Six months after their last meaningful game, the Caps are finally returning to the ice tonight to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins. With the opening-night roster set and the game mere hours away…let’s do a little roundtable/prediction action, shall we?
Q1. Who is the biggest surprise on the opening night roster?
Kalilu: Lucas Johansen finally being able to make his NHL debut is the biggest surprise for me. The Capitals’ prospect pool was deeper on the defensive end until recent years, so I was convinced he was lost in the shuffle and that he’d eventually debut for another organization. I’m glad he gets to do it here, and I’m rooting for him to crush this opportunity.
JP: I want to say Anthony Mantha here because yikes (and good call on Johansen), but I’ll go with <checks roster for guys I’ve never heard of> Matthew Phillips. Dude’s 25, tiny, a former sixth-round pick, and has three NHL games to his credit. With that profile and coming off a big year in the AHL, he looks like a Keith Aucoin (NHL debut at 27) type and that’d be great… for him. We’ll see how long he sticks (color me skeptical), but he’s gotta be the surprise of camp. And that he’s here probably says more about the Caps than it does about Phillips.
Andrew: I’ll be honest, I haven’t followed the baby Caps and who could possibly make this roster. If I’m still honest, I also forgot Beck Malenstyn was a player. In nine games with the Capitals last season, he did have a goal and an assist…so that’s something. In the Calder Cup Playoffs he was a producer though, 4 goals and 4 assists. So maybe that’s something he will bring to the fourth line. I like a fourth line that is more of a threat to score than one that is just going to go out and hit people. I liked Garnet Hathaway and Nic Dowd together and Aliaksei Protas was a nice addition to that line at times. Since Protas is on the third line, let’s see if Malenstyn can add something to the fourth line.
Luke: I’m just going to piggyback off Kalilu. I’ve been a fan of Johansen for a long time. During preseason I said I really hope someone picks him up on waivers because he deserves to be in the NHL, but alas he never hit waivers! He’s not a sexy player in terms of production and flash but he’s uber reliable, smart and can skate. He might never hit that top four potential due to him missing so much developmental time from injuries, but he could be a good bottom pairing guy you can play higher up when you need (like a TvR). We’ll see how long he sticks with the Caps.
Becca: Joining the popular opinion here and going with Johansen. Long time coming for him, and in my limited preseason viewing, I didn’t really notice him much – but that’s a good thing when we’re talking defensemen, and clearly the team brass saw enough in his game to give him a shot. Whether he hangs on to that spot once Edmundson comes back will be up to him.
Q2. Rapid-fire prediction time for the first game of the season…
- First Caps goal of the season will be scored by:
- Kalilu – Sonny Milano
- JP – Matthew Phillips (I owe him that after the write-up above)
- Andrew – Evgeny Kuznetsov – First game I think he plays fast
- Luke – Nicklas Backstrom is speaking to me for some reason.
- Becca – Penguin-killer T.J. Oshie
- First Cap to take a penalty will be:
- Kalilu – Trevor Van Riemsdyk
- JP – Evgeny Kuznetsov
- Andrew – Tom Wilson because Tom Wilson – First Penalty for the Penguins – Lars Eller
- Luke – Beck Malenstyn
- Becca – Nic Dowd
- Final score of Caps-Pens:
- Kalilu – Capitals win 4-2 with an empty netter.
- JP – Pens 5, Caps 2, Lars Eller with all seven goals.
- Andrew – Penguins 3-2 because we can’t have nice things
- Luke – Predicting something high scoring like 5-4
- Becca – Also thinking something high-scoring so I’ll go 6-5 Caps (ever the optimist)