Caps at Wild Pregame: Are You Coming to the Party?

Hello. Let’s do hockey.

Tonight in Minny the Caps take on the Wild. I don’t like singular collective nouns for sports teams. What do you call a member of the Wild (aside from “member of the Wild”)? They’re not “a Wild.” They’re not “a Wildling.” Same deal with the Lightning. I guess each one of those guys is “a Bolt” at least.

Those team names are stupid. Therefore the Capitals should beat them tonight.

8 PM, CSN, crash net.

Team	Record	Possession	PDO	Power Play	Penalty Kill
Washington Capitals	38-23-10	51.3%	100.4	25.7%	81.1%
Minnesota Wild	39-24-7	51.6%	99.8	14.9%	86.9%

Projected Lineup

From morning skate, according to Alex Prewitt, plus my educated guess on defense.

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Johansson
Glencross – Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Chimera – Fehr – Ward
Laich – Latta – Wilson

Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Green – Schmidt

Holtby

Here’s a Pic of Schmidt Not Smiling

Look at that intensity. Dude’s gonna score tonight. #Narrative

Storylines

Check out how good Minny is at PK and how bad they are at PP.
A tale in three acts: 1) Mike Green want to stay. 2) Mike Green is expensive. 3) …
There’s also the thing about his sticks, but that story already has enough pageviews! I wanna see the dude score again tonight.
Eric Fehr hates the shootout. That’s fine, but I hate ties. (I don’t actually hate ties, but I think ticket-buyers deserve to see a decision.)
Nate Schmidt at home in Minny tonight! With Orpik seemingly back, you might think Schmidt would sit, but no! Gleason looks to sit. Injury, sentiment, or savvy player evaluation? You decide!
F.O.T.B Ben Lutz on Evgeny Kuznetsov, a study in potential.
Hilary Duff, split from Comrie, died her hair. Imma let her finish, but Katy Perry did the post-divorce hair dye first and best. Also: Zayn isn’t touring with 1D. Oh noes.