Game Preview #31 - Crazy Eights?
The Jackets look to match a franchise record eighth straight win, against a familiar foe with an 8 all their own.
Washington Capitals at Columbus Blue Jackets
December 18, 2014 - 7:00 PM EST
Nationwide Arena - Columbus, Ohio
Radio - WBNS 97.1 - TV - Fox Sports Ohio
Opponent's Blog: Japers' Rink
Riding a winning streak always breeds confidence. Add in the fact that you have a goaltender playing out of his mind, and a mediocre division, and the fact that the Jackets are still alive for a playoff spot after such an atrocious start breeds even more.
Columbus is coming off arguably their best performance on Tuesday in Detroit, and with a goalie riding a .950 save percentage over a seven game winning streak, they welcome the Capitals to Nationwide to play them the second time in eight days. The Jackets won in overtime in DC last Thursday.
The big key? Staying out of the penalty box. To a man, all the players I talked to noted how terrible the three-penalty start last week was, and how they can't afford to give the league's top Power Play unit too many chances. The PK unit has been better of late, especially during the streak. "[The PK] is something that needs to be good, because it helps you win games," Nick Foligno said. "It's helped us win games and battle back in games. It's a big credit to every guy on our Penalty Kill and to our goalie as well."
But, they can ill afford to keep relying on that, especially against a team that's not overwhelming (not bad, mind you) at even strength but rains a fiery death on teams on the Power Play. "Hopefully we don't them as many chances as we gave them last game," Foligno said.
Columbus will be icing the same lineup from Tuesday, including newcomer Jeremy Morin and newly healthy Fedor Tyutin.
The Caps are playing well of late, despite losing in the epic 20-round shootout the other night in Florida. They're no doubt hungry for some payback after last week's loss to Columbus.
Todd Richards indicated that there would be no lineup changes. Richards also noted that, while obviously the team would like to score more goals, they have to keep playing defense first. Tonight, especially.
Projected Lineups
Columbus Blue Jackets
(13-15-2, 28 Points; 5th division, 12th conference)
| Boone Jenner | Ryan Johansen | Jack Skille |
| Jeremy Morin | Nick Foligno | Brian Gibbons |
| Matt Calvert | Brandon Dubinsky | Cam Atkinson |
| Corey Tropp | Michael Chaput | Jared Boll |
| Fedor Tyutin | Dalton Prout |
| Jack Johnson | David Savard |
| Kevin Connauton | James Wisniewski |
| Sergei Bobrovsky |
| Curtis McElhinney |
Washington Capitals
(14-10-6, 34 Points; 4th Division, 10th Conference)
| Alex Ovechkin | Nicklas Backstrom | Tom Wilson |
| Marcus Johansson | Evgeny Kuznetsov | Troy Brouwer |
| Brooks Laich | Eric Fehr | Joel Ward |
| Jason Chimera | Michael Latta | Jay Beagle |
| Brooks Orpik | John Carlson |
| Karl Alzner | Matt Niskanen |
| Nate Schmidt | Mike Green |
| Braden Holtby |
| Justin Peters |
Season Series
11/11/14 - Columbus 2 at Washington 4
12/11/14 - Columbus 3 at Washington 2 (OT)
12/18/14 - Washington at Columbus
01/27/15 - Washington at Columbus
03/03/15 - Washington at Columbus
Head to Head Stats
| Washington | Columbus | |
| 2.83 (11) | GPG | 2.30 (24) |
| 2.60 (15) | GAPG | 3.13 (26) |
| 27.1% (1) | PP% | 22.5% (6) |
| 77.5% (25) | PK% | 77.8% (24) |
| Alexander Ovechkin, 14 | G leader | Nick Foligno, 14 |
| Nicklas Backstrom, 23 | A leader | Ryan Johansen, 18 |
| Nicklas Backstrom, 31 | Pts leader | Nick Foligno / Ryan Johansen, 27 |
| Tom Wilson, 60 | PIM leader | Jared Boll, 44 |
| 8-5-2 | Road/Home | 6-8-1 |
| 5-2-3 | Last 10 | 7-3-0 |
| 12/16 @ Florida, L 2-1 (SO) | Last Game | 12/16 @ Detroit, W 1-0 (SO) |