Tied at two wins apiece, the Capitals and Blue Jackets return to Washington for a tremendously important afternooner.
Can the Caps play a fifth as good as their fourth? How will Tortorella adjust to his team’s down performance at home? Can Braden Holtby continue his surprising resurgence? What will Tom Wilson get penalized for this time?
All these questions and more will be answered at 3 PM on NBC. I’m Peter, and I’ll be your recap host for the day.
The 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
The early game means no morning skate, which means here are the lines from Game Four, and we’ll assume Barry Trotz makes no changes, because of course he won’t. That was the best 60-minute I’ve seen from this team in months.
Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – Wilson
Stephenson – Backstrom – Oshie
Connolly – Eller – DSP
Vrana – Beagle -Chiasson
Orlov – Niskanen
Kempny – Carlson
Orpik – Djoos
Holtby
Tightening
The first round of the playoffs is my favorite two weeks and change of the year. Every night there’s at least one game of agonizing intensity. Except up until a couple days ago, the first round was kind of tame. The Sharks whipped the Ducks, the Knights whipped the Kings, and it looked like the Predators, Blue Jackets, Bruins, and Penguins were coasting to victories as well. But since about Wednesday, every remaining series has tightened up. It’s gonna be a good week to be a hockey fan.
Update: Apparently NHL.com is not a reliable source for NHL information. Winnipeg closed out the Wild last night.
Storylines
- Ovi called it.
- After game four, oops, sorry Game Four, John Tortorella chewed the scenery.
- No Dre unless the Caps win two games.
- The Pens-Flyers series is going deep too. Huge performance by Li’l Mikey Neuvirth to secure that W for Philly.
- I wasn’t able to watch Game Four when it happened. I did this morning. The Caps played good. Brendan’s recap was good. Elyse’s tweets were good.
- John Carlson is not a Norris finalist. Something tells me he’ll have an okay summer nonetheless.
- Bill Peters is no longer coach of the Hurricanes. Word on the street is he’ll be going to Calgary next.
“Minor Surgery”
That’s what they’re saying Andre Burakosky will have. Here’s what Emory’s veterinary website says minor surgery means:
Minor surgery is any invasive operative procedure in which only skin or mucus membranes and connective tissue is resected e.g. vascular cutdown for catheter placement, implanting pumps in subcutaneous tissue. [. . .] This category also includes biopsy, an invasive operative procedure for procurement of tissue samples or body fluids using a needle or trocar.
So we can be reasonably confident that, ahem, no organs were removed, no body cavities were entered, and that the, um, animal is expected to survive at least 24 hours. I don’t know why I used a vet website for this.
Anyway, if you wanna see your baby boy Andre again, your hockey boys are gonna have to win two of the next three.
Full Coverage of Game Five
Headline image: Jamie Sabau
