When: 7:00 Eastern
Where: Capital One Arena, Washington, DC
TV: BSD, NBCSW
Radio: 97.1 FM The Ticket  //  1270 AM
Capitals Blog: Japers’ Rink

Preview

It’s been a fun three days in the afterglow of the the Wings’ dominant 6-3 victory over Chicago, but now it’s back to work. They’re facing a far better team in the Washington Capitals tonight. The Caps are led by the silver wonder, Alex Ovechkin, once again. He is currently second in the scoring race as of this writing with a whopping 12 points in 6 games, but look out, Ovie, cause lil’ Bert is hot on your tail with 9 points in 5 games (good for 7th in the league.)

The Caps have fared surprisingly similarly to the Red Wings thus far this season. They lost a close one to the Flames, and also took an L on a one-goal difference with the Bolts. They’ve beat a quality Avalanche team and beat up on some weaker clubs. The only striking difference in their performance vs. Detroit is they lack a blowout like Detroit experiences against Montreal. Overall, this one should be a quality matchup.

Tonight you’ll be seeing more-or-less the same Capitals squad that has been a powerhouse for the past several years. Ovechkin and Backstrom still lead the way, with Hagelin, Oshie, and Kuznetsov as additional stalwarts up front. The backend is largely the same as well, with John Carlson still anchoring them.

Of course, familiar faces abound on the Caps, with Anthony Mantha, Nick Jensen, and Dennis Cholowski all on the roster. Hopefully they all get embarrassed. Or not. All three came off as nice guys and I can feel bad for the situation most ended up in. But not so badly that I don’t hope they all go -3 or more on the night.

All-in-all, tonight should be an exciting test for the Wings. Where do they land in the league right now? It’s hard to say, but after going up against a good Capitals team, we will have a clearer picture of where they fall.