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.)
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Penguins
Share On