Photo: Alex Brandon
“He acts like it’s his.” That’s how my mom characterized Alex Ovechkin‘s celebrations for other players’ goals on Friday night. And while I used that to make a cheap joke about selfish Russians, my mom was right. Ovi got to celebrate four times on Friday night’s excellent win over the Islanders (one for him, three for others). It was one of the best games these Caps have played all season, and they’re gonna need more of it today on Long Island.
The series is tied 1-1.
Game starts a little after noon on NBC proper, so if you’re watching from brunch and Pierre mentions the Brandon Wheat Kings, take a deep swig of your mimosa.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 45-26-11 | 51.9% | 100.3 | 25.3% | 81.2% |
| New York Islanders | 47-28-7 | 53.5% | 99.1 | 18.7% | 78.0% |
Projected Lineup
Turn and face the strange, we’ve got some changes to the forwards, as told by Alex Prewitt. Good luck decoding these.
Forwards
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Defense
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Goaltender
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Best Thing on the Internet Today
This dude. Hand’s down.
Storylines
- Braden Holtby is healthy. He returns to the net today. Thank you. pedialyte. And thank you, Philipp Grubauer, whom I hope we’ll see next on the second day of a back-to-back in mid-October.
- Nick Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin have been reunited. In the 2:41 of 5v5 the spent together last game, the Capitals outshot the Islanders 8 to 0. Holy. (I think they skated together more than that actually, but NHL data is NHL data.)
- Newsday blamed the Isles’ loss in game two on broken sticks. Capuano apparently did not agree; he’s considering making lineup changes for today.
- This is wild: Jason Chimera has the Caps’ second most game-winning playoff goals. On Friday he recorded his fifth; Bondra has six.
- Washington has had three power-play opportunities through 120 minutes, converting on one. (They’ve been shorthanded the same.) I suspect at least one of those numbers will increase faster today.
- We’ll have to do without Wes Johnson’s wonderful voice until game five, so check this out again. Goodness gracious.
- The Edmonton Oilers have won the draft lottery and will almost certainly ruin Connor McDavid. They need to clean house before he arrives, in my opinion. …but I’m excited for what Jack Eichel will do in Buffalo.
There’s a lot more going on. Check out Caps Clips on Japers Rink.
We Need Some Vulgar John
Effing A, indeed.
Full RMNB Coverage of Game Three
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