Photo: E Hartline
I could use this space to talk about how Caps-Flyers games tend to devolve into nastiness and how Washington hasn’t really beaten Philadelphia yet as soundly as they should.
Instead, I want to talk about Al Koken, whose 30 years covering the Caps for CSN (and HTS) will be celebrated today. Is there anyone outside the team who knows them better than Al? He’s an institution; his voice has been a part of my experience with the Caps since the beginning. Before that even: Koken covered the Caps in their inaugural eight-win season.
A lot has changed, including the name of the network he works for. Also we eradicated smallpox somewhere in there.
Sunday’s broadcast will find Al in all sorts of roles: he’ll do play-by-play for one period, analysis for another, and ice-level reporting for the third. Game starts at 3 PM on the station formerly known as Home Team Sports.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 28-15-10 | 52.5% | 100.8 | 23.4% | 80.9% |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 22-22-8 | 48.5% | 100.6 | 23.3% | 75.0% |
Projected Lineup
With Burakovsky back up and Green’s status unclear, the lines today are anyone’s guess. Here’s what they looked like on Friday night.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Johansson
Chimera – Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Laich – Fehr– Ward
Beagle – Latta – Wilson
Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Hillen – Schilling
Grubauer
(Grubauer has been sent back to Hershey. Holtby will start today.)
Best Thing on the Internet Today
Storylines
- Did you read the Sunday snapshot yet? Well? Didja?! I talked about Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s improvement of late.
- The Caps have only scored three goals in two games against the Flyers, a win and an overtime loss. That’s not enough. They’re not really very good.
- Brayden Schenn is going down.
- How ’bout Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s monster game on Friday? Solid performance by Philipp Grubauer as well.
- McNally on why the Caps might win the Metro.
- “Honestly, if you throw six years and $30 million at a player like Andrew MacDonald, you deserve to be in cap hell.” And other observations the mess Philly is in from NHL Numbers.
- A fun item on Al Koken from Steinberg a few years back, featuring the origin of the Smokin’ nickname, and a must-read interview from the Puck Buddys with a particularly funny headline.
What You’re Missing on TV Today
The Karate Kid Part III (2:30 PM on ION)
White kid does karate. Same plot as first movie. Better music. More S-bombs.
