up – Pittsburgh Penguins(13-7-1) @ Washington Capitals (12-8-1 ) Road/Home records – 4-5-0-------------- 8-3-0 TV –NBCSN Puck drop - 8:00 PM ET Season series:0-0 Last 10: 6-4-0 (PIT) and 7-2-1 (WSH) Projected starting goalies –Marc-Andre Fluery (PIT) Braden Holtby (WSH)– Confirmed Goals for/against per game: Pittsburgh: 2.76(12th) and2.29 (9) Washington: 3.05 (7th) and 2.76 (19th) Power play/Penalty Kill: Pittsburgh-20% (12th) and 84.2% (9th) Washington- 24.4% (2nd) and 86.9% (2nd)
Tonight marks one of the best rivalries in the NHL while showcasing some of the top talent in the league as well. Coming into tonight, the Penguins hold a 1-point lead for the top spot in the Metropolitan over the Caps. Despite early season woes for the Caps, they have found their stride and continue to be successful in the special teams. In addition, the Caps are “Red… hot at home, boasting an 8-3-0 record when playing in the Verizon Center. The three loses they have had were all during the beginning of the season and within a week of each other, starting on October 10th and ending with a 2-0 loss to the Rangers on October 16th. Since then, the Caps have gone over a month since their last loss on home ice and haven’t been beaten in November in DC. Also, the Caps are coming into tonight protecting a three game winning streak and will be looking to defend not just their home ice, but the winning streak. The key for the Caps tonight will come down to how strong their young and inexperienced defensive core can be.
Looking at the Caps first 21 games, they haven’t played many games against teams that have guys the caliber of Crosby, Malkin and Letang. This is not to say that they haven’t played strong competition, however, individuals like those three listed have the ability to be game-changers by their individual performances on any given night. Playing solid in the defensive zone will be imperative this evening for the Caps, as the Penguins are a team that transitions very quickly and is very dangerous . The ability to clear the zone and not have turnovers will ensure that the Caps are not hurt by the Penguins strong fore-check which is very capable of scoring off forced turnovers. The Caps defense this season has been getting decimated by injuries (Green, Erskine and Hillen)which has left a lot of opportunities for younger guys. At the beginning of the season, the revolving door on defenders left the Caps goaltending out to try while giving up multiple high scoring chances a game. Tyson Strachan brings good experience as he has been used a depth defender in the NHL when needed the past few seasons, however, he isn’t what one would consider reliable or solid. Urbom, Schmidt and Olesky have all improved drastically as they continue to get consistent playing time at the NHL caliber. However, top notch players like Malkin and Crosby haven’t been seen by them too much, so it will be interesting to see how they adjust to playing against players of this caliber.
Offensively, the Caps continue to produce solid numbers since Coach Oates changed the lines-up when Ovie went down for a couple of games. The combinations seem to create three lines which all have versatile speed and a physical presence. The Penguins defensive unit also has a good combinations of size (Orpik) and speed (Martin and Letang). Given this, the Caps will be pushed hard this evening by a very solid Penguins defensive core.
One encouraging facet is that despite still being left out to dry at times, Braden Holtby has been playing much better than he started the season off at. In the past game, he stopped 45 of 46 shots putting in an absolutely stellar performance. In the last 6 games he has started, there is only one game that he has had under 35 shots. This illustrates that the Caps defense is still giving up a lot of shots, even if the scoring chances are becoming less. However, despite this Holtby has still had to be very solid when facing games with shots of 35+. Most notable, is the fact that of those 6 games, he has won 5 of them.
The Caps will have to play solid team hockey this evening, because individual efforts will not work against a dangerous Penguins team. Both teams are playing solid hockey so tonight should definitely be a fast-paced, physical battle.
Below are the projected lineups for both teams this evening. Thanks for the read and be sure to tune into the game this evening at 8:00 on NBCSN. Feel free to follow me on Twitter @BCASE30.
Washington:
Martin Erat– Nicklas Backstrom – Alex Ovechkin Brooks Laich – Marcus Johansson – Troy Brouwer Jason Chimera – Mikhail Grabovski – Joel Ward Aaron Volpatti – Michael Latta – Tom Wilson
John Carlson – Karl Alzner Nate Schmidt – Tyson Strachan Alexander Urbom – Steve Oleksy
Braden Holtby
Pittsburgh:
Chris Kunitz – Sidney Crosby – Beau Bennett Pascal Dupuis – Evgeni Malkin – James Neal Brian Gibbons – Brandon Sutter – Jussi Jokinen Tanner Glass – Joe Vitale – Craig Adams
Brooks Orpik – Paul Martin Olli Maatta – Kris Letang Matt Niskanen – Deryk Engelland
Marc-Andre Fleury