It’s going to be a weekend full of early afternoon games, kicking off today at noon thirty as the Caps visit the Philadelphia Flyers, who aren’t really trying anymore. The last time the Caps played a team that has sorta given up, they got washed by the Buffalo Sabres. So uh oh.
See you there at 12:30 pm. I’m Peter, my tweets are good, and I’ve got recap responsibilities.
 |
 |
|
|---|---|---|
| Record | 20-17-6 | 28-12-4 |
| Shot Attempt % | 50.4% | 49.6% |
| PDO | 97.7 | 102.6 |
| Power Play | 19.3% | 26.7% |
| Penalty Kill | 73.9% | 83.3% |
Projected Lines
Here’s how the Capitals lined up against the Sabres a few days ago. I’m gonna guess Vanecek starts (UPDATE: I’m wrong: Samsonov starts), though Samsonov is likely to be backup after a few days with an upper-body injuries.
Ovechkin – Kuznetsov – Wilson
Mantha – Backstrom – Oshie
Sheary – Eller – Sprong
Hagelin – Dowd – Hathaway
Orlov – Carlson
Dillon – Schultz
Chara – Jensen
Samsonov
The Season
| WSH | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOS | 🌮 | 🚽 | 🌮 | 🚽 | 🚽 | 🌮 | 4/18 | 5/11 |
| NJD | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 |
| PHI | 🚽 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 4/17 | 5/7 | 5/8 |
| NYI | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🚽 | 🚽 | 4/22 | 4/24 | 4/27 |
| PIT | 🤷 | 🤷 | 🚽 | 🌮 | 🤷 | 🌮 | 4/29 | 5/1 |
| NYR | 🚽 | 🚽 | 🌮 | 🚽 | 🌮 | 🚽 | 5/3 | 5/5 |
| BUF | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🤷 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🌮 | 🚽 |
Legend: 🌮 = win; 🚽 = loss; 🤷 = OTL
La Tortuga
Willians Astudillo is a swiss-army knife for the Minnesota Twins. Last night he pitched one inning. He threw six pitches. You need to see them all. It won’t take long.
Here is all 7 pitches in Willians Astudillo’s appearance pic.twitter.com/yThVXGSyOI
— CJ Fogler #BlackLivesMatter (@cjzero) April 17, 2021
Legend.
Storylines
- Goalie Ilya Samsonov has been out with an upper-body injury for a few days. Yesterday the Caps re-assigned Craig Anderson to the taxi squad, suggesting that Samsonov will be available — if not starting — today. UPDATE: Samsonov is starting.
- The Caps laid an egg against the Sabres. Our bit right now is calling the Sabres a powerhouse.
- Everyone loves Nicklas Backstrom. He played his thousandth game on Thursday night.
- Deadline pickup Anthony Mantha: two goals in two games.
- Meanwhile, Jakub Vrana scored in his first appearance with the Wings. We are very happy for him.
Pete’s Esports Corner
Overwatch League is back. Here are my power rankings, which are already wrong:
👑 Shanghai, San Fran
🔪 Philly, DC, LA Glads, Seoul
💪 Dallas, Atlanta, Chengdu, Florida, Seoul, Houston
🤷 Hangzhou, NYXL, Toronto, Guangzhou, Boston
🤢 Vancouver, London, Paris
💩💩💩 tier break 💩💩💩
⚰️ LA Valiant
My former fave team, the Valiant, have been through a tumultuous year, shedding pretty much all players and staff. They’ve moved to the Asia-Pacific region, screwed some signed players out of their deals, and gone radio silent on social media for a long time. I’m sure their players are nice, and they deserve no blame for the absolute s-show their organization has been, but I’m not feeling good about them.
Then again, my 💪 tier Chengdu Hunters struggled to stomp LAV in their opening match.
OWL is on all weekend on YouTube (in 4K, which is a resolution only my phone supports, so oh well).
RMNB Coverage of Caps at Flyers
Screenshot courtesy of NBC Sports Washington
