Pregame Notes: Washington Capitals at. Detroit Red Wings

 The Caps finish off their final road trip of the season with their final road game of the season at Joe Louis Arena against the Detroit Red Wings. The Caps magic number to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs is down to three. There is no morning skate today so this is the projected lineup.


Forwards:

Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Ward
Johansson-Backstrom-Brouwer
Glencross-Fehr-Chimera
Laich-Latta-Wilson

Defense and Goalies:

Orpik-Carlson
Alzner-Niskanen
Gleason-Green

Holtby
Peters


Other Notes:

*It is unclear if Braden Holtby will start or Justin Peters. I still believe that with two days off coming up and the playoff spot isn't wrapped up yet that Holts will be in the net.

*The Caps got into penalty trouble last night and the refs didn't even things out. So, it is important that the Caps play five on five for the majority of this game to get into a flow.

*Another key will be scoring first, the Caps have had a lot of success when scoring first this season. With this game being important the first goal will go a long way to getting two points.

*I'm not positive if the lines will be the same as last night as Barry Trotz has changed them up a bit. It depends on the matchups he wants. However, he has pushed the right buttons a lot this season. It has helped that he has had a few different combinations so everyone has played together throughout the lineup.

*The Caps have to go at it right away, I said score first but regardless they need to get pucks deep in the Red Wings zone and cycle the puck. They need sustained pressure, with Detroit not playing that great recently they will need to make it difficult for them.

*I'm not sure who will be in net for the Red Wings today but regardless the Caps have to put pressure on the goalie and get traffic. Last night they were able to come back because of traffic around Andrew Hammond.

*Looking at this early evening game in Detroit tonight the Caps need to respond from the tough loss last night. They are in a good position but not guaranteed anything. If they get two points tonight it would take a lot of pressure off the Caps and put it really on everyone else. We will see what happens.

*Andre Burakovsky was recalled from Hershey so it's possible he returns to the Caps lineup. 


Gametime 5:00 p.m on CSN