I officially renounce my every-other-game theory about Alex Ovechkin. For a few weeks, Ovi would do something ridiculous in a game and then take the next night off. Except now he’s doing it every single game. Not to be greedy but the Caps are gonna need even more of Ovi’s magic for Saturday’s matinee match-up against the New York Islanders.
Saturday’s is the first of three games within the Metropolitan division, in which the Caps currently find themselves in second place. It’s gonna be a big week.
The game is on CSN. Puck drops a little after 12:30.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 32-17-10 | 51.9% | 100.1 | 24.4% | 81.4% |
| New York Islanders | 39-19-1 | 54.4% | 99.5 | 19.1% | 74.7% |
Projected Lineup
Assuming no changes as long as everyone is healthy.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Burakovsky
Johansson– Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Laich – Fehr – Ward
Beagle – Latta – Wilson
Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Hillen– Green
Holtby
Worst Thing on the Internet Today
Morgan Rielly today said positive approach, strong work ethic during tough time was key. "You're not here to be a girl about it."
— Jonas Siegel (@jonassiegel) February 20, 2015
Best Thing on the Internet Today
A Programming Note
Once again, your recap experience will be serviced by Emily Wright. I will be attending my first game at Verizon Center since 2012.
I’ll be sitting up in 411 with my signed Matt Bradley jersey. Come say hi.
Storylines
- The Caps are bringing up a seventh D for Saturday. I don’t know who at the time I wrote this, but you might know who when you read this. Are they worried Green won’t be good to play? UPDATE: It’s Cam Schilling.
- Yes, the Capitals seem to be doing somewhat okay at the hockey thing. Everyone loves Backstrom right now.
- Your boy Stringham contrast/compares Andre Burakovsky to Semin.
- Former dude Bob Woods has some things to tell you about Alex Ovechkin.
- The NHL’s new stat site is up, and boy is it ever… up. Shot attempts > Corsi. Fresh take. I’m excited for the new effort, but it’ll be even better once they add:
- Score adjustments
- Filter by number of games
- Filter by ice time
- Filter by date
- Page size all
- Accurate on/off ice
- With or without you
- Support for microformats
- Support for JSON
- Export to CSV
- Visualization
- Corgi GIFs
- Mike Milbury would hahahhahahahaha consider hahahaha coaching hahaha the Boston haha Bruins ha
I’m Gonna Roll Up on Verizon Center Like
See you there!
