Per MoneyPuck, they have just a 33 percent chance of making the postseason. The Capitals are currently four points out of a possible playoff spot, with two possible paths to the postseason. The New York Islanders sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division with a game in hand on the Caps, while the Boston Bruins occupy the second wild card position with two games in hand on the Caps.
The US and Canadian women are headed for yet another gold-medal clash, Wilson is beloved by all people far and wide, and more in today's Caps Clips. Your savory breakfast links: The American women defeated Team Sweden 5-0 yesterday, and for the seventh time in Olympic history will face Team Canada in the gold medal game on Thursday. [AP, NPR, Olympics] Meanwhile, after earning first-round byes, the US and Canadian (and Slovakian and Finnish) men will have to wait until the end of today's games to see who they'll face in the quarterfinals. [Olympics]
Pierre-Luc Dubois will play for the first time since October after core surgery. Logan Thompson is also back after missing the last four due to an upper-body injury. He'll start in goal and oppose the Predators' Justus Annunen on the other side. Puck drop for today's game is scheduled for a little after 7:00 pm. Today's game is on Monumental Sports Network. Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin have the call.
📸: Alan Dobbins/RMNB While the Washington Capitals are getting two major players back from injury, they'll be without one of their depth forwards against the Nashville Predators. Sonny Milano missed the team's morning skate and will not be available to play. Carbery revealed the news after being asked about Milano by NHL.com's Tom Gulitti. Tom Gulitti: I know it was an optional, but Sonny wasn't out there. Is he okay? Spencer Carbery: He's okay.... He's a....Yeah, he's okay.
Against one of the typically top five-on-five teams in the NHL, the Capitals put together what was one of their best games of the season. While that may be hard to believe considering they were down 3-0 at one point in the game, the Caps were never behind the eight ball analytically throughout regulation, finishing on top in shot attempts 64-48, shots on goal 33-20, scoring chances 33-18, high-danger chances 16-8, and expected goals 3.8-2.28.
After a pretty brutal road trip (that at least had a decent ending), the NHL schedulers didn't give the Caps any breaks, hitting them with a Saturday night bout against the Carolina Hurricanes as a "welcome home" present. That's a tough task on any night; on this night, the Caps went into it minus both their goalies, half of their top-four defensemen, and Connor McMichael.
