#1 April 17 at Penguins
This will be an epic way to close out the regular season especially if both teams are in the thick of things for the playoff race kind of like how the season ended. We know what happened last season. The Caps got hot and the Penguins flamed out. It can happen again. We shall see.
That game will cap off a four game stretch where the Caps have a back to back affair in Columbus on Saturday April 12 and Sunday the 13th back in the District. Then it's off to New York against the Islanders two days later.
Will the playoffs be on the line or will this be a battle of the retirement homes. A little bit of both is the way too early prediction. What's really funny about last season's series is that the road team won each game so the Caps were able to split the four game set.
That included two big wins. One on Jan. 3 to ring in the New Year and then again on trade deadline eve of March 7. And yes, Tom Wilson was an impact player both games. So was Alex Ovechkin. And in the March 7 game, Ivan Miroshnichenko scored his first career NHL goal and Hendrix Lapierre continued to show why he deserves a spot on the Capitals this opening night. It was a touchdown 6-0 win over the Pens.