The Caps lost a valiant effort to the L.A. Kings on Thursday night. On Saturday they’ll try to right the ship of a very long homestand against the Columbus Blue Jackets, who now rule the roost of the Metro. It’ll be a goalie battle, with two of the league’s very best going head to head, except there will be like 180 feet between their heads.
The game’s at 7 PM on NBCSNWACHOAM, and CFTC will be your host for the evening.
​
 ![]() |
||
---|---|---|
Record | 17-8-1 | 14-11-1 |
Shot Attempt % | 53.0% | 48.1% |
PDO | 101.1 | 100.9 |
Power Play | 9.3% | 20.2% |
Penalty Kill | 84.8% | 77.8% |
Brett Connolly returns to service as Graovac sits. From the great Isabelle Khurshudyan:
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Wilson
Vrana – Kuznetsov – Oshie
Stephenson – Eller – Connolly
DSP – Beagle – Chiasson
Orlov – Niskanen
Orpik – Carlson
Djoos – Bowey
Holtby
With eight wins in their last ten games, the Blue Jackets have seized the Metropolitan Division lead from the New Jersey Devils. Driving the bus for the Blooj is their top line of Artemi Panarin, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Josh Anderson. They’ve only played together for the last two weeks or so, but they’ve been dominant – possessing about 65 percent of the on-ice shot attempts but only breaking even in goals due to some atrocious backup goaltending (86.2 percent recently). I expect Orlov and Niskanen to see a lot of this trio tonight, and I suspect they’re up to the assignment. But it’ll be tough with Sergei Bobrovsky in net, who has been superb so far this year.
5v5 save percentages so far this season. pic.twitter.com/SNGgoGfPZo
— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) December 1, 2017
Lars Eller on Bobrovsky: "He's very athletic. He can be out of position sometimes and he will do some acrobatic move where he still gets an arm out or he gets a leg out. I think his athletic ability is probably some of the best I've seen."
— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) December 2, 2017
Dan O’Rourke and Ranger Dan O’Halloran are your zebras for Caps-Blue Jackets tonight at 7 pm at Capital One Arena.
— Ed Frankovic (@EdFrankovic) December 2, 2017
I’m asking the RMNB folks to use this space at the bottom of pregames to share their faves of 2017 for the rest of the month. Hopefully you’ll share your faves with us too in comments.
I’ll start with my favorite album of 2017, Can You Please Not Help by Two Inch Astronaut.
I love so much about this band and this record. Producer J. Robbins (of Jawbox) has a deft but light touch on the sound, which lets the band explore their influences – including but not limited to some seminal DC guitar bands of the 1990s. If I were still 13 years old, I’d be a cult member for this band, but I’m an adult so instead I’m just enthralled by them, telling everyone I know to check them out.
So check them out.
Full Coverage of Caps vs Blue Jackets
Russian Machine Never Breaks is not associated with the Washington Capitals; Monumental Sports, the NHL, or its properties. Not even a little bit.
All original content on russianmachineneverbreaks.com is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)– unless otherwise stated or superseded by another license. You are free to share, copy, and remix this content so long as it is attributed, done for noncommercial purposes, and done so under a license similar to this one.
Share On