This evening’s foe, the Pittsburgh Penguins, played yesterday, defeating the Flyers’ 4-1. A tired Penguins team might imply good things for Sunday’s game, but Pittsburgh star Sidney Crosby played just 19:56 on Saturday– the first time he’s ducked under 20 minutes since Evgeni Malkin went out with injury a week ago.
Don’t believe the hype. The Penguins have rebounded since canning Mike Johnston, and they’ve been genuinely fearsome since the trade deadline. This will be a tough game.
Puck drop is at 6 PM on NBC Sports.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 51-14-5 | 51.3% | 101.8 | 23.2% (1st) | 84.1% (4th) |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 39-24-8 | 52.5% | 100.4 | 17.8% (19th) | 83.8% (6th) |
Projected Lineup
No morning skate, but here’s how they looked against the Predators:
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Beagle
Burakovsky – Kuznetsov – Oshie
Chimera – Johansson – Williams
Winnick – Richards – Wilson
Alzner – Niskanen
Orpik – Orlov
Schmidt – Chorney
Holtby
The Playoff Picture
From the great hockeyviz.com, the Caps are likely to play the Philadelphia Flyers in the first round. Neuvirth vs Holtby: your thoughts? (Assuming Mikey is fit to play.)
The Eagle has Landed
Err.. the second one’s been born, I mean. Here’s the live cam.
Storylines
- Evgeni Malkin is going to be out for a long while. And yet…
- Since the trade deadline, the Penguins have had the best 5v5 shot-attempt differential.
Three worst possession teams since the trade deadline: Rangers, Islanders, Devils.
Penguins are first.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) March 20, 2016
- The Capitals are 18th, with 48.2 percent.
- Pat thinks Justin William is bacon bits. (That means he makes everything better.)
- Amanda has some gorgeous photos of the Caps’ win over the Predators.
- Adam Oates is on twitter. I hold grudges.
- Holtby is gonna score a goal one day, but for now he’ll have to settle for this assist.
- Deadspin has a piece about Kevin Spacey and the Panthers love fest. Good to read before that whole company goes bankrupt.
- There’s a lot more in Japers Rink’s Caps Clips.
- TJ Oshie cute fest on TV tonight:
Watch Capitals Central @CSNMA at 10:30 p.m. for @JillCSN's piece on #Caps T.J. Oshie's experiences with fatherhood. pic.twitter.com/p82H8UCmkO
— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) March 20, 2016
#RMNB9: O RLY?
Please come. It’ll be weird if it’s just me and Ian arguing about Tom Wilson all night. (p.s. Nathan made the GIF and he’s very very proud of it.)
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