Gameday Preview – 12/22/2018 – Washington Capitals v. Ottawa Senators

Washington Capitals (21-10-3 45pts) v. Ottawa Senators (15-17-4 34pts)

 

Time: 7p EST

Station: NBC Sports Washington+, City, and SportsNet 360

 

Preview:

The Washington Capitals travel to Ottawa to take on the Senators in the final game of their back to back before going into the Holiday break. The Capitals are coming off of a hard fought 2-1 win over Buffalo at home will be looking for their second straight win, meanwhile the Senators are looking to bounce back from their game last night against the New Jersey Devils that saw them fall 5-2.

 

Washington Capitals:

Projected Lineup:

Alex Ovechkin — Nicklas Backstrom — T.J. Oshie

Jakub Vrana — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson

Andre Burakovsky — Lars Eller — Brett Connolly

Chandler Stephenson — Nic Dowd – Devante Smith-Pelly

Michal Kempny — John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov — Matt Niskanen

Jonas Siegenthaler — Madison Bowey

Pheonix Copley

Braden Holtby

Scratched: Dmitrij Jaskin, Travis Boyd, Tyler Lewington

Injured: Christian Djoos (leg), Brooks Orpik (knee)

 

Keys to the Game:

1. Stay Fresh

The Capitals will be playing in their second game of their back to back and will need to keep their legs fresh throughout the game. Short shifts and rolling all 4 lines and all 3 pairs will be key to that.

 

2. Stay out of the box

The Capitals are still taking too many penalties and it disrupts the flow of their game. The Capitals need to draw more penalties, and take fewer penalties.

 

Ottawa Senators:

Projected Lineup:

Chris Tierney — Matt Duchene — Mikkel Boedker

Brady Tkachuk — Colin White — Mark Stone

Ryan Dzingel — Zack Smith — Bobby Ryan

Magnus Paajarvi — Tom Pyatt

Thomas Chabot — Dylan DeMelo

Maxime Lajoie — Cody Ceci

Mark Borowiecki — Christian Jaros

Ben Harpur (D)

Craig Anderson

Mike McKenna

Scratched: Justin Falk, Nick Paul

Injured: Jean-Gabriel Pageau (Achilles)

 

Keys to the Game:

1. Play with motivation

The Senators are coming off of a 5-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils last night and will be home to take on the Capitals. The Senators need to feed off of their home crowd and play with motivation.

 

Next Up:

Washington (21-10-3 45pts) v. Carolina (14-14-5 33pts)

Ottawa (15-16-4 34pts) @ NY Islanders (17-13-4 38pts)