Caps at Islanders Pregame: Literally The Most Important Game Ever

Photo: The Gormster

We knew the first round was going to be tough as soon as the Caps drew the New York Islanders. They’re a good possession team who kept the Caps hemmed in during the regular season, even if the Caps managed to win most of those games. But I don’t know if we expected the utter 5v5 domination we’ve seen in games one and three. The Isles have just owned the darn puck during evens. There are only three paths to victory tonight:

PDO is magic: Holbest and Halak leaves the gate ooooopen
The spirit of game two: the Caps must have drank their kale smoothies before that one
Special teams are special: It’s time for the best power-play team in the league to show it.

I wanna see all three and bring a certain Enrique video into the postseason.

Islanders lead the series 2-1. The game is on CSN at 7:30 PM.

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

We don’t have a clue what the lines will be. Not a clue. Here’s what they were yesterday:

https://twitter.com/alex_prewitt/status/590200753165303808

And here’s Brooks Orpik’s emoji, because I’m taking #scorpik to the #thebank.

Best Thing on the Internet Today

This isn’t on the Internet, and it’s not from today, but it’s on my mind.

I’m re-reading the Lord of the Rings with some friends, and I’m continually struck by what gracious hosts the heroes are. Bilbo is renowned for his openness with food and gold and gifts. The hospitality of Elrond and the Elves of Rivendell is legendary. One of the biggest insults Gandalf levels at Theoden is how unwelcoming he is to guests.

In a time when a whole continent is descending into war and chaos, the best and most decent people are those who are friendly and kind and giving– even to people they don’t agree with or necessarily like. There’s no single aphorism in the Legendarium to capture the idea, but this is close enough:

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

I hope everyone at Nassau has a fun, safe night– regardless of the game’s outcome.

Storylines

Eric Fehr is out for the next two games with an upper-body injury, wherein “upper-body” means shoulder. It’s up to his teammates to decide if Fehr will have the chance to play again this season. It’s up to the Caps to decide if he’ll ever play in this uniform again.
With Fehr out, Barry Trotz will tap one of his rookies, Andre Burakovsky or Michael Latta. Track record says it’ll be Latta. I love both of those players, plus the guy one of them will replace.
Marcus Johansson got cut over the weekend, but he should be in tonight.
Brooks Orpik and Curtis Glencross are getting destroyed during 5v5, and other important notes from Pat Holden.
The Capitals PP is generating shots— but they aren’t getting on net. Playoff blocking or lackluster offense? Ovechkin has a thought:

https://twitter.com/alex_prewitt/status/590568471819325441

In all three games, the Capitals have surrendered the first goal of the game. Look for a hot start tonight and some sturdy goaltending in the first 10 minutes.
Nassau was loud last game, but Nassau was built in ’69 and doesn’t exactly have awesome acoustic treatment. Anyway, I don’t care. If Verizon is kinder and funnier than the bad apples of the Island, I’ll be happy. Fans are stealing seats from Nassau, btw.
Caps fan Jen Golbeck was on the Kojo Nnamdi show today talking about internet rage and trolling. Caps Twitter and the Isles got mentioned.
Pat and I are arguing about the capitalization of “Game 4.” I think it’s not actually a title (unless it’s contained in a title), and since we don’t give upper case to “game four” of the regular season we shouldn’t here either. What do you think? hashbrown radical transparency.

And check out Caps Clips on Japers Rink for more.