Photo: Chris Gordon
Now begins a tough weekend for the Washington Capitals. There’s the two early games against two very high-achieving teams, the Nashville Predators today and the New York Rangers tomorrow. There’s also the untidy narratives surrounding today’s game, specifically Barry Trotz playing his old team, who got better when he left, and the “return” of Filip Forsberg to Verizon Center, where he never really played as a Capital, but you know what I mean.
Puck drop at 12:30 PM on CSN. Pants optional.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 40-24-10 | 52.0% | 100.2 | 24.8% | 81.2% |
| Nashville Predators | 46-21-8 | 53.1% | 101.5 | 16.3% | 81.4% |
Projected Lineup
No morning practice for an early game, but here’s how we looked the other night. Check out Tom Wilson, not on the top line, not on the bottom line.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Johansson
Glencross – Kuznetsov – Brouwer
Laich – Fehr – Wilson
Chimera – Latta – Ward
Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Green – Gleason
Holtby
Best Thing on the Internet Today
Fritz can’t catch anything.
Storylines
- Filip, Filip, Filip. Our own Chris Gordon caught up with Forsberg at KCI yesterday, where he skated for the first time since getting traded for Martin Erat and Michael Latta. That trade, more or less, cost George McPhee his job– although it didn’t have to be so bad. Adam Oates’ usage of Erat made the exchange so much worse than it had to be. Still, the self-reported unanimity that GMGM said the scouting department had about the fall-off in Forsberg’s development makes him basically a laughingstock now. Forsberg still has a decent chance at the Calder. (My money’s on Johnny Hockey.) Finally, Latta has turned out way better than I feared– which Fedor totally called right off the bat.
NowAlmost of legal drinking age, Tom Wilson was fined $2,000 for diving the other night. The reputation is now locked. How Wilson responds will be important.- Lots of Caps prospects in the NCAA tourney, which starts next week.
- Those are the storylines you get. It’s an early game. Back off.
What You’re Missing on TV Today
Poppy Cat
“Runaway Turtle; Dear Rocket Cat” 12:00 PM on NBC, 30 min
Owl finds a lost baby turtle, so the gang set out in their submarine to return him to his mother; Poppy suggests they take a rocket ship to the moon to meet the star of Mo’s favorite TV show, “Rocket Cat.”
So don’t miss that.
