I hope you had a perfect Thanksgiving Thursday. I hope you were well fed and surrounded by people who love you. I was both, but still yet I am unsatisfied. Still yet I hunger. The only succor I need is Washington Capitals hockey, which is precisely what I’ll get this afternoon as the Caps host Mike Green and his Detroit Red Wings, a not-so-great team who have had some good goaltending of late. Can the Caps keep their three-game win streak going?
I think so, but we’ll have to find out together at 4 PM. Tune your set to NBCSWA or follow along with the stream. Good ol’ Chris Cerullo has recap duty.
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|---|---|---|
| Record | 10-9-2 | 11-7-3 |
| Shot Attempt % | 46.0% | 47.8% |
| PDO | 100.3 | 101.8 |
| Power Play | 22.4% | 29.8% |
| Penalty Kill | 81.6% | 74.4% |
Projected Lines
Because it’s a relatively early game, there will be no morning skate. Here’s how the folks lined up against Chicago before the holiday.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Wilson
Vrana – Eller – Connolly
Burakovsky – Boyd – DSP
Jaskin – Dowd – Stephenson
Kempny – Carlson
Orlov – Niskanen
Djoos – Bowey
Holtby
RMNB Ugly Holiday Sweaters!
They’re so ugly, they’re pretty.
Storylines
- Andre just needed Tommy back. Now he’s his old self again.
- The Caps don’t have a penalty kill problem. The Caps have a penalty problem.
- What’s working and what’s not with Caps lineups so far.
- Primo mites on ice action from Wednesday night.
- Lars Eller scored the game-winner against Montreal, and then Michal Kempny scored the game-winner against Chicago. Feels vindictive against their exes, and I’m extremely here for it.
- Quite unlike Tom Wilson to make a dramatic thing out of his return to Capital One Arena.
- The Senators have traded trash-talking D-man Chris Wideman to the Oilers for a trash pick. Meanwhile the Sens’ new arena deal is “in peril.” So pretty much the usual in Ottawa.
How’s Mike Green Doing?
Not great! Green’s missed some time this season due to a weird virus, so he’s only got one goal. His eight assists aren’t too shabby, and I think he’s shooting a bit cold. Still, it’ll be hard for him to get much production on a team that struggles to drive play. Green’s on-ice shot-attempt percentage is 48.0, which sounds bad, but it’s 2.5 points higher than his teammates see when he’s on the bench. Green’s no spring chicken at age 33, and he pretty much always misses 10 or more games a season, but for now he’s still filling a big role for Detroit, playing 21 minutes a night. His contract goes through next season, but I wonder if a lottery-bound team would consider moving him before spring comes.
