Hi, everyone. Welcome to Caps Game Day Live at MedStar Capital's Iceplex. It's presented by your

Washington, D.C. area, GMC dealers. I'm Rob Coral, and that's Joe Binanati. And that is John

Walt, and as the Caps get ready for a Friday night home game against the devils.

The Devils. All right. So let's get right into it as the devils. The Devils.

All right, so let's get right into it as the action starts tonight with the Caps and Islanders

once again tied atop the Metro Division after the Islanders won last night.

Let's get John, starting with you, your one big thought.

Sure.

When Joe or myself or other broadcasters are preparing for a game, you are going to not only map out the capitals, but you do it for the opposition.

And this was a tough game to prep for because the New Jersey Devils have a lot of guys in a lineup.

And we have at least a little bit of a better idea at this point after their morning skate, who we may see.

Kyle Palmeri appears to be in, but Taylor Hall will not be. Nico Heeshire won't be. They've traded away Brian Boyle, Marcus Johansson. What we're telling you, friends, is by a program tonight, because you're going to need it to figure out who's on the other side. The Devils are the last place team right now in the Metropolitan Division. It's wait till next year.

There's some young talent there. You've got a lot of guys competing for jobs and you can't take them lightly. But without question on a night like this, if you have designs, if you are the

Washington Capitals on winning a division title for the fourth straight year, getting yourself

home ice for the first couple of rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, at least this this is a game you got to win. At home, for this one tonight, you're going to see the Devils again on the road here in a couple of weeks. When the schedule maker gives you a gift, you need to accept that gift. And for the Capitals on this night, this Joe is one that they need. Pretty interesting weekend, right? You go from that devil's team depleted as you speak of to Winnipeg on Sunday, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. You look at things at the lay of the land in the Metropolitan Division. Washington, I think right where they want to be now, chasing in the last quarter of a season, less than that now, to get to the end and to get to the finish line, to win a fourth straight Metro Division title, they're going to have to go through the most difficult schedule to do it. Obviously, that's skewed a bit by the fact that you haven't played a 50-plus win Tampa Bay team yet, but I hear what John is saying, and I acknowledge it 100%. This is a game that the Caps should win. I know that the New Jersey Devils will

battle their tails off, though. Their work ethic is extraordinary. As far as my big thoughts concerned,

I keep going back to number eight and how many times in his marvelous career that he's treated us to

wonderful goals. Everybody knows that Alex Obetchkin is a gun. He's a shooter. He's a

finisher. But his playmaking skills are vastly underrated. He is such a good player with the puck

and reading a goaltender's eyes. Sure he is, because he's looking first and foremost to put the puck

away and turn the red light on. But he's so good at reading goaltenders at the right time

to make the right setup play. And I thought he did that wonderfully in Philadelphia for the first

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