NHL Grind Down: Saturday, April 2nd - Page Three
Washington Capitals at Arizona Coyotes – 10:00 PM EDT
| Washington Capitals | Arizona Coyotes | ||||||||
 | Ondrej Pavelec |  | Tuukka Rask | ||||||
| Record | Record | ||||||||
| 54-16-6 | 34-36-7 | ||||||||
| Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% | Stats | GF/GP | GA/GP | PP% | PK% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team Stats | 3.07 | 2.30 | 22.90% | 84.60% | Team Stats | 2.58 | 2.97 | 18.70% | 77.80% |
One thing is for sure, it will be awfully hard to handicap anything the Capitals do from here on out as they have already wrapped up the best record in the league with just five games left on their schedule. Nicklas Backstrom was held out of last night’s game and it’s only a matter of time before others start to have a ‘mystery injury’ to grab a day off before the playoffs start up in a few weeks. It’s not like Washington has been lighting the world on fire as Alexander Ovechkin has five points over his last ten games while new line mate Marcus Johansson has just three assists to show for his effort over the last ten games. T.J. Oshie is probably the one-off play here as he has lit the lamp six times over the last nine games and he isn’t even on the team’s play unit. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Justin Williams and defenseman Matt Niskanen are the other three players that get the first shot when the Capitals draw a penalty but none of those players has more than two points over the last six games. The best bet here is to probably stay away from Washington tonight, especially since they played last night and now travel into the desert.
Arizona will get some lovely parting gifts as they once again did not qualify for the playoffs for the fourth straight year. Since they are at home tonight the top line would make an excellent GPP play even though they are playing the best team in the league. Anthony Duclair, Martin Hanzal and Max Domi have combined for six goals and 11 assists over the last five games but now it looks as if Hanzal will miss the game due to an upper body injury. They have only scored 12 goals over that time frame so figuring in on half of them isn’t too bad, for them anyway. Alex Tanguay makes for a nice one-off play here as he gets some heavy minutes on the team’s top power play unit as he has registered three points over the last five games. With Michael Stone injured Oliver Ekman-Larsson once again finds himself as the only defenseman on the top power play unit. This game can go either way as the Capitals are the better team but they played last night and have literally nothing to play for.
Elite Plays
WSH: None
ARZ: None
Secondary Plays
WSH: Alexander Ovechkin, Marcus Johansson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Matt Niskanen, T.J. Oshie
ARZ: Max Domi, Anthony Duclair, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Alex Tanguay