Photo: Capstragram
The Capitals are in exotic Ohio tonight for a game with the poor Columbus Blue Jackets. Tonight will be our first look at new forward Curtis Glencross and just our second at man-animal hybrid Tim Gleason on the blue line. These guys, plus assorted fellows from Hershey, will be your Caps squad for the duration, so let’s get start on the right foot: a W.
Puck drops at 7 PM on CSN-DC. Drive safe getting home tonight; roads are gonna be nasty.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 34-20-10 | 51.6% | 100.4 | 23.6% | 81.4% |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 26-32-4 | 46.3% | 98.8 | 20.4% | 80.4% |
Projected Lineup
Here’s how they looked yesterday, according to Prewitt.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Johansson
Glencross– Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Chimera – Fehr – Ward
Laich – Beagle– Wilson
Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Gleason – Green
Holtby
Caps Trade Deadline: My Instant Reaction
I have none. We might not know for another 18 games and then some if these moves worked or not.
Tim Gleason is not a very good defenseman, and while he might “make his team worse,” he’s also a certain upgrade over Jack Hillen. Is Gleason better than a healthy Nate Schmidt? I doubt it, but if having Gleason on the ice means Trotz trusts Mike Green with 20 minutes instead of 18, that’s a big positive.
Curtis Glencross might be a few years removed from being a puck-driving dynamo, but he’s no slouch. If Tim Barnes put a target on him (and I bet he did, given his affection for “GlenX” over on the old Vic Ferrari blog), maybe he sees something I don’t. Glencross can do the two-way thing well, but I wonder if his recent production has him fancying himself as a scorer– possibly to the detriment of his possession game. And even if Glencross sturdies up the second line, what does that bode for Andre Burakovsky, whose performance– even if “inconsistent”– should merit him a spot in the top six every night. Has the team displaced one of its rising but unappreciated stars with a player whose profile the team already has met with two or three other players?
So you won’t get an no instant reaction from me. I have no conclusions only questions. The rest of the season will render for me my answers. Go Caps.
Storylines
- Holtby vs Bob, the best cop on the force! It’s Sergei Bobrovsky‘s first game since January. Get your ringtone here.
- Poor Lumbus has had a rough season. I’d say they’ve been the biggest surprise to me in 2014-15, but I’m optimistic they’ll bounce back next season.
- The Caps were early birds at the deadline. They made no moves on Monday, and BMac turned off his phone at around 2 PM and began his binge-watch of House of Cards. Watch BMac speak.
- Curtis Glencross makes his Capitals debut tonight. He will wear number 22. Like Knuble and Kono before him, may he crash the net boldly.
- Meanwhile, Andre Burakovsky is reporting to Hershey for a stint of unknown length.
- Jay Beagle is a lucky charm on the top line. Just for the record: Santa isn’t real, global warming is happening, and lucky charms don’t work.
- And Becca H did yeoman’s work collating a ton of other stories over on the Rink.
Jared Boll’s Brothers Got a Band
Ben tipped me off to this. CBJ facepuncher Jared Boll’s brothers Jacob and Matthew are in the Chicago-based band Hudson Branch. The video above, filmed in the world famous Fields Museum, is pretty cool.
According to their site, Hudson Branch’s most recent album, Kina Ze Swah, “bounces between outlandish and familiar, faith and disbelief, a yearning to be heard and a willingness to just have a great time. It stands strong as a rare example of earnest pop music.” I like it!
PAAAAAAAAAARTYYYYYYYYY!!!
