We’re back already? The Caps come into today’s 2nd half of a back-to-back against the Toronto Maple Leafs who have been off for two days. Lets hope that the extra rest does them no good.
The Caps and head coach Barry Trotz were able to roll all four lines against the Buffalo Sabres in a relatively easy victory last night and our Vezina Trophy winning goaltender is back in the cage.
However, Toronto is a young team that loves to get up and down the ice with pace and will willingly turn any game into a shootout, so tired legs especially on defense could be an issue. We’ll also get our first look at rookie phenom Auston Matthews, but hopefully he stays off the score sheet.
Puck drop is at 7:00 on CSN+ and your various streaming outlets.
| Team | Record | Possession | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 8-8-4 | 50.28% | 100.0 | 21.1% | 82.0% |
| Washington Capitals | 13-5-2 | 53.84% | 102.7 | 16.7% | 82.8% |
Projected Lines
Paul Carey is up from Hershey and Zach Sanford only played 6 and a half minutes last night. I think something may be up there, but nothing confirmed yet. Holtby back in net, Schmidt back in defense.
Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – Burakovsky
Johansson – Backstrom – Williams
Sanford – Beagle – Wilson
Winnik – Eller – Connolly
Alzner – Niskanen
Orlov – Carlson
Orpik – Schmidt
Holtby
Storylines
- Nathan has all the numbers that you need from last night’s 3-1 victory against the Buffalo Sabres.
- Australian hockey wonder child Nathan Walker scored twice in Hershey’s 5-2 win against the Springfield Thunderbirds (what a name).
- Good news: The Caps won’t be handcuffed by any no movement clauses in terms of protecting players for the expansion draft.
- Philipp Grubauer’s parents were in attendance to watch their son beat the Buffalo Sabres and grab the first star of the night.
- Brett Connolly got back in the goal scoring column against Buffalo, showing the offensive upside that the Caps know he has.
- A roundup on how some of the Caps prospects are doing in their respective leagues.
Merch
The RMNB merch sale is still going on through Cyber Monday. Get 15% off your entire order and get free shipping with the coupon code. We’ve also just released several new designs.
We also have a limited edition ugly sweater available through Tuesday.
Urban Exploration
I’m bored so I just watched these kids explore an abandoned prison. Pretty cool.
Headline photo by Graig Abel
