Brown vs Volpatti, last season (Photo: Geoff Burke)
The Capitals have had two full days and then some to recover from that lowly effort against the Philadelphia Flyers. That loss capped off a successful but busy week for Washington, and now they start another busy week– this time in California, going up against some of the best teams in the league.
For starters: the San Jose Sharks, who the Capitals last year defeated on the road for the first time. Maybe they could do that again?
It’s a late game, so get all your homework done before you tune in. 10:30 PM on NBC Sports.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 28-16-10 | 52.4% | 100.4 | 23.1% | 80.4% |
| San Jose Sharks | 28-20-7 | 51.9% | 99.1 | 20.6% | 81.5% |
(Note: I’m using 5v5 score-adjusted shot attempts for possession in the table above– sorry for the confusion last week)
Projected Lineup
The Caps did their morning skate at 2:30 PM. Alex Prewitt gave us this:
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Johansson
Chimera – Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Laich – Fehr– Ward
Burakovsky – Latta – Beagle
Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Hillen – Green
Holtby
Looks like Wilson will take a seat.
Best Thing on the Internet Today
Torrance Shipman’s Postulate
Noted philosopher Torrance Shipman defines being the best as competing against the best there is out there and beating them. So when the football team beat the team that ended up winning the Super Bowl, that means the football was the super secret actual best time.
The inverse corollary of Shipman’s Postulate requires that being the worst means losing to the worst. The San Jose Sharks have lost to the Buffalo Sabres twice this season, getting outscored 6-2. They are therefore the worst team on the planet.
This is indisputable. There are no putes to be dissed. I don’t even care that the Oilers beat the Caps twice this season.
Storylines
- The Sharks are a little beat up and looking a little green on the blue line. Catch that insight and more in the PuckBuddys pregamer.
- The Caps haven’t won in San Jose since… the last time they played in San Jose. We threw a party for that one. It was a blast. Speaking of– please keep Saturday, March 21st open in your calendar.
- Alex Ovechkin: is he the best DC athlete of the last fifty years? If he is, sweet choice of blog name, us. Personally, I think this is the best DC athlete of the last fifty years:
- On Barry Trotz and Brian MacLellan’s treatment of the young guys. Tremendous work by Ian, though we disagree on some points.
- How the Caps have climbed the Metro.
- The Caps dads are along for the trip.
- So is Steve Oleksy, who I think could get his first sweater of the year, per my prediction.
- If he doesn’t Dmitry Orlov thinks he’s two weeks away from playing again.
- The Caps are the only team with four defenders who have played every game so far. No jinx.
- Blockbuster deal between Winnipeg and Buffalo. We also learned that BMac took a run at acquiring Evander Kane, which I like. I can’t imagine anything bigger than this happening before or at the trade deadline. I think the Sabres made a real smart move here, but what’s your take?
- The once and present Shark Evgeny Nabokov has retired. We’ll hear about it tonight for sure.
- Our site was mentioned in this story by Defending Big D. You can decide for yourself what that means.
- Tons of slow-mo from Ian’s night in Hershey.
What You’re Missing on TV Today
Schitt’s Creek (10:00 PM on POP)
Catherine O’Hara, Eugene Levy, and Chris Elliott. Yeah, sure, I’ll give it a try.
Update, 4:17 PM: Here’s EITM’s interview with Chris Elliott this morning.
