A late Valentine’s Day scrum is the perfect way to end your date night! The Capitals are on the West Coast playing the Sharks this evening. This is gonna be a tricky one for the Capitals, with the Sharks being the better team on paper, but it’s all about confidence. Or at least faking it until you make it. Stay positive.

Get a nap in, go for a jog, start the coffee machine, whatever you gotta do to stay awake because this puck is dropping at 10:30PM on NBCS Washington. Personally? That is WAY past my bedtime, so I’ll be streaming on my device from my bed on the My Teams app (you can too). Recap will be coming to you from our own lil’ night owl, Chris from the comments.

Record	34-16-7	31-19-7
Shot Attempt %	56.0%	48.4%
PDO	99.0	101.8
Power Play	24.1% (5th)	20.9% (14th)
Penalty Kill	82.3% (7th)	78.6% (23rd)

Projected Lines

Trusty gal Isabelle from the Washington Post has the Capitals expected lineup. Nothing crazy to flag:

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

Kempny – Carlson
Orlov – Niskanen
Orpik – Djoos

Holtby

The Plan

We are on game number two of this lengthy road trip and NBC4 Sports did a neat overview of the miles being covered on this trip!

ROAD WARRIORS: Tonight the @Capitals begin a 6 game, 12 day road trip that will cover over 5200 miles! Here’s a look at their longest continuous roady in more than 15 years #Capitals #ALLCAPS
(h/t map via @dckerNBC4) pic.twitter.com/abGr7huXfX

— NBC4 Sports (@NBC4Sports) February 13, 2019

Storylines

• Jamie Benn almost died the other day. Okay, I’m being dramatic, but he did get clotheslined by the ref.
• Gritty continues to be a true LGBTQ icon!!! Love is love, y’all.
• I don’t want to talk about what happened last game, but in case you need a refresher you can either read the numbers from the morning after or just take my advice. Forget it happened.
• Peter Hassett provided a post talking about what’s killin’ the Capitals at the moment. Spoiler alert, yes, it has something to do with goals.
• STANLEY. CUP. CHAMPIONSHIP. CHALK. TALK.
• The Ducks celebrated the Ducks. You know what I mean?
• The Capitals are supporting women’s hockey and some of the comments that the good ol’ boys say make me want to cry.

Valentine’s Day Deal

Reminder!!! If you need to grab a last minute gift or pick yourself up somethin’ nice for the holiday of ~luv~, you can get 20% off at the RMNB store!!!! Here is my favorite holiday card I’ve seen thus far to celebrate the day and the sale:

#HockeyValentines pic.twitter.com/7eN9AouNkw

— Namita (@nnstats) February 14, 2019

Please send me your favorite Valentine of the day.

Full RMNB Coverage of Caps at Sharks

Headline photo: Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images North America