The hottest team in the league will play tonight, and it ain’t the Washington Capitals. The Anaheim Ducks have won 11 games in a row. They’re ranked higher than the Caps in 5v5 possession and penalty killing. (It’s a virtual tie on the power play.) Plus they’ve got Bruce Boudreau behind the bench. After a miserable start to the season, the Ducks are now exactly where smart people knew they’d end up, and maybe even a little higher than that.
The Ducks right now are my pick out of the West to make the finals*. Tonight the Caps will try to beat them on their own turf.
It’s a late game, 10 PM on CSN. I’ll be staying up with you, cracking jokes.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 48-13-4 | 51.6% | 101.7 | 23.8% (3rd) | 84.5% (4th) |
| Anaheim Ducks | 37-19-8 | 53.2 % | 98.6 | 23.8% (2nd) | 86.2% (3rd) |
Projected Lineup
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Oshie
Burakovsky – Kuznetsov – Williams
Chimera – Johansson – Wilson
Winnik – Richards – Beagle
Alzner – Niskanen
Orpik – Orlov
Weber – Schmidt
Holtby
Pat Does Radio Hits Now
On today's #CapsTalk Bruce Boudreau with @WaltonCaps @pfholden from @russianmachine @VogsCaps player interviews and your phone calls!
— Caps Radio 24/7 (@CapitalsRadio) March 7, 2016
RMNB’s Pat Holden will be on Caps Talk radio today at 4 PM. Also on the show: Bench Boss Bruce Boudreau himself. Please tune in.
Storylines
Playoff chances, West and East. pic.twitter.com/ou8d6BQFXd
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) March 6, 2016
- With 100 standings points, the Caps just might make the playoffs.
- Both of tonight’s coaches are elite af.
- Anaheim outranks the Caps in possession and special teams. I don’t think that has happened once this season.
- Matt “Night Night” Niskanen has been deadly on the PP lately.
- Steinbog speaks of #leadership.
- Kevin Klein is not happy with top-line TJ Oshie.
- Isabelle on the opportunity of the Caps’ late-season west coast trip.
- League expansion to Quebec City ain’t happening. OR IS IT?!
- Stephen Burch shared some ideas about the Caps’ outcomes this season.
rolling 25 gp sample of xGF% in all situations: pic.twitter.com/De6akDeAhO
— Stephen Burtch (@SteveBurtch) March 7, 2016
And again – it is insane how far off their xGF% TOR is… WSH and TOR are polar opposites this year.
— Stephen Burtch (@SteveBurtch) March 7, 2016
Justin Williams shooting 12.5%, career 9.5%. Chimera shooting 12.8%, career 9.0%.
— Stephen Burtch (@SteveBurtch) March 7, 2016
Backstrom 16.2%, career 11.7%. Johansson 14.6%, career 13.1%… That's a lot of guys posting high sh% numbers at once.
— Stephen Burtch (@SteveBurtch) March 7, 2016
Destructive Copies
CGP Grey has a video on the disturbing problem at the heart of Star Trek. The Tom Riker episode (“Second Chances“, S06E24) is the best proof that we’re not moving people so much as creating new people who think they’re the old people, who are now dead.
Pull quote: “Your bed might be a suicide machine.”
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