Capital Gains? Washington Capitals @ Florida Panthers ... Bryan McCabe IN ... Nick Boynton, Anthony Stewart OUT

SUNRISE -- The Capitals are in town, and we could call them the big, bad Capitals, although they haven't been playing all that well of late.

Washington had won three straight before being beat 5-1 in Atlanta on Monday night. Pete DeBoer was asked about that, and as expected, he said he had hoped the Capitals had won 8-0 ''and put their feet up a bit.''

Florida could be getting a pretty cranky Capitals team tonight. And that ain't good.

The Panthers, you may have heard, have lost three straight.

-- Bryan McCabe is back in the lineup tonight and will do so wearing a full plastic shield. He has to hate that. With McCabe in, Nick Boynton is back out.

-- Anthony Stewart will also take tonight's game off. Nick Tarnasky is back in.

-- Today's Games (and who the Panthers would be rooting for if they weren't so busy watching the World Baseball Classic)

Thrashers @ Penguins, 7:30: Can Atlanta keep up its winning ways? Florida sure would like it if the Thrash could. ATL has won six straight.

Capitals @ Panthers, 7:30: Florida sure does love watching this Ovechkin fella.

Rangers @ Canadiens, 7:30: Both teams are tied for sixth with 80 points. Rooting for a regulation win one way or another. No overtime here.

Sabres @ Senators, 7:30: Buffalo is still behind Florida, and I'm thinking the Panthers want to keep it that way.

-- The Standings (presented by the Greene Turtle and courtesy of tsn.ca/nhl)

Eastern
Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	Last 10	Streak
1	Boston	71	45	17	9	99	237	167	24-6-5	21-11-4	4-5-1	Lost 1
2	New Jersey	68	45	20	3	93	213	167	24-10-1	21-10-2	8-2-0	Won 3
3	Washington	71	43	22	6	92	229	210	26-9-2	17-13-4	5-4-1	Lost 1
4	Philadelphia	68	37	21	10	84	218	196	21-10-4	16-11-6	5-4-1	Lost 1
5	Pittsburgh	71	37	26	8	82	222	216	19-12-3	18-14-5	8-0-2	Won 1
6	Montreal	69	36	25	8	80	205	206	21-7-5	15-18-3	6-3-1	Lost 2
7	NY Rangers	70	36	26	8	80	177	190	21-10-4	15-16-4	5-3-2	Won 1
8	Carolina	71	36	28	7	79	200	203	19-13-1	17-15-6	5-3-2	Lost 3
9	Florida	69	34	25	10	78	194	196	18-9-6	16-16-4	4-4-2	Lost 3
10	Buffalo	69	34	27	8	76	203	193	20-12-3	14-15-5	4-4-2	Lost 1
11	Toronto	70	28	29	13	69	209	249	13-13-9	15-16-4	6-3-1	Won 1
12	Ottawa	68	28	30	10	66	177	198	17-12-6	11-18-4	6-3-1	Won 1
13	Atlanta	70	29	35	6	64	214	234	14-18-2	15-17-4	8-2-0	Won 6
14	Tampa Bay	69	23	32	14	60	181	227	11-14-9	12-18-5	4-4-2	Won 2
15	NY Islanders	70	24	38	8	56	176	224	16-14-5	8-24-3	6-2-2	Won 1
Western
Rank	Team	GP	W	L	OT	PTS	GF	GA	Home	Away	Last 10	Streak
1	x-Detroit	70	46	15	9	101	261	207	25-5-4	21-10-5	7-2-1	Won 2
2	x-San Jose	68	45	13	10	100	219	167	27-3-4	18-10-6	4-5-1	Won 2
3	Calgary	69	40	23	6	86	229	214	22-8-4	18-15-2	5-5-0	Lost 1
4	Chicago	67	37	21	9	83	220	178	18-8-6	19-13-3	3-6-1	Lost 2
5	Vancouver	68	36	23	9	81	206	189	20-11-4	16-12-5	7-2-1	Won 2
6	Columbus	70	36	28	6	78	194	196	22-11-2	14-17-4	6-4-0	Lost 1
7	Nashville	70	35	30	5	75	179	192	21-12-3	14-18-2	7-2-1	Won 2
8	Dallas	69	33	28	8	74	199	211	19-13-4	14-15-4	4-5-1	Won 2
9	Edmonton	68	32	27	9	73	192	210	15-12-6	17-15-3	3-2-5	Lost 3
10	St. Louis	69	32	29	8	72	195	205	19-13-5	13-16-3	7-3-0	Won 1
11	Minnesota	69	32	29	8	72	177	172	18-11-6	14-18-2	2-5-3	Lost 4
12	Anaheim	69	32	31	6	70	190	201	16-16-3	16-15-3	4-5-1	Lost 1
13	Los Angeles	69	29	30	10	68	182	203	16-14-8	13-16-2	3-6-1	Lost 3
14	Colorado	70	31	38	1	63	185	218	18-16-0	13-22-1	3-7-0	Lost 1
15	Phoenix	69	28	35	6	62	168	212	17-14-2	11-21-4	2-7-1	Lost 5

Comments

[D-Man]

Boynton over Eminger for tonights game? I don't know if i like that... Boynton has played better since his dispute with DeBoer

[Steve]

GR,
Why not go with 7 D to make sure McCabe can play tonight?

It is not like Tarnasky is going to play all that much anyway!!!!

[AG]

How in your right mind do you sit down Nick boyton +3, vs Eminger -3??????? What say you GR, why o why?

[George Richards]

he obviously digs eminger and is not a boynton fan...let's see what happens tonight...

[AG]

Thanks GR....I wish he could put personal feelings aside and dress the best performers, as wasnt that his battlecry?
Im at a loss. I respect him so much, but here i think PD is making a rookie error.

[Daniel T]

If Eminger sucks tonight, we may not see him in the lineup for awhile, but he has not been that bad. The +/- is deceiving for both players. I like the comment about dressing 7 dmen. Eminger could even play wing on the 4th line.

We should root for a Rangers regulation win since they have more games played.

[Louis from CT]

Panthers better win tonight!!! theY need this game. we need TWO POINTS!!