a zombie virus decimated mankind, Alice (Milla Jovovich) still searches tirelessly for survivors in Los Angeles with the help of an old friend. But their rescue mission turns grim when Alice sees that the city has been overrun by zombies, and they quickly realize they’ve stumbled into a diabolical trap set up by a movie studio completely bereft of original ideas but flush with greed.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Ducks

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