Washington Capitals at Columbus Blue Jackets
In the two games since Alex Ovechkin’s return, the Capitals have scored five goals in each contest and the power play even clicked a couple of times last game. It’s no secret that this team only goes as far as Ovechkin takes them and he’s on a heater right now. Granted, the two wins were against Montreal and Buffalo, but the Caps did manage to limit those two teams to 48 total shots against and team defense has been a problem for the Caps all season. It should be noted that Mike Green has been slotted on the top power play, bumping John Carlson to the second unit.
Columbus has now lost three straight games in an attempt for the Hockey Force to balance itself out. Well, not really, they’re just a victim of numbers; Columbus is still typically outplaying their opponents, they’re just not getting the results they were a week ago. The power play is still lethal, however, converting twice in their most recent loss and now have a 26.7-percent efficiency for the month of January. After experimenting with three power play units earlier this month, Columbus seems to have cut it back down to two (Anisimov-Horton-Letestu/Umberger-Johansen-Foligno).
The last time Washington was in Columbus has less than two weeks ago and Columbus shelled them 5-1 and that included a couple of power play goals. Washington goalie Braden Holtby has played better of late but there is not much doubt that Columbus is the superior team. I don’t expect the Jackets to shell the Capitals again, but they should win this game. I’ll be picking at a couple of their skaters but will probably avoid their goaltending situation; Washington scares me enough right now to avoid them.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
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(WSH) |
(WSH) $4987 |
Artem Anisimov |
(CBJ) |
Jason Chimera |
