Photo: USA Today
The Caps visit Chris Pronger and the Arizona Coyotes tonight. Pronger, once one of the NHL’s most feared and effective defensemen, has had a suspiciously quiet career since being traded to Arizona in January of 2015. It’s almost as if he’s not playing for them at all, his trade to Arizona was some sort of cap tomfoolery, and he’s now employed by the NHL while still on the Coyotes payroll.
Anyways, the Coyotes aren’t very good. I’ll be rooting for the Caps to light up Coyotes goalie Mike Smith, which would be good for obvious reasons but also because the dude I’m playing in my fantasy hockey championship has Smith on his team.
Reminder: This is a 10pm game and it’s on CSN.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Washington Capitals | 55-16-6 | 51.8% | 101.3 | 23.0% (2nd) | 84.3% (5th) |
| Arizona Coyotes | 34-36-7 | 46.6% | 100.6 | 18.7% (17th) | 77.8% (27th) |
Projected Lineup
Just a guess that the lineup will remain the same except for in goal. We’ll know more if Trotz speaks to the media this evening before the game.
Ovechkin – Johansson – Oshie
Burakovsky – Kuznetsov – Williams
Chimera – Beagle – Wilson
Winnik – Richards – Galiev
Schmidt – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Orpik – Orlov
Grubauer
Coyotes to Watch
You may find this hard to believe, but not everything about the Coyotes hockey team is completely insufferable. They actually have some players that are exciting to watch. The two to keep an eye on are young forwards Max Domi and Anthony Duclair.
For context, here’s how their points per 60 production this season compares to a couple young Caps players:
Here’s an example of what can happen when these two team up:
Storylines
- With Friday’s victory over Colorado, the Caps set a franchise record in wins.
- That beard tho.
- Regardless of whatever “well, actually” explanation someone might have about the need to keep your head up or the fact that the hit was clean, I just hope Nikita Zadarov, the human being, is okay after getting drilled by Tom Wilson.
- If you think the Caps are good…perhaps you’ll enjoy this read.
- My friend Adam Stringham was on Caps radio earlier this week.
- Don’t look now, but Braden Holtby might be starting to resemble the guy who played at an MVP-level for the first half of the season.
- Two years ago today.
Seriously, Are You Coming to Party With Us?
Head over to the event page and let us know if you’re coming. This is your chance to let Peter know how wrong he is about Oshie or get a photo with Ian in which he’ll give his trademarked thumbs up.
