It is game number five for the Washington Capitals and New York Islanders series in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Caps avoided elimination on Tuesday night after a win, but the bad news is that they’re facing elimination again! The Isles are up in the series 3-1.

Just gotta take it one game at a time. Is it possible the Caps can make a wild comeback? Yeah. Are the odds pretty slim? Yeah, but there are odds! Always need to find the silver lining.

The puck drops at 8 PM and, as always, Peter Hassett will once welcome you back here with a recap. Let’s go Caps.

Record	35-23-10	41-20-8
Shot Attempt %	46.4%	51.8%
PDO	100.1	100.5
Power Play	17.3% (24th)	19.4% (17th)
Penalty Kill	80.7% (15th)	82.6% (6th)

Projected Lines

Nick Backstrom will once again be a game-time decision. Martin Fehervary will not be playing. As usual, we’ll see what the lines look like when we get closer to puck drop. In the meantime, here are the lines from Tuesday:

Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – Wilson
Vrana – Eller – Oshie
Hagelin – Pinho – Kovalchuk
Panik – Dowd – Hathaway

Dillon – Carlson
Orlov – Jensen
Siegenthaler – Gudas

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Storylines

• Alex Ovechkin: Always around in a big moment.
• Can someone let Matt Niskanen know you can’t just cross check people in the face?
• Evgeny Kuznetsov mic’d up is exactly as delightful as you think it would be.
• The Capitals signed a new goaltender! His name is Zach Fucale and he is on a one-year, two-way deal. Everyone say “Hiiii Zach!”
• The key to winning the last game? Evgeny Kuznetsov thinks it was because the boys simply…had some fun.
• If you missed the win from Tuesday night, Chris has the morning after numbers for you to peruse.
• Will we ever know the secret behind these weird goatees? Maybe one day, but right now? Absolutely not.
• Radko Gudas, hip check extraordinaire! 

Tik Tok Relief

Might I be able to interest you in this funny TikTok video I stumbled upon? Just for a quick chuckle while we’re all a big wound up ball of nerves.

PLEASE WATCH THE WHOLE THING pic.twitter.com/LwOCUsDWoi

— vision (@nhIfrost) August 19, 2020

Full RMNB Coverage of WSH/NYI Game Five

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB