Happy Valentine’s Day, humans. I hope you’re blah blah insincere message goes here.
The Caps father-accompanied road trip through California continues tonight in Los Angeles. We last saw the Kings on February 3, when the Caps gave the reigning champions a 4-0 drubbing. I called that the best game of the season. If you’re willing to stay up late tonight, maybe the Caps try to top it.
If your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife/special friend of any kind is willing to stay up late with you to watch, you know you’ve got a good one.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 29-16-10 | 52.2% | 100.4 | 23.5% | 80.0% |
| Los Angeles Kings | 24-18-12 | 55.3% | 99.5 | 19.2% | 78.0% |
Projected Lineup
This is how the Caps lined up at the 2 PM “morning” skate, per Prewitt, with one change noted after the skate.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Johansson
Chimera – Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Laich – Fehr– Ward
Burakovsky – Latta – Beagle
Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Oleksy – Green
Holtby
An addendum, right from the beat:
@russianmachine looks like Volpatti-Beagle-Wilson on the fourth line tonight, by the by.
— Alex Prewitt (@alex_prewitt) February 14, 2015
Best Thing on the Internet Today
There are many reasons, but Drax’s is as good as any.
Storylines
- Steve Oleksy will make his first NHL appearance since January 4, 2014. That’s another prediction from my preseason list checked off.
- Barry Trotz says Andre Burakovsky will not play tonight, so that’s why he crossed out above. We might see Wilson or Aaron Volpatti in his spot.
- Tom Wilson is getting scratched lately… and on the father’s trip no less. The dad’s trip, btw, was basically invented by Trotz’s Predators.
- Dad strength, dad stories.
- I love this Rink piece about Eric Fehr’s offensive-zone forecheck.
- 1/3 of our RMNB roundtable wants Jagr to join the team before the deadline. 1/3 definitely does not. 1/3 is a little ambivalent. More deadline chatter in that story.
- Did you see Sean Bergenheim wants out of Florida? Interesting…
- “Washington could not have given Winnipeg what the Jets needed right away.” Bummer.
- I made a stupid video with a stupid voice. My mom sent me a bewildered email about it.
Programming note: I think the Sunday snapshot will be delayed because of the late games/road trip.
Music Recommendations from Me
I saw two bands at Cafe Nola last night and they were both fantastic. Lemme tell you about Two Inch Astronaut.
They’re an unadorned three-piece, but they make a ton of sound. I’d place them in the DC post-hardcore tradition, with rich, active guitars, but Astronaut brings just enough melody and pop sensibility to make them more approachable than, say, Smart Went Crazy. Just enough early-90s style rock in the mix to make it a very fun listen.
Two Inch Astronaut’s album is available for $5 on Bandcamp. I’ve got it. It’s great. I hate them; they’re so good.
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