The Need to Knows
- The Time: 4pm PST
- The Place: Capital One Arena, Washington DC
- Place to Watch: KHN, KONG, Amazon Prime (if local), Monument Network
- Place to Listen: KJR 93.3-FM
- An Opposing Viewpoint: Japers’ Rink
Game Preview
Well. Last night was an important game for Berkly Catton!…but ultimately a bust for the team.
So! Let’s put it out of our minds and try again!
The Caps are a bit of a modern marvel; they’re still a pretty solid team coming into the 2025-26 season with a lot of the same things that made them great in 2024-25: they still have Aleksei Protas who is coming into his own as a superstar, Dylan Strome is still a quietly fantastic center, Tom Wilson continues to squander his talents as the most successful goon in the league not playing for the Panthers, and of course…Crazy 8 himself, still.
That old man Ovie simply will not stop.
From the X’s and O’s perspective, there’s realistically only one thing you really need to know about the Caps that informs all of their play; they absolutely cannot stop attacking the net-front. They love it. Adore it even. They absolutely cram the most dangerous area of the ice with shots and
So why are they only down in the Wildcard and not leading the division? Well, two reasons.
For one thing, for all their attacking might, sitting directly at the top of the NHL in Expected Goals-For% they’re having a pretty lousy time converting those quality shots into quality goals; sitting about 21st in the NHL in High-Danger goals for per 60 minutes of hockey. Granted, they make up for that with a crushing defense that makes it difficult to even try the same thing against them, but they are kind of stuck in the opening gears of their offense in this early part of the season. They just hosted the Canucks and lost 4-3, they only barely beat the Lightning when they came to town, and finally got their first 3+ goal win over anybody against Minnesota. Not an especially great resume in spite of the record.
So, what can the Kraken do to overcome this team?
Well, for one thing, they can try helping their goalie. Something they largely didn’t do against the Flyers and paid for it big time. Second, they can try to attack the left-side of the ice; a small point of pain for them that has developed over the course of the year. After that, it’ll likely be keeping out of the box, which was a major problem for them yesterday, and even worse, they’ll be playing a known quantity of annoying, reckless dipstick that could get them once again sending someone to be mended. Discipline of the mind, body, and stick will be critical to keeping their edge.
Still, even from a back-to-back, this ought to be an interesting one. Let’s get back in the win column!
LET’S GO KRAKEN, LET’S GO SQUIDS