Caps vs Blackhawks pregame: Never leaving home

December 6, 2017 5:10 pm

The Capitals are at home for their fourth game in a row. Tonight, they will be facing the not-so-hot Chicago Blackhawks who had a quick two-day break after playing five games in seven days. They walked away with a record of 1-2-2.

Maybe I’m about to jinx the game tonight, I don’t care, but I have been very excited to be a part of a world where the Blackhawks are considered meh. They’re hoping to make a comeback tonight, despite missing Corey Crawford who is out with a lower-body injury.

Speaking of injuries, the Capitals have some of their own that hopefully won’t affect tonight too much, but a gal can dream. TJ Oshie will not be in the lineup tonight after suffering from an upper-body injury last game. But, on the upside, Andre Burakovsky might be back before you can blink.

Game is at 8 PM on NBCSN this time, folks! Pat Holden will have your recap before you rest your eyes.


Record	12-10-5	16-11-1
Shot Attempt %	51.7%	47.8%
PDO	101.0	100.8
Power Play	16.1%	21.7%
Penalty Kill	84.4%	78.0%

Projected Lines

Couple little changes for you to keep an eye on including Andre Burakovsky is still out and so is TJ Oshie. Tarik El-Bashir from NBC has the lines:

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Wilson
Vrana – Kuznetsov – Chiasson
Connolly – Eller – Boyd
Stephenson – Beagle – DSP

Orlov – Niskanen
Orpik – Carlson
Djoos – Bowey

Holtby

Metro Boomin’

Yes, I agree, the Metro division is fun to watch. Especially when you’re not involved in the division and you’re not a constant ball of nerves thinking, “Yay we won a game!” to immediately thinking “Oh, so did the entire division. Again.”

Point projections over the past fortnight.

Two pacific teams fighting for a spot separated by 0.4 points.

Two central teams separated by 0.2 points.

Two atlantic teams separated by 0.1 points.

MMMMMMMMM pic.twitter.com/xDcLPab3Wf

— Micah Blake McCurdy (@IneffectiveMath) December 5, 2017

Storylines

The Washington Capitals are the 11th most valuable franchise in the NHL (according to Forbes). Crazily enough, the Washington Capitals are also the 1st most valuable franchise in my heart. According to me.
Peter DeBoer called Tom Wilson‘s fight with Joe Thornton ‘premeditated crap’ and ‘garbage’, but I’m thinking maybe Tom wanted to politely let Joe know it’s time to shave that beard.
Nobody should ever leave Evgeny Kuznetsov hangin’. EVER.
TJ Oshie? More like TJ Owwwchie because he’s “day-to-day” with an upper-body injury.
Can you believe the Capitals beat San Jose? At home? Me neither, but if you want to take a deeper dive into what the heck happened, you can! The morning after numbers are brought to you by Monsieur CFTC.
Brenden Dillon did indeed get suspended for one game because of that RUDE slash on Madison Bowey.
Russia has been banned from the Winter Olympics. Maybe Ovi isn’t as sad about not participating anymore? Maybe? Or the Russian Team was so sad without Ovi they disqualified themselves? Hm.
Speaking of Russia, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Alex Ovechkin spoke out about the whole banning situation.
Travis Boyd called his NHL debut a dream come true. No, YOU are crying.
Buzzfeed did a video of people trying to pronounce Alex Ovechkin‘s name and it didn’t go well. In fairness, I still call him “O-va-chicken” because I didn’t understand at first.
Apparently, Seattle might be announcing an NHL team soon. I don’t want an expansion draft, so I’m hoping we just relocate the Sabres or something.
Capitals prospect Axel Jonsson Fjällby (brownie points if you can pronounce that without googling) has been named to Sweden’s World Junior 2018 prelim roster! Yäy!
Dale Earnhardt Jr. dropped the puck at the Blue Jackets-Devils game. I don’t know anything about racing other than the fact they drink milk. I think.

Spotify’s Top

As I’m sure you’ve seen by now, Spotify has posted everyone’s top song played for 2017. I’m not going to share mine because it is a wild mess of Rosemary Clooney and the Rumjacks, but what I will share is something hysterical my fellow RMNB gal Cara shared.

They did this last year too, but Spotify revealed its users most embarrassing listening habits on massive billboards!!! They are all gold, but here are my two faves.