Photo by clydeorama.

By Eli Resnick and Elisabeth Meinecke

With another hockey season upon us – the opening faceoff in Boston is mere hours away – it’s time for the DCist hockey crew to look foolish and guess what the Caps will do this year. We’ll take a wide turn of the stories heading into tonight’s opener, offering our prognostications on the season to be along the way.

The New Additions
An easy prediction is that Mike Knuble and Brendan Morrison will fill their advertised roles on the first and second forward lines, where they have been featured throughout the preseason. Pencil in Knuble for about 30 goals sitting on Ovechkin’s right wing; the grizzled forward will make up in toughness what he lacks in skill and ably take the place of Viktor Kozlov.

Caps’ center David Steckel described Knuble thusly: “He’s scored some greasy goals already in preseason, so I think we’re headed in the right direction there. We don’t always need the pretty goal, but it seems like last year we always got them, and we didn’t necessarily get the greasy goal.” (He’s apparently very greasy, this Knuble.)

A second line of Morrison, Brooks Laich and Alexander Semin should also become a potent offensive force, feared throughout the league. Based on his history, though, don’t be surprised it Morrison finishes the year on injured reserve, and Tomas Fleischmann finds himself on the second line with Laich and Semin. The line won’t be as good as it would be with Morrison, but it will still be sufficient enough to turn heads and earn Fleischmann some respect from Washington fans.

The Familiar Faces
Preseason Norris Trophy favorite Mike Green, in order to try to make an impression on Steve Yzerman and the rest of the Team Canada staff, will start finishing a lot of extra checks in his own end, playing a little more conservatively wherever he feels it won’t hurt his goal totals. The result will be a net gain for the Caps, who desperately need all of their defensemen to focus on protecting the goal. Tossing out scoring predictions: Alex Ovechkin will finish second in points again, but this time to Sidney Crosby who, emboldened by the special treatment he received in the playoffs against Green and the rest of the Capitals defense, will finally realize he is allowed to score goals in the National Hockey League, not just set them up for aging wingers. Nicklas Backstrom will finish in the top ten in points. Semin will once again finish in the top five in points per game but, as is his custom, will be injured for twenty games at various times throughout the season, leaving us only to speculate what could have been if he had been healthy.

The real x-factor could be Michael Nylander. Either Nylander is rejuvenated and ready for the season or the Caps need to have a long talk with him and figure out how they can help him move on to greener pastures.