The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!! -- Game 30: Capitals at Kings, December 4th

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR!!!

The Washington Capitals get no rest in the next leg of their west coast trip, following up Tuesday night’s game against the San Jose Sharks with a visit to Los Angeles on Wednesday night to visit the Kings.  The Caps are coming off a 5-2 in San Jose, while the Kings are stumbling with a 3-4-1 record in their last eight contests.

Then and Now…

This will be the 113^th meeting of the clubs in the all-time regular season series.  That Caps are 39-57-3 (13 ties) in the games played to date and 16-33-2 (six ties) on the road.  Since 2005-2006, the Caps are 7-9-3 overall against the Kings, 2-6-2 in Los Angeles.

Active Leaders vs. Opponent...

 

Facts to Impress Your Friends…

With the quick turnaround, we’re giving you some fun facts to chew on:

-- The Kings are not shy about shooting the puck.  Their 34.8 shots on goal per game rank second in the league (Montreal: 35.1).

-- Los Angeles’ power play might not have enough wattage to light an appliance bulb on home ice.  At 10.7 percent, the home power play ranks 29^th.

-- The odd thing about the Kings power play is how often they get to practice it.  No team in the league has had more power play opportunities overall (56).

-- No team in the Western Conference has fewer takeaways than the Kings (148).

-- Los Angeles is one of five teams remaining with a perfect record when leading after two periods (7-0-0).

-- The Caps need to button up things when leading after two periods.  They have four losses when leading after two periods this season (one in regulation, three in extra time).  Only New Jersey has more with five (three in regulation, two in extra time).

-- The Caps and the Winnipeg Jets are the only teams in the league with at least ten wins by three or more goals.  The Caps earned their 11^th to tie Winnipeg with the 5-2 win over San Jose on Tuesday.

-- Only Arizona (once) and Boston (none) have fewer losses by three or more goals than the Caps (three).

-- The blacksmith apron for the Caps’ fine work on iron goes to Dmitry Orlov.  Going into last night’s game, he led the team in hitting the goal frame with five pings, two off the crossbar and three off posts.

-- This will wrap up the Caps’ fifth back-to-back set of games this season.  The split their first three BtB’s, going 3-1-2 overall, before sweeping their most recent one with wins over Tampa Bay and Detroit.

In the end…

The Caps average about a whole goal per game more in scoring offense than the Kings and are about half a goal per game better in scoring defense.  The Caps have five players with double digit goal totals, the Kings with only one (Anze Kopitar).  Braden Holtby and Ilya Samsonov have been consistent more than spectacular; Jonathan Quick has lost three of his last four decisions (0-2-1) and allowed four goals in two of his last three games.  But the Kings have their home cooking going for them, 9-5-1 on home ice.  What it means is that if the Caps tend to business and keep from letting the Kings establish themselves early, it should be a successful night.  Should be.

Capital 4 – Kings 2