After a rather unimpressive road trip, the Capitals are back home and facing familiar opposition in the New York Islanders. The Caps will hope to bounce back from their shaky play in Canada by returning to Capital One Arena for this Metropolitan Division showdown.

Game is at 7 PM on NBCSWA. One half of the bedtime boys, Pat Holden will have your recap.

Record	7-4-1	5-6-1
Shot Attempt %	50.2%	48.3%
PDO	104.3	101.5
Power Play	16.3%	21.6%
Penalty Kill	77.5%	76.5%

Projected Lines

Morning skate lines are from Isabelle at WaPo. Looks like our mate Nathan Walker is back in as well as Taylor Chorney. Braden Holtby also returns to man his cage.

Vrana – Backstrom – Oshie
Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – DSP
Stephenson – Eller – Wilson
Walker – Beagle – Chiasson

Djoos – Carlson
Orpik – Bowey
Orlov – Chorney

Holtby

Killing In The Name

Some of you might know that this ole song here dropped 25 years ago today.

Storylines

• Liam O’Brien is up from Hershey as the Capitals returned Anthony Peluso to the Bears. LOB, otherwise known as the Dodgers gameplan in Game Seven last night.
• Marcus Johansson had a scary head first collision with the boards and was forced to leave the game. He did skate off on his own power.
• Even Google is inadvertently making fun of the Buffalo Sabres.
• Hershey is finally getting healthy in net.
• Braden Holtby – “We’re not Ernest Hemingway out there.”
• Nicklas Backstrom is starting his one-year-old son early. Look out for the mid 2030s and the debut of Vince Backstrom.
• The Caps are so great with Make-A-Wish and wish recipient Dariush Namin got to have his awesome day at a Caps practice.
• Mr. Ovechkin this is very un-hundo.

WWE

It is my goal to force all of you to watch some WWE when I do pregames. Here’s a promo from their best show, NXT.

Full Coverage of Caps vs Islanders

Headline photo: Patrick McDermott