Game #14
Caps (8-2-3, 19 points) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (6-5-1, 13 points)
A busy stretch – four games in six nights – concludes with a Sunday 5 p.m. game against the Blue Jackets. Caps coach Bruce Boudreau calls defenseman Mike Green (undisclosed injury) and center Nicklas Backstrom (illness) gametime decisions. Forward Quintin Laing (swine flu) is back in the lineup. Jose Theodore is again in goal after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Islanders on Friday night.
Caps nemesis Steve Mason is in goal for the Blue Jackets. When asked for one word to describe a Ken Hitchcock team, Boudreau tossed out “structured”. A big part of that is Mason, who shut out the Caps twice last season by 3-0 scores and stopped all 71 shots they threw at him. He went on to win the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year. Columbus was off to a good start until getting derailed by a 1-4-1 stretch over its last six games. That includes blowing a two-goal lead in the third period of a 4-3 shootout loss to the Penguins on Friday night.
