Good morning. The NHL heard how much you and the Caps love matinee games, so here’s a matinee game. Good news is it’s against the San Jose Sharks, a team whose starting goalie is having an even rougher season than Holtby.
Game starts at 12:30 PM. I’m Peter, and I’ll be your host for the recap.
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 |
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|---|---|---|
| Record | 19-21-3 | 28-9-5 |
| Shot Attempt % | 47.7% | 52.1% |
| PDO | 97.2 | 100.5 |
| Power Play | 14.8% (27th) | 22.1% (11th) |
| Penalty Kill | 88.1% (1st) | 84.2% (3rd) |
Projected Lines
Holtby gets the start. Kuznetsov is iffy.
Ovechkin – Backstrom – Wilson
Vrana – Kuznetsov – Oshie
Hagelin – Eller – Panik
Leipsic – Dowd – Hathaway
Siegenthaler – Carlson
Orlov – Jensen
Kempny – Gudas
Holtby
Goalies!
We know Holtby’s having a rough start, but things could always be worse. Above, a Sean Tierney chart shared by @petbugs13, is how many goals each player has allowed compared to the number of goals we’d expected them to allow. (The color-coding is how bad the team’s defense is– purple is good). Holtby’s been baaaad, but those fellas at bottom have been absolutely disasters. Sergei Bobrovsky is singlehandedly destroying the market for 30-plus free-agent goalies.
Storylines
- Suck it. We did it.
- Evgeny Kuznetsov is sick. He’s a game-time decision.
- On Friday, he thinks we (the media) aren’t pumping Sammy’s tires enough.
- After all, he’s won his first eight road games. That’s pretty wild.
- That game against the Canes was a lot of fun.
- For example, Nic Dowd‘s move with Svech’s stick. Amazing.
- The Caps are the first team to hit 60 points.
- Ex-Cap Chandler Stephenson has had a good run with Vegas so far. He scored a huge OTGWG last night.
- The WJC is causing some tension (not really) in the locker room.
- Connor McMichael is still doing work at the tourney. Wow.
The Witcher
I’ve never played the video games, but my friend Spencer recommended I read the novels last year, so I did. I liked them more as they went on; The Last Wish was kinda clumsily translated. Now I’ve watched the TV series, and Dr. Girlfriend is starting to play Witcher 3 on Switch. I feel like her 2020 is going to be consumed with learning Signs and slaying striga.
So what did you make of the TV show? Devastating that they renamed Dandelion, right?
Full RMNB Coverage of Caps vs Sharks
Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong
