Scoreboard Watch; 1-13-2015

It's the time of the season for something I'd like to do semi-regularly and that's a little scoreboard watching.  Through 42 games, the Washington Capitals boast a 23-11-8 record for a respectable 54 points, good for 3rd in the Metro Division and solidly in a playoff position.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that the Rangers are scorching hot right now (have won 5 in a row, 9-1-0 in last 10) and have a game in hand on the Capitals, and Boston seems to be heating up. Not to mention the pesky Florida Panthers are hanging around.

The lukewarm news is that the Capitals have a series of games against opponents they should beat, with the exception of Friday with Barry Trotz's highly anticipated return to Nashville being the only formidable opponent out of the next five. After that stretch, heading into February, they'll see more challenges in Pittsburgh, who will be looking for revenge, Montreal, St. Louis, and the LA Kings. In that time, they will play two back to backs, this Friday and Saturday against Predators and Stars on the road, respectively, and January 27th and 28th against Columbus on the road and Pittsburgh at home.  Truth is, the Capitals should have a pretty good picture of what their team is worth up to the trade deadline on March 3rd (more on that and what the Caps could be looking to add in a later post). Anyway, here's the Eastern Conference standings as of today (courtesy of NHL.com):

And the schedule through February (courtesy of washingtoncapitals.com):

And a little something I've been listening to: