Well, we have arrived at the base of the seemingly insurmountable mountain once more. We have said our goodbyes to the regular season and now must venture up towards the summit, battling despair, nausea, and heartache along the way to a hopeful date with Lord Stanley’s Cup.

The Capitals first test this postseason comes against a familiar Metro Division foe, the Columbus Blue Jackets. Both teams will enter the playoffs at almost full strength, with the Caps only missing Jay Beagle and the Jackets only missing Lukas Sedlak.

Puck drop is at 7:30 PM on the USA Network. Peter is back recapping playoff hockey.

Your final regular season stats:

Record	45-30-7	49-26-7
Shot Attempt %	51.7%	48.3%
PDO	100.3	101.7
Power Play	17.2%	22.5%
Penalty Kill	76.2%	80.3%

Projected Lines

By way of Isabelle, your expected lines for tonight:

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

Kempny – Carlson
Orlov – Niskanen
Orpik – Jerabek

Grubauer

Flyers goalie trouble

Bryz is here to save the day!

I’m ready whenever you are @NHLFlyers pic.twitter.com/YsMrslgB3T

— bryzgoalie30 (@bryzgoalie30) April 12, 2018

Storylines

• The Capitals have recalled goaltender Pheonix Copley, for insurance purposes.
• Lauren Oshie has designed some sweet new jackets for the Capitals players’ kids.
• Two keys to a Capitals series win against the Blue Jackets.
• The Blue Jackets mascot, Stinger must think he’s real clever.
• Artemi Panarin is going to be a problem for the Caps in this first round matchup.
• Peter has your latest episode of the RMNB Podcast and this one features a guest appearance from Katie Brown.
• If you’re going to Game One at Capital One Arena, you’re going to receive your very own red glow stick things. I got some last year, they’re pretty sweet.
• A very good doggo named Buster picked the Capitals to win the Stanley Cup. This is all the evidence I need.
• Jay Beagle will not be in the lineup for Game One as he is still nursing an upper-body injury.
• Pat wrote a really great piece sizing up how the Blue Jackets have looked this year playing at five-on-five.
• Peter, Ian, and Adrian, a coin did their annual playoff predictions. May Keith, a coin rest in peace.
• Caps center, Nicklas Backstrom thinks that things cannot get any worse for the Capitals in the playoffs when comparing this year’s campaign to previous ones.
• Philipp Grubauer will be your starting netminder for tonight’s Game One against the Blue Jackets.
• Braden Holtby responds to Grubauer being given the nod for Game One.

Time to bring this abomination back out

Your RMNB crowd sourced “playoff pump-up” playlist:

Lets hope we can all jam to some Bailamos later tonight.

Full Coverage of Caps vs Blue Jackets

Headline photo: Patrick McDermott