Having recently dispatched the Kings and Ducks on home ice, the likely playoff-bound Washington Capitals will try to knock off a third California team as they begin a swing through the golden state. With Alex Ovechkin looking as dominant as ever and new head coach Barry Trotz getting the Caps to play a strong possession game, this looks to be a much tougher test for the Sharks than Adam Oates and Dale Hunter’s Washington teams were.

Tale Of The Tape

	@
28-16-10, 66 points	Record	28-20-7, 63 points
4th in Metropolitan	Rank	3rd in Pacific
52.4%	Score-Adj. Fenwick	50.8%
100.7	PDO	99.1
23.1	PP%	20.6
80.4	PK%	81.5

7:30PM PST | SAP Center | San Jose, California
TV: NBCSN | Radio: SJSharks.com, 98.5 KFOX
Know Your Enemy: Japers’ Rink, Russian Machine Never Breaks

Projected Sharks Lineup

Joe Pavelski – Joe Thornton – Melker Karlsson
Patrick Marleau – Logan Couture – Matt Nieto
Tomas Hertl – Chris Tierney – Tommy Wingels
John Scott – James Sheppard – Barclay Goodrow

Scott Hannan – Brent Burns
Mirco Mueller – Brenden Dillon
Matt Irwin – Matt Tennyson

Antti Niemi
Alex Stalock

Projected Capitals Lineup

Marcus Johansson – Nicklas Backstrom – Alex Ovechkin
Jason Chimera – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Troy Brouwer
Brooks Laich – Eric Fehr – Joel Ward
Jay Beagle – Michael Latta – Tom Wilson

Brooks Orpik – John Carlson
Karl Alzner – Matt Niskanen
Jack Hillen – Mike Green

Braden Holtby
Justin Peters

Last Meeting

In their third game of the season, John Scott scored a goal and Matt Irwin scored twice before the Capitals stormed back to force overtime. San Jose eventually left D.C. with two points after a shootout victory.

Storylines

• The Sharks are 11-1-2 in their last 14 home games against the Capitals, although they did lose to Washington in a shootout at the Tank last March in the previous Bay Area meeting between these teams.
• Andrew Desjardins and Tyler Kennedy come out of the lineup after a lackluster showing on the fourth line against Calgary, to be replaced by John Scott and Barclay Goodrow.
• Joe Pavelski and Ovechkin are tied for the NHL lead with 15 power play goals on the season./