Caps at Coyotes pregame: Desert Grubi

December 22, 2017 5:06 pm

The Caps visit Glendale, Arizona tonight to take on the Coyotes in a game of hockey sanctioned by the National Hockey League. The Coyotes, a franchise with alumni such as Chris Pronger and Pavel Datsyuk, have lost seven in a row. Their record on the season is 7-24-5 with an equally impressive minus-45 goal differential.

If you sit down to watch this game at 7 PM, you’ll be early. If you turn on NBSCW, you won’t find any hockey tonight. The game is at 9 PM on The Plus, AKA NBCSW+. The recap will be brought to you by CFTC.


Record	7-24-5	22-12-1
Shot Attempt %	45.9%	48.2%
PDO	96.9	102.3
Power Play	16.2%	20.2%
Penalty Kill	82.1%	79.0%

Projected Lines

Per Isabelle, Philipp Grubauer will tend the cage and Taylor Chorney will likely draw in for Madison Bowey, but Trotz wouldn’t confirm the latter.

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Wilson
Vrana – Kuznetsov – Oshie
Connolly – Eller – Burakovsky
Stephenson – Beagle – Chiasson

Orpik – Carlson
Orlov – Niskanen
Djoos – Chorney

Grubauer

The Full 60

The Full 60 podcast with Craig Custance has quickly become one of my favorite listens this hockey season. Back in November, Craig had Coyotes GM John Chayka on as his guest. It’s a fascinating listen, especially if you like content that peels back the curtain a bit on being a GM of a sports team.

Storylines

Barry Trotz trusts Chandler Stephenson.
In the latest episode of Talkin’ Schmidt, Peter examines whether the smiley defender is still good.
The Caps road crew took Nate Schmidt masks to the Golden Knights practice. Nate Schmidt took a picture with them.
Nathan Walker, a professional hockey player, needs to play hockey.
The third line might be coming alive.
According to Mike Emrick, Hershey was once a candidate for an NHL team.
Trotz to Alex Ovechkin: the ice is a no gliding zone, sir.
The Caps riffed on Love Actually, which is a good movie, and we’d like to see your best photoshop.

Favorites of 2017

My brother texted this to me the other day. I have no idea what the story is behind this craziness, but it was definitely one of my favorite texts I received in 2017.