The Caps’ season-long homestand continues tonight as the Florida Panthers come to town. The Panthers have all but given up on a playoff run this season and appear to be gearing up for a ton of activity in free agency (courting Panarin and Bobrovsky maybe?), but that doesn’t mean the Caps can count them out.

The game begins at 7 PM on NBCS Washington. Stream that badboy using the My Teams app. The divine Ms. Elyse will write about the game for you.

Record	22-22-8	30-18-6
Shot Attempt %	50.1%	48.6%
PDO	97.4	101.8
Power Play	27.1% (2nd)	21.1% (12th)
Penalty Kill	81.5% (11th)	78.4% (23rd)

Projected Lines

By way of Izzy, here’s a newly healthy and complete Caps lineup. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is their ideal playoff lineup, barring trades and injuries:

Ovechkin – Backstrom – Oshie
Vrana – Kuznetsov – Wilson
Burakovsky – Eller – Connolly
Jaskin – Dowd – Boyd

Kempny – Carlson
Orlov – Niskanen
Orpik – Djoos

Holtby

The Kuznetsov Thing

Evgeny Kuznetsov has improved a bunch since the early part of the season, when he was paired with Ovechkin. pic.twitter.com/OVwXtP2xk9

— Good Tweet Pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) February 8, 2019

Evgeny Kuznetsov has had a wild season since he got all that Conn Smythe buzz last summer. He scored at will on special teams for a few weeks but has been nearly shut out during five-on-five play. He was atrocious on the forecheck and seemed to forego entirely the puck battles we’d expected him to contest and win last year. But he has made improvements — especially in the last month. Those improvements were sort of obscured by some big but isolated mistakes, like the slingshot pass turnover that led to a three-on-none breakaway during the slump. I made a lot of noise about getting Kuznetsov more support down the stretch, but another way for the team to get better would be if Kuzy himself just decided to play awesome again. Maybe he’s doing that already, and he’s just waiting for us to notice.

Storylines

• Christian Djoos is no longer restrained. Siegenthaler back to Hershey, bummer.
• Michal Kempny got banged up, but he’s okay.
• Tom Wilson hurt Ian Cole. Someone ask Jim Rutherford about it.
• Kuzy is a h*cking pottymouth.
• Burakovsky scored; he’s on the third line today. It’s his birthday today. He is, I think, 12. I have not checked.
• It’s a milestone game for Lou.

Looks like Roberto Luongo will start in goal for Panthers against Capitals.
Will be Luongo’s 1000th career start.

Braden Holtby will start for the Caps.

— Chris Kuc (@ChrisKuc) February 9, 2019

Peter’s Esports corner

Overwatch League season 2 kicks off this week, and I’m psyched. The league has expanded, adding teams in Paris, Vancouver, DC, and a bunch more in China. The meta game seems to be quietly evolving, and I expect it’ll take a few weeks before we settle into a new normal. There’s a bunch of countdown events happening this weekend.

Dude, we're finally watching Flow3r in OWL. This rules. https://t.co/MoJlBexzD2

— Good Tweet Pete 🌮 (@peterhassett) February 9, 2019

My preferred team, the LA Valiant, are bringing back most of their season 1 roster (au revoir, Soon), and I’m excited to see how they balance their damage personnel among KSF, Iziyaki, Agilities, Bunny, and even Kariv (I hear). I could write literally anything here and no one would notice because no one reads my esports stuff. Purple monkey dishwasher underpants european swallow mulligatawny alabaster.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Panthers

Headline photo: Patrick McDermott