The Washington Capitals are running the gamut of New York City metropolitan area teams in the NHL of late as after their shootout loss to the New Jersey Devils they have two in a row on the road in New York against the Islanders and Rangers. It’s March Metro Division madness.

First up are the Islanders who sit seven points ahead of the Caps in the Eastern Conference. The Isles have won three games in a row and seven of their last ten. Former Caps assistant coach Lane Lambert is still behind the bench as their head coach.

You’ve probably noticed the title of this post and are wondering why it says “Open Thread” and not “live blog” and if that changes anything. The short answer is this will just be a one-game break from the constant updates that a live blog brings in the body of the post but we didn’t want to entirely strip away a place to comment as the game is going on. So, Open Thread was the answer.

Tonight’s game is on NBC Sports Washington. Puck drop is a little after 7:30 pm.

Links

• Garnet Hathaway scores his first with the Bruins and it’s a big one
• Dads’ Trip morning skate
• TVR is back for another three years
• Vincent Iorio sent back to Hershey
• Vitek Vanecek honored in his return to DC
• Connor Brown skates before practice
• Ovechkin bobblehead giveaway and pregame ceremony
• Lightning and Golden Knights line brawl
• Tatyana Ovechkina attends Capitals game
• Jakub Vrana’s first goal with the Blues
• Nate Wessel’s Make-A-Wish

Comment below. Let’s go Caps.