Tonight the Capitals start a two-game metro road trip in the Barclay’s Center against the New York Islanders. There has been a lot of talk about the surging Metro Division, and even the Islanders are getting in on the action by going 6-3-1 in their last ten games. The Capitals have also been on the upswing with wins in four straight, and tonight they will look to make it five. That would tie their longest streak of the season to-date.
Puck drop is at 7:00pm EST on CSN.
| Team | Record | SA% | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
| New York Islanders | 11-11-5 | 45.5% | 100.3 | 14.6% | 83.0% |
| Washington Capitals | 17-7-3 | 53.4% | 101.9 | 17.0% | 83.3% |
Projected Lines
Due to fear of traffic, the Capitals elected to skip their morning skate.
Caps don't have a morning skate at Barclays today. Why? Barry Trotz called NYC traffic "a box of chocolates."
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 13, 2016
Per Mike Vogel, Andre Burakovsky is out, which means Brett Connolly will likely get a jersey.
Johansson – Backstrom – Oshie
Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – Williams
Connolly – Eller – Vrana
Winnik – Beagle – Wilson
Alzner – Carlson
Orlov – Niskanen
Orpik – Schmidt
Holtby
Outshot but not outscored
About a third of the way through the season and the Islanders have steadily been outshot at five-on-five. They are one of the worst possession teams in the league. But they’ve managed to scrape by with only a minus-three goal differential at five-on-five, to date. A key piece of their struggles is the much-discussed Andrew Ladd, who has only two points in December (one of which came in a 3-0 victory against the Capitals). Here are the Islanders cumulative shot attempt differentials and goal differentials so far:
Storylines
- RMNB was privileged enough to go behind the scenes on Ovi’s recent commercial for Papa John’s.
- …During which he displayed some of his superhuman puck juggling abilities.
- Earlier today we revealed our super serious picks for worst players in the NHL – stop by and weigh in.
- A Boston University announcer channeled a classic John Walton call and it went viral.
- The Metro is surging and the Caps are treading water.
Young Barry Trotz is young
Here’s @Capitals coach Barry Trotz in his heyday as captain of the 1982-83 Dauphin Kings that won provincials and the Anavet Cup. #Caps #NHL pic.twitter.com/Gsc4GxjG1o
— Ty Dilello (@TyDilello) December 13, 2016
That stache tho.
