The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 37: Capitals at Hurricanes, December 31st

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

Well, guys, it’s New Year’s Eve, and the Caps are playing the Carolina Hurricanes to ring out the old year.  Do you see a win in the cards?

Fearless:  Of course.  There is a beautiful symmetry to nature, and it seems only fitting that the Caps would begin the year with a rousing victory in the Winter Classic and end it with a win over a former division rival.

Cheerless?

Cheerless: …

Cheerless??

Cheerless: “zzzzzzz…sknx…..”

CHEERLESS!!!

Cheerless: “…huh?...what??”

Caps?  Hurricanes?  Hockey game?

Cheerless: “oh, yeah…”

Fearless: “Getting an early start on celebrating the new year, cousin?”

Cheerless: “…hey, I gotta test the moonshine before I drink it, don’t i?”

Can we get back to the subject?  What do you think about the Caps and Hurricanes tonight, Cuz?

Cheerless: Well, if their Corsi is any indication, the Hurricanes have been all over the map this month.  They have had problems stringing together any sustained possession numbers and are sitting at 50.1 percent for the month, 48.1 percent in close score situations.

Fearless:  Peerless, is he really our cousin?

He does seem to have spent a lot of time at war-on-ice.com, doesn’t he?

Cheerless: “ha-ha-ha…can’t a person better themselves?”

Sure, a “person” can.  You on the other hand…

Cheerless:  Hey, who wrote that hugely popular thing about Corsi and the dogs? 

Fearless: “He has a point, cousin.  Folks actually read that piece, not like your work…”

Hush up!  OK, back to the game.  So, Carolina has inconsistent possession numbers.  Their record looks similarly wobbly this month, 7-5-1 overall, and they are not making any headway getting back into the playoff discussion, what with their being eight points behind New Jersey for fourth place in the Metropolitan Division.

Fearless: Worse for them, they are a rather poor home team, just 7-8-3 overall and 3-3-0 this month.

Cheerless: It’s hard to win many games when you can’t score (2.35 goals per game, 25^th in the league) and can’t stop people from scoring (2.84 goals against per game, 24^th in the league).

Fearless: They are a bottom-third team in special teams, too, just 17.5 percent on the power play (20^th) and 77.9 percent on the penalty kill (25^th).

Cheerless: And what’s with a defenseman leading them in scoring?  Justin Faulk has 30 points, and Half of them (15) come on the power play.  Don’t they have, like, a bunch of Staals?

They have two – Eric and Jordan – who between them have 14 goals and 36 points.

Cheerless: That’s barely one “Kuznetsov” (11-22-33).

Very good, cousin…taking fourth grade math for the third time seems to be the charm.  So, Carolina doesn’t score a lot, they give up a lot of goals, their special teams are anything but, and their prize forwards aren’t producing very well.  Think they have a chance?

Fearless: Sure…but not a good one.

Cheerless: A chance for what?

What, indeed.  Even with the Capitals limping into Raleigh with several key pieces missing due to injury, they still have a formidable group at both ends of the ice.  The year ends as it began.

Capitals 4 – Hurricanes 1