It’s a sparse day of hockey tonight, with only two games to give you your sticks fix. Both games involve one much stronger team and could very well turn out to be laughers. You never know, though. After all, the New Jersey Devils lost to the Edmonton Oilers 2-0 on Sunday. Anyone can beat anyone in the good old hockey game.
Dallas Stars (28-24-12, 68 pts) at Washington Capitals (44-13-8, 96 pts) 7:00 PM ET
The Caps are 25-3-3 at home and hope to win their 14th consecutive game at the Phone Booth. Perhaps Alex Ovechkin is imagining that all of his opponents are carrying handheld cameras now, because the Capitals are 3-0 since the Olympic break. Dallas isn’t very good in general, but they’re especially bad on the road. I might need to re-think that “anyone can beat anyone” idea.
Columbus Blue Jackets (25-29-11, 61 pts) at Los Angeles Kings (38-22-4, 80 pts) - 10:30 PM ET
So how would someone hype this game? Let’s see, there’s the fact that the Kings are on a two game losing streak and the Blue Jackets have lost four in a row. THE BATTLE TO ... NOT LOSE! Ugh, I don’t think that will do. Anyway, the Kings bring the league’s fifth most consistent goalie Jonathan Quick up against Andrew Raycroft/Jim Carey clone Steve Mason (seriously, what happened Steve?) in this one. Not exactly going to quicken any pulses here, but I guess they can’t all be gold records.