Caps vs Stars Pregame: There Will Be Fun

November 19, 2015 3:39 pm

The offensive juggernaut that is the Dallas Stars marches into the nation’s capital tonight. The Stars are a high speed, high-octane team that can make any team look silly. Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn sit second and third in the NHL in points right now and form an absurdly talented first line with Patrick Sharp.

The Stars are possibly the most entertaining team to watch in the league. They have more events (that is, a shot attempt by either team) per 60 minutes of play than any team in the league. But don’t take this to mean their defense is terrible. While they do play a more open style of game, they rank in the middle of the league in shot attempts allowed.

Pay no mind to all the talk of the Caps’ lack of success against the Stars over the past seven years or so. Unless, of course, you believe a team’s name effects the outcome of the game, because that’s the biggest similarity in all of the Caps losses to the Stars.

The fun begins at 7 PM on CSN.

Team	Record	Possession	PDO	Power Play	Penalty Kill
Washington Capitals	12-4-1	54.4%	100	21.8%	85.4%
Dallas Stars	15-4-0	53.3%	100.3	29.3%	79.3%

Projected Lineup

No morning skate today, so we’ll have to wait until the coach speaks at 5 to know if there are any lineup changes such as Norpik vs Orpik, who will start in goal (guessing Grubauer), and will Stan Galiev get a sweater. Here’s how they lined up last night:

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Oshie
Johansson – Kuznetsov – Burakovsky
Chimera – Beagle – Williams
Laich – Latta – Wilson

Schmidt – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Orlov – Chorney

Grubauer

Texas

Spongebob got jokes about Texas. What’s your favorite Texas joke?

Apparently the Stars just write jokes for us these days:

Game day pump up jams in the Dallas Stars locker room this morning: Shania Twain.

— Katie Brown (@katiebhockey) November 19, 2015

This brings us to perhaps the worst-best song and video of all time. Have you seen this?

Storylines

The Capitals goaltender thinks the Capitals young, Russian center has a very bright future.
The Caps Russian winger needs to accept that he will never score another goal ever again.
The All-Star Game format is changing. I can’t imagine any format that would make me care about this game. I ain’t hatin’. If it’s your thing, you do you. Imma do me, though.
Cool piece here on what influences coaching salaries.
Style and wedding dresses your thang? You’ll enjoy this piece by Rachel about Julianne Hough’s search for a wedding dress.
Ya girl Katie Brown with a look at things from the Dallas side.

Dude…

I’m not sure I can really handle the similarities here if the Caps win and Ovi scores tonight.

#Caps have 7-straight Ls vs #Stars. Last won Oct.25, 2008. Fedorov became Russia's NHL goal scoring leader that night. Caps/Ovi vs DAL Thurs

— Ben Raby (@BenRaby31) November 19, 2015