Alright, let's dive into the icy depths of this impending battle at the rink between the Colorado Avalanche and the Washington Capitals.
Between the pipes for the Avalanche, we’ve got the likes of Justus Annunen, touting an 89.6 % save percentage last month and Alexandar Georgiev right behind him at 90.7%. A little chillier on the flip side, Washington’s Logan Thompson barely broke a sweat with that sweet 92.7% save rate, and Charlie Lindgren isn’t lagging too far behind at 90.2%.
The Avalanche is banking on some heavy hitters including their star player Nathan MacKinnon, who last month managed to net 5 goals and dish out 20 assists. Mikko Rantanen isn’t exactly a slouch either, with 8 goals and 9 assists to his name in the last month. Down the lineup, Cale Makar pulled his weight with 7 goals and 10 assists over the same timeframe.
Over at the Capitals camp, they’re harnessing the prowess of Alex Ovechking with14 goals and 7 assists from recent performance. Dylan Strome also seems to be in good form lately with 3 goals and an impressive 18 assists. And let’s not silently skate past Aliaksei Protas, who's made a significant contribution of 6 goals and 9 assists in the last month.
In their past face-offs, these two teams have had some clashing hockey teeth. The most recent head-to-head saw the Capitals overtake the Avalanche 5-2, but the Avalanche hasn’t always been left out in the cold. They managed to bury the capitals 6-3 back in February and stomped them 6-2 last January.
Regular season records would have us believe that the Capitals have been performing somewhat better than the Avalanche with a track record of 13-1-4 as compared to the Avalanche's 10-0-9. However, recent results do paint a promising picture for Colorado who took a win from Philadelphia and narrowly outskated Nashville. Meanwhile, the Capitals have been on a winning spree, pummeling Utah 6-2 and leaving Vegas in their icy wake.
With both teams trailing destruction in their recent encounters, it looks like it's going to be quite the ice-capade come game day. However, given the historical head-to-head results and regular-season record, the scales seem to be tipping slightly in favor of the Capitals.
Albert’s Prediction: Washington Capitals by 2
