Dabura

Unremarkable depth winger. Has some skill and scoring ability (drafted 24th overall), but he's settled in as a(n) AHLer/fringe NHLer. He should help the Griffins, who could use the extra scoring punch at forward.

I'm sure Wilson will get a look on the fourth line. He's definitely an upgrade over Booth and Witkowski. At least, in theory. It'll be interesting to see how the lines shake out when AA returns. If everyone in the forward group stays healthy and the team continues to score at a decent clip, we're probably looking at something like this: Mantha Zetterberg Nyquist Tatar Larkin Abdelkader Athanasiou Nielsen Frk Wilson Helm Glendening Blashill seems pretty intent on limiting the fourth line's minutes this season and Frk seems to be regressing, so I could also see the bottom six being Helm-Nielsen-Athanasiou / Wilson-Glendening-Frk. Or Blashill might just banish Frk to the press box and give Booth/Witkowski his spot.

Plunger just helped our back-end logjam. The Universe smiles upon us.

Hot.

Yeah, I think this is a logjam move.

Do we know if the 3rd is a 2018 pick?

So we maybe-kinda-sorta upgraded Sheahan and turned a 5th into a 3rd. Given that Sheahan scored two goals last season and has no points this season, I'm ok with this return.

Well, at least we've finally found a forward who shoots left. Holy crap, TWO left-shooting forwards! CHRISTMAS HAS COME EARLY!

If it has to be a trade...Sheahan + Ouellet to BUF for Girgensons. Oh, just saw we traded Sproul.

I didn't want to say it at the time, but when he missed the empty net I knew the game was lost. I've concluded that Helm is a liability in high-pressure late-game situations where he has to use his brain and react quickly and intelligently. This is a thing going all the way back to that pivotal blown Tampa game in the 2015 playoffs. People point to Glendening's absence being the reason the Bolts won that game, but they forget that Helm had possession deep in the o-zone, tried to get fancy, coughed the puck up, and...well, the Bolts went the other way and tied it up, and then went on to win it in OT. More recently, he had a big hand in that blown lead in Ottawa. We played a solid game overall. The Caps are the more talented team, pound-for-pound, and that edge was the difference. Same with the Tampa and Toronto games. We're probably going to have to suffer through a looooot of these so-close-yet-so-far games this season.

Ovechkin scores. Caps win 4-3. Once again, we found a way to give the game away.

Wings to the PK. Ugh.

To OT we go.

Caps score. 3-3. Helm missed the empty net, so you knew they were gonna score.

Wings to the PK. Hoo boy.

Abby should have a hat trick. Dude can't buy a goal tonight.

I'm all ears!

TATAR! PPG! THAT BACKDOOR PLAY! Wings lead 3-2!

Wings to the PP. ...or not? Yep, PP.

I watch NHL.tv. Their feeds tend to be 30-45 seconds behind. Maybe tonight there's no lag!

Wings to the PP.

Green and Larkin with the assists.

TATAR! Holy s***, insane redirection!

Abby HAS to bury that. Damn it.

Beagle scores shorthanded. Because of course. Caps lead 2-1.