Prom king Andre Burakovsky celebrates

Game One between the Penguins and Capitals was tense and physical. It took solid goaltending (a .933 from Braden Holtby) and TJ Oshie’s hat trick to get the win. The Caps cannot depend on that again tonight, so let’s look for some production from Alex Ovechkin and a better game from the second line.

Capitals lead the series 1-0.

Puck drops at Verizon Center at 8 PM. Game’s on NBC Sports, Emrick announcing. I’ve got recap duties here.

The New Trash Talk

Yesterday we had a long and thoughtful discussion about how to balance the rivalries that make sports fun with conduct that doesn’t discourage huge groups of people from getting involved. One suggestion from that conversation was a new generation of trash talk that is so off the wall that it is also completely bewildering. For example:

• Pittsburgh cuisine does not have an sufficient selection of leafy greens or other fiber-rich roughage necessary for a healthy digestive tract!
• Phil Kessel eats celery off his friends’ plate of hot wings even though his friends need that celery to cool their mouths after eating hot wings!
• Kris Letang is a chronic overtipper!
• Nick Bonino requests antibiotics from his primary care physician when he has a cold, which is viral and therefore unaffected by antibiotics!
• Sidney Crosby uses Thunder Stone right away, he has no idea how to power level his Pokemon!

Projected Lineup

We may or may not have drastic changes to the defense. Lines via Katie.

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

Orpik – Carlson
Weber – Niskanen
Chorney – Schmidt

Holtby

Here are the Pens forward lines, not formatted with line breaks, from Stephen Whyno.

#Pens lines the same: Sheary-Crosby-Hornqvist, Kunitz-Malkin-Fehr, Hagelin-Bonino-Kessel, Kuhnhackl-Cullen-Rust.

— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) April 28, 2016

No More “It’s Gonna Be May”

Can we not?

Everybody… It is ACTUALLY GONNA BE MAY!#canyoumemeyourself

Probably not, right?

— Justin Timberlake (@jtimberlake) April 29, 2016

That joke is totally played out, you guys.

Storylines

• The defensive pairings have been shaken up. Probably. Dmitry Orlov may or may not be benched tonight based on his play from Thursday. Karl Alzner took a maintenance day but should play. We don’t know because Barry won’t talk lineups in the playoffs.
• TJ Oshie scored a hat trick and won Game One, but more importantly, he scored 30 goals finally.
• …Or did he!
• The Caps PP has been lacking since game three of the Flyers series. Where are those “wrinkes” we were promised?
• Tom Wilson was fined the maximum allowable amount but will not be suspended for his knee-on-knee hit on Connor Sheary. Sheary will play tonight.
• Spenser did a video breakdown of every goal in game one, and it’s great.
• Jay Beagle‘s magnetism made him a star on Friday morning.
• Former Caps coach Bruce Boudreau was fired by the Ducks yesterday. No coach has a better win-loss record than BB since he entered the league. He’ll be hired before June. Calgary maybe?
• The Caps are giving away towels to fans tonight. As a former competitive swimmer, I attest that towels do not hurt when thrown, but please don’t anyway.
• I talked with Young Rising Sons on Thursday night for the podcast. It was fun.

Check out Beccah’s Caps Clips over at Japers Rink for more.

Oh, Screw It

It’s a classic for a reason.

Full RMNB Coverage of Game Two