It’s a secret to everybody that tonight’s foes, the Philadelphia Flyers, are currently outside the playoff picture. Trailing the Islanders by four points purely based on the overtime-loss point, the Flyers look bound for that miserable spot: no postseason and no lottery ticket.
Unless they go on a run, which they’ll try to do tonight at Verizon Center, 7:30 PM on CSN. Until then, let’s all play Nintendo.
| Team | Record | SA% | PDO | Power Play | Penalty Kill |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Washington Capitals | 43-13-7 | 52.8% | 103.7 | 22.0% (6th) | 84.4% (6th) |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 30-26-7 | 50.7% | 99.1 | 21.4% (10th) | 81.6% (13th) |
Projected Lines
Hey, listen! Oshie’s back, and Schmidt is out. Here’s how they line up from Isabelle.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Oshie
Johansson – Kuznetsov – Williams
Connolly – Eller – Vrana
Winnik – Beagle – Wilson
Alzner – Carlson
Orlov – Niskanen
Orpik – Shattenkirk
Holtby
Playoff Matchups
Micah of hockeyviz.com has a neat-o way to visualize Washington’s potential first round playoff opponent. Looks like we’ve got a date with the Islanders again. (But, man, how cool would it be to watch the Caps play a handful of ex-Caps in Toronto?)
You can join me in supporting Micah’s work on Patreon.
Storylines
- The Caps look to extend a franchise-record 14-game win streak at home.
- Scary stuff last night with returned Caps farm goaltender Pheonix Copley in Hershey, but he should be better soon.
- Good news on the injury beat: TJ Oshie is back. And desert-flower-in-full-bloom Andre Burakovsky got his cast off. Everything’s coming up Caps.
- The Caps vs Devil game was horrible, but I’m amazed at how Nathan S. mined a solid analysis out of it. Whatever sport it is that New Jersey plays, it’s not hockey.
- Ovi spent last night delivering pizza. I spent last night watching Logan. It’s good, go see it.
- The Schmidtuation… is bad, but dude’s still smiling.
- Good writers the Washington Post has got.
The Breath of the Wild
I’m currently faking a knee injury (don’t tell) so that Aileen won’t give me a hard time for skipping exercise and spending all day playing the new Zelda. Have any RMNBers played it yet? Any early reviews? Are there wizzrobes and darknuts? (I ask because, as you may have heard, I recently beat the second quest of the original Legend of Zelda, and yes, I will accept your congratulations in the comments.)
