After a disappointing road trip, the Caps are back home at Verizon Center for five straight games. Tonight they’re matched up against salty Twitter user/long time rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins. Heading into tonight’s matchup, Coach Trotz has several lineup tweaks – though there’s no word yet on if #TopLineBeagle is back to being a #BottomLineBeagle. We can only hope.
Meanwhile, the Penguins come into tonight’s affair on three days rest after beating the tar out of the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-1 last Saturday. In contrast, this is the second game of another Caps’ back-to-back series. The flightless birds from Pittsburgh currently sit second in the Metropolitan division, two points above your Caps, and did some of that damage without Sidney Crosby to start the year. Sid The Kid is back though and has ten goals in 9 games. Tonight should be a barnburner.
Puck drop is at 7:30 on NBCSN. Pierre!
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 10-3-2 | 49.81% | 101.5 | 25.5% | 82.1% |
| Washington Capitals | 9-4-2 | 53.57% | 102.1 | 11.9% | 81.8% |
Projected Lines
Braden Holtby is back in the cage. Connolly and Schmidt are believed to be back in the lineup. Your guess is as good as mine about the rest.
Ovechkin – Beagle – Burakovsky
Johansson – Backstrom – Oshie
Sanford – Kuznetsov – Williams
Connolly – Eller – Wilson
Alzner – Niskanen
Orlov – Carlson
Orpik – Schmidt
Holtby
Our advice for the Capitals tonight
“TRAIN, SAY YOUR PRAYERS, EAT YOUR VITAMINS! BE TRUE TO YOURSELF, TRUE TO YOUR COUNTRY, BE A REAL AMERICAN!”
Storylines
- Peter wrote about Alex Ovechkin getting less ice time last night than he ever did under Dale Hunter.
- Nathan has your numbers for the morning after – a slow and boring night in Columbus.
- The Red Rockers were joined by a guest from the late Cretaceous period.
- Whoever runs the Penguins Twitter account thinks they’re really funny. Breaking news: they aren’t.
- Related: Buy this shirt.
- You know it, I know it, they know it. The Caps are having a hard time finding the back of the net on a consistent basis. They’re in the bottom half of the league when it comes to goals per game and have only scored 5 goals in their last 4 games.
- At least Nicklas Backstrom showed up to play last night.
- On this date in 1993, the Whalers named Pierre McGuire head coach.
- Related: Buy this shirt.
Melting
Do you have an hour to kill and like to watch things melt?
If you answered yes to both of those things, then I have the video for you.
The NHL and the Olympics
News came out today that the NHL is offering the players the ability to compete in the next winter Olympics in exchange for an unknown extension of years on the current CBA.
A poker game starts now as the NHLPA has to figure out if the NHL is actually serious about not letting players go to Seoul in 2018 if this deal is not accepted. What’s your take?
RMNB’s ugly sweater
Our fugly holiday sweater is here. Help Pat buy that new pair of moccasins he’s always wanted.
Headline photo by Nick Wass
