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Thursday, 01 December 2011 11:00

Written by Seth Rorabaugh

A preview of the Capitals.

When and where: 7 p.m. EST; .

TV: Root Sports (in Pittsburgh markets), CSN-MidAtlantic (in Washington D.C. market), NHL Network (United States, outside the Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. markets).

Record: 12-10-1, 25 points. The Capitals are in ninth place of the Eastern Conference and second place in the Southeast Division.

Leading Scorer: Nicklas Backstrom, 26 points (8 goals, 18 assists).

Last Game: 2-1 home loss to the Blues, Tuesday. Tomas Vokoun made 28 saves for the Capitals.

Last Game against the Penguins: 3-2 overtime road win, Oct. 13. James Neal had two goals for the Penguins.

Capitals Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Mike Knuble. A mere goal doesn't seem like enough for this legendary Penguin killer. We'll predict a hat trick.

Ex-Penguins on the Capitals: Jim Johnson, assistant coach.

Ex-Capitals on the Penguins: Matt Cooke, LW; Brent Johnson, G.

Useless Capitals Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: The first Capitals player to attempt a penalty shot against the Penguins was forward Dale Hunter (above). He was stopped by goaltender Wendell Young in a 5-3 Penguins win, Dec. 6, 1989.

Best Capitals Video We Could Find: Dale Hunter using Kjell Samuelsson to remove the glass at the Civic Arena during the 1994-95 season:

Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (13-4-2, 2.17 GAA, .922 SV%) for the Penguins and Tomas Vokoun (10-6-0, 2.77 GAA, .906 SV%) for the Capitals.

Injuries: For the Penguins, defensemen Kris Letang (head) and Zbynek Michalek are out. Defensemen Ben Lovejoy (left wrist), Brian Strait (elbow), center Dustin Jeffrey (knee) and left winger Steve MacIntyre ("upper body") are on injured reserve. For the Capitals, defenseman Mike Green ("lower body") is day to day. Center Jay Beagle ("upper body") and defenseman Tom Poti (groin) are on injured reserve.

Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins' primary lines against the Rangers Tuesday were:

Chris Kunitz - Sidney Crosby - Pascal Dupuis
Steve Sullivan - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Matt Cooke - Jordan Staal - Tyler Kennedy
Arron Asham - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams

-With a few personnel moves, this is a complete guess at the Penguins' defensive pairings:

Matt Niskanen - Brooks Orpik
Paul Martin - Deryk Engelland
Simon Despres  - Robert Bortuzzo

-The Capitals primary lines and defensive pairings Tuesday against the Blues were:

Alex Ovechkin - Nicklas Backstrom - Troy Brouwer
Cody Eakin - Marcus Johansson - Alexander Semin
Jason Chimera - Brooks Laich - Joel Ward
Matt Hendricks - Jeff Halpern - Mike Knuble

Karl Alzner - John Carlson
John Erksin - Dennis Wideman
Roman Hamrlik - Dmitry Orlov

Notes:

-The Penguins are expected to recall defenseman Simon Despres from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and demote defenseman Alexandre Picard.

-The Penguins expect a good effort from the Capitals under new coach Dale Hunter.

-“He’s a guy that you want to be physical with, but it’s not that easy." - Wideman on Crosby.

-The last time the Penguins played the Capitals, this happened:

-Brent Johnson has appeared in 299 career games.

-Orpik has 97 career points.

-Dupuis has 297 career points.

-Richard Park has 97 career goals.

-Asham has 196 career points.

-Martin has 195 career points.

-Former Penguins defenseman Jim Johnson takes over as an assistant coach with the Capitals.

-Our live blog, direct from inside the Beltway, begins at approximately 6 p.m. Please tune in.

(Photo: Rick Stewart/Getty Images)

Comments (3)

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written by Blitzburgh Brian, December 01, 2011 - 09:34 AM

Odd that Michalek and Letang are in your lines for tonight right after you said they're out... I'd guess
Martin-Orpik
Engelland-Niskanen
Despres-Bortuzzo

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written by tennpen, December 01, 2011 - 06:31 PM

Dear god, I hate these crapitals announcers

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written by tennpen, December 01, 2011 - 06:35 PM

I watched some of the crapitals game vs the Blues the other night, the craps looked like they weren't even interested in being at the rink, now they are putting out 110% just cuz they're playing the pens, what a schizo team, I can't stand those guys

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