Washington still can’t find their game, alternating good matches with frankly disastrous ones. So, in the last match, the capital team was simply trampled in Canada by local Toronto with a score of 5:1. The defense of Ovechkin and company in January is increasingly worrying. First of all, this is due to the fact that the team is plagued by a veritable injury epidemic. With Columbus on the ice, we will definitely not see Brown, Wilson, Dowd, Hagelin and Carlson. Despite the fact that the next game is against one of the outsiders, I assume the Capitals will struggle.

Columbus is heading into the next regular season game as the worst team in the East. Judging by the fact that as many as 11 points to the penultimate place, the Błękitni do not have many opportunities to leave the basement of the table, despite the fact that they play long enough in the regular season. The hosts have the worst defense in the conference, with 194 goals conceded in 50 matches. But at the same time, I can’t help but notice that everything is very decent with the attack, especially if you look at the number of goals scored at home. At his home stadium, Columbus scored 82 goals, and separately, according to this indicator, he is ahead of quite a few teams, including even Washington. Like the guests, the Blue Jackets have big staffing problems, as many as 8 players will not play. At the same time, however, I note that all losses are not on the team leaders, and the main team snipers such as Goudro, Laine, Roslovich, Jener or Johnson are standing in the ranks and ready to fight the favorite.