Photo: Capstagram

This is it. This is the final stretch of the regular– sorry, #rego– season. From here until the 11th, the Caps will face a gauntlet of tough teams, all of whom are in the playoff race. We begin tonight with the Montreal Canadiens. If the playoff started today, two things would be true:

1. the Caps would face the Habs in the first round
2. you’d be like wtf mate, s’pose t’be 82 games

(Also you’d be Australian, I guess.)

A ton of stuff can and will change between now and the final game of the season, especially if you look at the Metro standings, but I like the way it all looks. Puck drops at 7:30 PM on CSN.

Projected Lineup

No changes. Never any changes, from Prewitt.

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

Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Green – Gleason

Holtby

Best Thing on the Internet Today

This dog.

Storylines

• The big news is Dmitry Orlov, who has been recalled from Hershey but has not yet been activated from long-term injured reserve. Orlov’s last game was nearly a year ago. He suffered a wrist injury while playing for Team Russia at Worlds last summer. The Caps hope to get Orlov a look before the end of the #rego season.
• Carlson, Green, Alzner, Niskanen, Orpik, Schmidt, Orlov, Gleason– plus Bowey in the wings and a number of other promising prospects. The Caps D is deeper than it’s been in decades. That’s great news, but I’m gonna cry when Green leaves. Memorial hand tattoo designs welcome in comments.
• Holy snap, the Metro got TIGHT all of a sudden. See below.
• PK Subban on Ovi: “But now it’s pretty consistent, he’s getting in on the forecheck, he’s backchecking, he’s doing all those things. But I think he did those things pretty consistently [before] too. I think some people have been a little too hard on him when it comes to that stuff.” (thanks to Brian P. for linking me to that)
• More on Ovi: I’m not sure who posted this, but I found it via /r/hockey. It’s a chart generated by War On Ice of individual scoring chances and goals since 2005.

• The Post has an article about Price vs Ovechkin as the battle of Hart contenders. Except Price isn’t going to win the Hart. He’ll get some votes, but this award is Ovi’s. Take it to #thebank. The only questions is whether or not Ovi will win the King Clancy.
• Our own Pat Holden has bribed me to include a link to his article about neutral-zone play– specifically Washington’s– over at Hockey Prospectus. I was gonna include this link anyway, but now I get a bribe bonus!
• Here’s a meagerly informed article by Nate Silver about eliminating the NHL’s loser point.
• Check out Fedor being conspiratorial.

Is it just me or is it a bit strange when the NHL assigns 4 Quebec officials to work the Montreal game? http://t.co/DtUTRGxv0f

— Fedor Fedin (@Fedor_Fedin) April 2, 2015

• Finally, if you’re around the Mall on Saturday, check out my favorite local soccer club.

Watch out DC, the Spirit is about to do a monument takeover. Keep an eye out for the team on the Mall this afternoon! #SpiritFamily

— Washington Spirit (@WashSpirit) April 2, 2015

Standings and Remaining Schedule

Those are all playoff teams or playoff bubble teams. This thing won’t be decided until oxt Saturday afternoon.

All of a sudden, the Metro is tight. The Caps are one point behind the Islanders and the Penguins with the same number of regulation-overtime wins. Wow.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Habs