We’ve got one more date before we put a bow on Twenty Semin-teen. Tonight the Caps (49 standings points) host the Devils (50 standings points) with the top of the Metro Division on the line. It’s Marcus Johansson’s first game back at what used to be called Verizon Center since he was salary-dumped this summer.

The action starts at 7 PM back on NBCSWA. The esteemed Chris Cerullo will be your guide for the proceedings.

Record	22-9-6	23-13-3
Shot Attempt %	47.8%	48.5%
PDO	101.0	101.9
Power Play	21.4%	19.0%
Penalty Kill	84.0%	80.1%

Projected Lines

Trotz is running with what won against Boston. By way of WaPo’s Isabelle Khurshudyan.

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

Orlov – Niskanen
Djoos – Carlson
Orpik – Chorney

Holtby

Caps Raffle

Pat has an awesome Caps raffle he’s going to tell you about

Hey, everyone. Periodically my family does Caps raffles to support the Michael J. Fox foundation to raise money for Parkinson’s research. My 10-year-old niece Kate is running in the Disney 5K to raise money for Team Fox. Her motivation for doing this is that her Gram (my Mom) was diagnosed with Parkinson’s about six years ago.

Here’s the info on the latest raffle:

• Raffle will include a single ticket to two Caps games next month. Check out how awesome the seats are:
  1/18/18 7:30 PM Montreal Canadiens Section 114, Row F, Seat 3
  1/21/18 12:30 PM Philadelphia Flyers Section 114, Row F, Seat 3
• Raffle tickets are $5 or six for $25
• To enter, e-mail hendrii@verizon.net. Please put “Caps Raffle” in the title. You should hear back within 24 hours.
• The drawing will be held on January 6th. All details on the drawing will be sent to you after you enter the raffle

If you have any other questions, feel free to drop them in the comments or reach out to me on Twitter.

Tweet of the Year

BREAKING: I found audio of the Capitals players-only meeting after Game 2. Here is the transcript. Damning stuff. pic.twitter.com/sg9nIWB4Jx

— DL (@davelozo) May 2, 2017

It’s not up for debate.

Storylines

• Andre Burakovsky is a healthy scratch. Madison Bowey joins him.
• Marcus Johansson spoke to the press about his return to DC.
• Barry Trotz says his team passes us up low-quality shots to get more high-danger shots. The numbers do not bear that out.
• Peter and Ed Frankovic did a podcast and did not disagree about as much as we thought they would.
• It seems that Chris Bourque is going to the Olympics.
• USA beat Canada at the WJC in a beautiful game. Cara collected the must-see moments.
• Bruce Boudreau got hit by a puck and had to bail on a game. He didn’t miss a shift because he doesn’t play shifts.
• Japers Rink breaks down the big numbers of 2017.

Programming note: the Sunday Snapshot will be tardy while I’m off the grid this weekend, putting this miserable year behind me and plotting new schemes to hatch in 2018.

Favorites of 2017

As much as this year has been a festival of depredation and cruelty, there’s been some good stuff too. We spent the last month of pregames sharing some of our faves. Here’s them collected.

• Manhunt: Unabomber (TV) – Elyse
• Whatever this is. – Pat
• William Osman (YouTube) – CFTC
• 17776 by Jon Bois (Writing) – Peter
• Kids interrupt TV interview – Elyse
• The Crown (Netflix) – Elyse
• Fortnite: Battle Royale (Video game) – CFTC
• Lady Bird (Movie) – Elyse
• Can You Please Not Help by Two Inch Astronaut (Music) – Peter

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Devils

Headline photo: Bruce Bennett