Today is the sixth anniversary of what was arguably the greatest game in Capitals franchise history. Playing the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second game of the second round, Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby swapped hat tricks on the way to a 4-3 Caps win. It was the high-water mark for the league’s biggest rivalry — and arguably the Caps themselves, who went on to lose three straight.
Tonight the Caps will host the Rangers in game three of the second round. Someone will do something that we’ll all be talking about tomorrow. Let’s watch it happen together. 7:30 PM on NBCSN.
The series is tied 1-1.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 45-26-11 | 51.9% | 100.3 | 25.3% | 81.2% |
| New York Rangers | 53-22-7 | 50.6% | 101.7 | 16.8% | 84.3% |
Projected Lineup
Looks like no changes again.
Forwards
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Defense
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Goaltender
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What If Ted Bought Shirts for Everyone?
Sometimes, basketball and hockey teams will buy shirts for every seat in the arena for big games. Team-subsidized “whiteouts” and “blackouts” and “red-outs” or whatever are common in the playoffs, but I don’t recall any lately for the Caps.
A few years ago, Ted Leonsis’s investment group shelled out 40 million bucks to get a piece of Fairfax-based t-shirt company Custom Ink. How much would it cost go get a nice shirt for all 18,506 people at Verizon Center tonight? Custom Ink’s quote calculator tells me it’ll cost $72,358.46, or $3.91 per shirt. They also tell me the volume discount has saved me $396,398.52. That’s nice.
I wonder if Ted could get a better deal. We don’t actually need this though. Aside for the business guys in business suits, Caps fans do a great job rocking the red.
Storylines
- The paramount importance of a good start. We’re gonna know a lot about tonight’s game from its first 10 minutes.
- Ryan Lambert on how Alex Ovechkin isn’t what you think he is.
- James Mirtle on how Alex Ovechkin isn’t what you think he is.
- And I’ll just embed this again:
Alex Ovechkin shoots more than any other player BY A MILE http://t.co/Vnn67DvMvX You primitive screw-heads pic.twitter.com/nmKGGzydi9
— RMNB (@rmnb) May 2, 2015
- Tim Gleason had a maintenance day yesterday, so the Caps called up Nate Schmidt. Looks like Gleason is back and Schmidt will be an unused 7th D, which is a bummer if you consider the gap in performance between an injured Gleason and a healthy Schmidt. Or even a healthy Gleason and a healthy Schmidt. Or even a…
- Troy Brouwer isn’t happy about going scoreless. Speaking with Chuck Gormley: “It’s hockey. I’ve gone through it a few times in my career and it’s no fun.” Brouwer is only getting about 1.5 shots on goal per game for a whopping total of 14. Gotta do better.
- The Capitals allowed their first power-play goal of the postseason last game. Jason Chimera is NOT happy about it.
- John Carlson vs Matt Niskanen: Who dun goofed?
- Adam Oates wants to be a head coach again. Hahahahahahahewfhibweifhbwekghbwekghweg
- Madison Bowey continues to pwn. I’m very excited about this kid.
May the Fourth Be With You
No one can read in Star Wars. That’s one of many reasons why I prefer Star Trek, where learning and diplomacy and curiosity and celebrated above all. As that article on Tor wraps it up, “hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good book in your hands.” Live long and prosper, Star Wars fans.
