Round 1 - Game 1
Thu. April 12 Columbus Blue Jackets @ Washington Capitals
Place: Capital One Arena
Time: 7:30 p.m.
TV: NBCSWA, USA, SN360, TVAS3, FS-O
Radio: 106.7 The Fan, Capitals Radio 24/7
NHL.COM for Live Box Score
Columbus Blue Jackets 97-44-28-9 Last Game: Apr 07 Lost 4-2 Against Predators
Washington Capitals 105-49-26-7 Last Game: Apr 07 Won 5-3 Against Devils
8-Ovechkin 92-Kuznetsov 43-Wilson
65-Burakovsky 19-Bäckström 77-Oshie
13-Vrana 20-Eller 25-Smith-Pelly
10-Connolly 18-Stephenson 39-Chiasson
6-Kempny 74-Carlson
9-Orlov 2-Niskanen
44-Orpik 28-Jerabek
31-Grubauer (starter)
70-Holtby
-- SCRATCH --
63-Gersich
72-Boyd (illness)
83-Beagle (upper body)
64-Pinho
29-Djoos
22-Bowey
-- INJURED RESERVE --
-- 1st Powerplay Unit --
77-Oshie 19-Bäckström 92-Kuznetsov
8-Ovechkin 74-Carlson
-- 2nd Powerplay Unit --
13-Vrana 20-Eller 65-Burakovsky
2-Niskanen 9-Orlov
Referees: Trevor Hanson (#14), Wes McCauley (#25)
Linesmen: Marc Joannette (#63), Jonny Murray (#95)
Columbus’s expected lineup Forwards Artemi Panarin - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Cam Atkinson
Boone Jenner - Alexander Wennberg - Thomas Vanek
Oliver Bjorkstrand - Nick Foligno - Josh Anderson
Brandon Dubinsky - Mark Letestu - Matt Calvert
Defensemen Zach Werenski - Seth Jones
Ian Cole - David Savard
Ryan Murray - Markus Nutivaara
Scratches:
Markus Hannikainen,
Sonny Milano,
Alex Broadhurst,
Taylor Chorney,
Jack Johnson,
Scott Harrington,
Dean Kukan,
Lukas Sedlak (upper body)
1st Period17:52 PP GOAL 92-Kuznetsov, assists 19-Bäckström & 74-Carlson 1-0 WSH
18:21 PP GOAL 92-Kuznetsov, assists 19-Bäckström & 74-Carlson 2-0 WSH
2nd Period04:48 Jackets GOAL Wennberg 2-1 WSH
3rd Period01:31 Jackets PP GOAL Vanek 2-2 TIE
05:12 GOAL 25-Smith-Pelly, assists 13-Vrana & 74-Carlson 3-2 WSH
15:34 Jackets PP GOAL Jones 3-3 TIE
OT06:02 Jackets GOAL Panarin 4-3 CBJ
FINAL: 5-3 WSH
by Isabelle Khurshudyan, Roman Stubbs, Neil Greenberg and Mike Hume April 12 at 9:52 AM
Capitals clash with Blue Jackets as 2018 Stanley Cup quest begins – Live coverage and analysis
Philipp Grubauer will get the nod for the Washington Capitals when they begin the Stanley Cup Playoffs Thursday night. (Jonathan Newton / The Washington Post)
Game 1
Columbus Blue Jackets (45-30-7) vs. Washington Capitals (49-26-7)
7:30 p.m. ET, Capital One Arena
TV: USA/NBC Sports Washington
- Alex Ovechkin and the Capitals begin another quest for elusive Stanley Cup. (Read More)
- Philipp Grubauer gets the start over Braden Holtby. (Read More)
- Barry Trotz potentially coaching for his job. (Read More)
- Comment Section Q&A: Starting at 6:30 p.m., dive into the comments to chat before and during the game with The Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan and Neil Greenberg.
Top pregame story lines
Is this the year? It’s no secret the Capitals are running out of time to win a championship with their dynamic duo of Alex Ovechkin and center Nicklas Backstrom. Backstrom’s contract has just two more seasons left on it and Ovechkin has three years left on the massive 13-year deal he signed a decade ago. Backstrom is now 30, and Ovechkin is 32. They’ve continued to be productive and durable as they’ve gotten older, but every new season brings the risk of an injury or just a down year. Though Washington won the Metropolitan Division for a third straight year, expectations seem lower for the team and these two faces of the franchise, so with the pressure off, perhaps this is the season that the Capitals advance past the second round for a first time since 1998. The Blue Jackets will be looking to win their first playoff series in franchise history.
Blueline questions for Caps: The Capitals’ defense was the most glaring flaw of this team for most of the season, allowing more shots against than any other season under Trotz. But the trade deadline seemed to bring some stability to Washington’s defense corps, as bargain additions Michal Kempny and Jakub Jerabek have been good fits to this point.
Kempny has brought speed and mobility beside John Carlson in the second pairing, and Jerabek beat out rookie Christian Djoos to start the series. In 11 games with the Capitals, Jerabek has one goal and three assists while skating 13:59 per game in a third-pairing role, and though he’s a bit more polished than Djoos at the moment, Trotz could see the two as interchangeable depending on the outcome of each game. The Blue Jackets’ philosophy is to shoot and do so often — they averaged 33.7 shots per game — so it’ll be on the Capitals to keep those chances limited to the perimeter.
Jay Beagle out: Washington will be without its regular fourth-line center, as Beagle remains “day-to-day” with an undisclosed “upper-body” injury that forced him to miss the last week of the season. In good news, he was on the ice for the team’s Thursday morning skate, but he was still in a non-contact jersey. Beagle is the Capitals’ only right-handed center, ranked fourth in the NHL in faceoff percentage (58.5) during the regular season while taking most draws in the defensive zone, and Trotz has often used Beagle to take a key faceoff with a line other than his own because he’s so reliable in the dot. He has also been Washington’s top penalty-killing forward, averaging 2:31 shorthanded time on ice per game. Center Travis Boyd hasn’t been on the ice in a week because of an illness, and Trotz said he’s feeling better, but with both players out for Game 1, rookie Chandler Stephenson will center the fourth line.
Special teams: Of teams who made the postseason, the Columbus Blue Jackets have the worst power-play unit (17.2 percentage), and they had the fifth-worst penalty kill in the league this season (76.2 percentage). Playoff scoring tends to be even-strength heavy, but it certainly seems that Washington could take advantage with its superior special teams units.
The Capitals’ power play struggled early in the year, but it’s back up to a 22.5 scoring percentage, and though the penalty kill will certainly miss Beagle in at least the first game of the series, the unit had a respectable 84.8 percentage over the last 10 games of the season. One thing Columbus has going for it is discipline, as the Blue Jackets garnered just 223 minor penalties during the season, the second-fewest in the league.
Players to watch
Philipp Grubauer: When the season started, who would’ve believed someone other than a healthy Braden Holtby would be in net for the Capitals when the playoffs started. Holtby’s struggles down the stretch — he was 2-5-2 in February with a .873 save percentage and 4.62 goals against average — created an opportunity for Grubauer, who’s been the best goaltender in the league since late November with a .937 save percentage and a 1.93 goals against average in his past 27 appearances. As good as Holtby has been over his career, a two-time Vezina Trophy finalist and winner of the award in 2016, Grubauer’s finish to the season was too much for Trotz to ignore. This will be just the second playoff game Grubauer has started in his career, and it’s the first time someone other than Holtby has started a postseason series for the Capitals since 2011.
Artemi Panarin: With 27 goals and 55 assists, Panarin is 25 points clear of the next-leading scorer on the Blue Jackets. He admitted he was worried about how things would go for him in Columbus when Chicago traded him there this summer, but he also saw an opportunity to become a bigger piece of a team than he was with the Blackhawks. He finished the season with six goals and 13 assists in the last nine games. “He’s a little bit of a game breaker that adds to a pretty good team,” Trotz said of the skilled Russian.
Pregame prep
Immerse yourself in the Capitals’ postseason with The Post’s coverage of the 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Barry Svrluga: For Capitals’ Barry Trotz, the future is at stake in these Stanley Cup playoffs
The Capitals preach quality over quantity when it comes to shots. Here’s what they mean.
Fancy Stats: The perfect 2018 NHL playoff bracket predicts a Stanley Cup for the Lightning
From YouTube to spying on Jaromir Jagr, the origins of Evgeny Kuznetsov’s creativity
Dmitry Orlov and Sergei Bobrovsky are best friends — and playoff enemies
The five factors that could decide the Capitals’ playoff fate
Devante Smith-Pelly was once a playoff revelation. He’ll try to repeat the feat with Caps.
