Time: 7:00 P.M.
Place: Verizon Center, Washington D.C.
TV: Fox Sports Detroit
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket, 1270 AM
Capitals Blog: Japers’ Rink
Well, that sucked. The boys were thoroughly screwed over by the referees last game against the Jackets. A slash on Zetterberg that went uncalled lead to a Jackets OT-winner. But hey, such is life. The Wings played mostly pretty well against one of the top teams in the East and they’ll need an even better effort tonight against the NHL-leading Capitals.
In case you don’t know, Washington’s a scary-good team. Their GF% in all situations is sitting at a ridiculous 61%. At 5v5 it’s an even crazier 65%.
The Washington Capitals in graphs
The key markers are strong. PDO is running hot. GF% remains off the chart. This is a good and lucky team. pic.twitter.com/kZFFRN1Ny7
— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) February 6, 2017
As if things couldn’t get any worse for the Wings, the Caps are coming into this game on a hot streak. They’re 8-2-0 in their last 10 and have won 4 straight to boot. They’ve even won 10 games in a row at home. The only thing that this team doesn’t seem to be very good at is winning games in the shootout. They’re 1-4 there this season whereas the Wings are still a perfect 6-0, although we’ll be without shootout superstar Frans Nielsen for a second game. He’s eligible to come off IR for Sunday’s game in Columbus.
Needless to say, this game is huge for the Wings. After that game against the Jackets it’ll be telling to see how the Wings respond against an even-better Capitals team. This is also the first of three away from The Joe where we’ll be playing against the top 3 teams in the NHL. Winning 2 of these 3 games could be season-defining. It only gets harder from here on out.
The Expected Lineup
Washington’s Lineup
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Game Day Prediction Contest
Would you like to predict the outcome of the game and potentially become internet famous? Well you’re in luck, because here’s your opportunity. Here’s how it works.
Make your game predictions on the winning team, final score, and who the Wings player of the game will be. Enter the required information into the form below using the formats indicated in the questions. If you don’t use those formats, your answers will be disregarded. All submissions are timestamped and will be accepted only until the official game start time. All other submissions after that will be disregarded. Only one submission per person, please. POTG will be determined by the collective of WiiM writers.
Each correct winning team prediction is worth 1 point. Each correct player of the game prediction is worth 2 points. Each correct final score prediction is worth 5 points. If you get all three correct you’ll receive 15 points.
