Gameday: Pens at Caps

Verizon Center. 7 pm. ROOT. NHLN. 105.9 The X

The Penguins return home (kind of) from a long west coast road trip to start the beginning of what we're going to call, Rivalry Week. Tonight is the first of a home and home with the Caps. Pretty anticipated game on the part of DC tonight because Evgeny Kuznetsov is making his NHL debut after his KHL contract was terminated last week. This might be the biggest debut for any Capitals player since Ovechkin. From a Penguins point of view, this might be the biggest week of the season in determining the divisional race. With 2 against Washington and 2 against Philadelphia, the Penguins can either take an enormous lead on the rest of the Metro into the final month or they can be cut down to like 10 points with a bad week. At any rate, this should be a fun week of hockey, hate, and a ton of trash talk on the twitter. Troy Brouwer is the best player in the NHL right?

Since I did this post so early, we have some pre-game reading we recommend from our friends over at The Pensblog. This article is about Ray Shero and his draft history. The stats and numbers that they used to back up their argument is phenomanal. If there's any blog we recommend reading, its definitely TPB. You can read that article HERE

Lines (from the Pensblog)

Kunitz - Crosby - Stempniak

Jokinen - Malkin - Neal

Pyatt - Sutter - Vitale

Glass - Goc - Adams

Maatta - Orpik

Scuderi - Niskanen

Engellend* - Despres

Zatkoff

*Bortuzzo

Laich - Backstrom - Ovechkin

Penner - Johansson - Brouwer

Chimera - Fehr - Ward

Kuznetsov - Beagle - Wilson

Alzner - Carlson

Orlov - Moped

Hillen - Carrick

Halakamania

Notes:

• Robert Bortuzzo took place in an optional Gameday skate, he could be back in the lineup
• Zatkoff is assumed to be the starter as he was the first goalie off the ice.
• Chris Conner limped off the ice
• Beau Bennett could return within the next week to 10 days
• The injury report isn't a novel anymore
• Caps suck
• Party on the Steps

And it wouldn't be a Caps game without our favorite .gif of all time

Do It

Go Pens.