The Capitals look for another win against the Flames, though they hope it doesn't take a shootout to do it like last time.
The Capitals look for another win against the Flames, though they hope it doesn’t take a shootout to do it like last time.

The Washington Capitals continue their road trip across Canada tonight as they face the Calgary Flames. The Capitals are coming off road victories against the Winnipeg Jets and the Edmonton Oilers. If the Capitals win tonight, they will officially be over .500. The Capitals played Calgary once so far this year, and the Capitals won that game 5-4 in a shootout.

The Flames will be a bit short-handed tonight, as they will be without their captain Mark Giordano and top-line forward Stempniak. That said, the Capitals must remember what happened in the previous game: The Flames took the Capitals by surprise and took an early 3 goal lead in the first period before the Capitals were able to battle back and win it in a shootout. The Flames cannot be taken lightly. After what happened to them in the first game, I expect to see the Capitals ready to play hard for 60 minutes. The Flames currently hold a 4-4-2 record on the year.

Here are tonight’s projected lineups:

Capitals

Johansson-Backstrom-Ovechkin (90-19-8)
Erat-Laich-Brouwer (10-21-20)
Chimera-Grabovski-Ward (25-84-42)
Volpatti-Fehr-Wilson (24-10-43)

Alzner-Carlson (27-74)
Schmidt-Green (88-52)
Erskine-Oleksy (4-61)

Holtby (70) (in goal)
Neuvirth (30)

Scratches:
Alexander Urbom
Jay Beagle

Flames

Curtis Glencross-Matt Stajan-David Jones (20-18-54)
Sven Baertschi-Sean Monahan-Jiri Hudler (47-23-24)
Michael Cammalleri-Mikael Backlund-TJ Galiardi (13-11-39)
Lance Bouma-Joe Colborne-Brian McGrattan (17-8-16)

TJ Brodie-Chris Butler (7-44)
Kris Russell-Dennis Wideman (4-6)
Derek Smith-Shane O’Brien (27-55)

Karri Ramo (31) (in goal)
Joey MacDonald (35)