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Caps vs Flyers Pregame: It Begins

By Peter Hassett (@peterhassett) on April 14, 2016 | 0 Comment

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Photo: Chris Gordon

Pitter-patter, let’s get at ‘er. The regular season is over and now the real dance begins.

At 7 PM tonight, the Capitals and the Flyers will face off at Verizon Center (or on CSN-DC).

You’ve been waiting for this since last May, and now it’s here. Crash the net.

Team Record Possession PDO Power Play Penalty Kill
Washington Capitals 56-18-8 52.0% 101.1 21.9% (5th) 85.2% (2nd)
Philadelphia Flyers 41-27-14 50.1% 100.5 18.9% (11th) 80.5% (20th)

Projected Lineup

Judging by this week’s practice and assuming everyone’s healthy, here are the lines from Katie Brown. Get pumped.

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Oshie
Burakovsky – Kuznetsov – Williams
Chimera – Richards – Johansson
Winnik – Beagle – Wilson

Orpik – Carlson
Alzner – Niskanen
Schmidt – Orlov

Holtby

Pictorially,

ovehckinbackstrom  oshie

burakovskykuznetsovwilliams

chimerarichardsjohansson

winnikbeaglewilson

orpikcarlson

alznerniskanen

schmidtorlov

holtby

Sizing Up the Flyers

Pat and Spenser laid it out for us.

  • At 5v5, the Flyers finished hot while the Caps had a late-season swoon.
  • Special teams might be where the Caps can wrest control of this series. (The analysis in here is amazing btw.)
  • Goaltending might seem like a big Caps advantage, but it’s really not.

At least the Caps have all the Skintangibles.

Storylines

  • There’s a lot more, but just check out Japers’ links. I’m already exhausted.
  • And, if you’re at VC, be prepared for mups mups mups

The Bandwagon

All aboooooooooard!

Finally

This has been the best regular season in Caps’ franchise history. Just two years after the team’s nadir, they’re back to being great and poised to make noise in the second season.

2015-16: It’s been real. It’s been fun. It’s been real fun.

Whatever happens next, this is my aesthetic:

CRASH THE NET.

Full RMNB Coverage of Game One

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