Oshie! (Caps Outsider)
Never mind that they’re locked up the playoffs, the Eastern conference, and soon the President’s Trophy. The Washington Capitals are now in crunch time. They have eight games left to work out their kinks before the playoffs.
On Monday, they’ve got a team that they have no business losing to – the Columbus Blue Jackets. Columbus is not the team everybody thought they were going to be. After a horrid start, they fired head coach Todd Richards and hired John Tortorella. Things looked promising, but, the Blue Jackets playoffs hopes were dashed before Thanksgiving.
Columbus has routinely given the Caps trouble, and it is important that the Caps come out firing in the first. Columbus has dropped 3 of their last 4, most recently a 5-1 thrashing by the Nashville Predators on Friday. Columbus is looking to end this season like they did last year by going 16-4-1 in the months of March and April.
The Caps, who looked awful on Saturday’s 4-0 loss to the Blues, look to rebound. One key factor may be the return of T.J. Oshie who has missed the last two games with the flu. The Caps have scored ZERO 5×5 goals in those two games. If Oshie returns, expect him to be reunited with Ovechkin and Backstrom as the Caps try to finalize their forward combinations before they take aim at the Stanley Cup.
