Time to take advantage of the situation

Although the Capitals are still banged up on the backline, there are still plenty of good reasons to be hopeful for the full 2 points on the road tonight. First off, Ottawa no longer has Zdeno Chara (not really news, but I bet AO is still happy about it). Second, this is Ottawa's third game in four nights. They don't exactly have the most youthful team up in the, um, other nation's capital, so there's reason to expect some heavy legs from the Sens players tonight. Third, the Caps are 2-1 in the season series against the Sens. On the other hand, the Senators have won 12 of their last 15 games. Gulp.

To me, this game hinges on whether the Caps backline can put together another strong showing like they did in the second game against Carolina. Mike Green also needs to bounce back from his weak performance in that game to manage the breakout and create offense in the Ottawa zone, as the team will once again be without Brian Pothier.

One bright spot on the injury front - it's the Return of the Zedhead! I expect a lot from Zednik in the next few weeks (once he shakes off the rust), and it will be VERY interesting to see if Hanlon is willing to clear room for him on the second line. I would be rather surprised if he didn't see a good number of minutes across from Sasha Semin as the team evaluates both the value of re-signing him and his value on the open market. It'll be interesting to see where Eric Fehr fits into the lineup with Zed back and healthy.

Game time is 7:30 in the REALLY, REALLY COLD NORTH.