A preview of the Capitals.

When and where: 7 p.m. EDT. Verizon Center.

TV: Root Sports (Pittsburgh market), CSN-Washington (Washington D.C. market), NHL Network (rest of the United States).

Record: 30-25-10, 70 points. The Capitals are in fifth place in the Neapolitan Ice Cream Metropolitan Division.

Leading Scorer: Alex Ovechkin, 67 points (44 goals, 23 assists).

Last Game: 3-2 home win against the Coyotes, Saturday. Jaroslav Halak (right) made 31 saves for the Capitals.

Last Game against the Penguins: 4-3 road loss, Jan. 15. Marcus Johansson recorded two assists for the Capitals.

Capitals Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Alex Ovechkin. Just because.

Ex-Penguins on the Capitals: None.

Ex-Capitals on the Penguins: Tomas Vokoun, G.

Useless Capitals Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Capitals coach Adam Oates is one of two members of the 2002-03 Mighty Ducks team which went to the Stanley Cup Final who have become a head coach in the NHl. The other is Dan Bylsma.

Best Capitals Video We Could Find: Former Capitals defenseman Calle Johansson scoring a wrister off the right wing against the Maple Leafs in 1997-98:

Probable goaltenders: Jeff Zatkoff (9-3-1, 2.75 GAA, .910 SV%) for the Penguins. Jaroslav Halak (25-9-4, 2.22 GAA, .918 SV%) for the Capitals.

Injuries: For the Penguins, defenseman Robert Bortuzzo ("upper body") and center Brian Gibbons ("lower body") are questionable. Right wingers Beau Bennett (hand/wrist), Chris Conner (hand), Pascal Dupuis (knee), defensemen Kris Letang (stroke), Paul Martin (hand) and goaltender Tomas Vokoun (blood clots) are on injured reserve. For the Capitals, center Mikhail Grabovski (left ankle) is out. Left winger Aaron Volpatti ("upper body") is on injured reserve.

Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins' held an optional skate. Consider this a guess at their lines and defensive pairigns based on yesterday's practice:

14 Chris Kunitz - 87 Sidney Crosby - 22 Lee Stempniak
36 Jussi Jokinen - 71 Evgeni Malkin - 18 James Neal
17 Taylor Pyatt - 16 Brandon Sutter - 46 Joe Vitale
15 Tanner Glass - 57 Marcel Goc - 27 Craig Adams

4 Rob Scuderi - 2 Matt Niskanen
44 Brooks Orpik - 3 Olli Maatta
47 Simon Despres - 5 Deryk Engelland

The Capitals expected lines and defensive pairings are:

21 Brooks Laich - 19 Nicklas Backstrom - 8 Alex Ovechkin
17 Dustin Penner - 90 Marcus Johansson - 20 Troy Brouwer
25 Jason Chimera - 16 Eric Fehr - 42 Joel Ward
92 Evgeny Kuznetsov - 83 Jay Beagle - 43 Tom Wilson

27 Karl Alzner - 74 John Carlson
81 Dmitry Orlov - 52 Mike Green
38 Jack Hillen - 58 Connor Carrick

Notes:

The last time the Penguins played the Capitals, this happened:

-Bortuzzo and Gibbons could be in the lineup.

-The Penguins have a six-game winning streak against the Capitals.

-Carlson has appeared in 299 career games.

-Goaltender Braden Holtby has appeared in 99 career games.

-Brouwer has 97 career assists.

-Kuznetsov, a first round pick in 2010, is expected to make his NHL debut tonight.

-Our live blog, direct from our couch, begins at approximately 6:45 p.m. Please tune in.

(Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images)

Join the conversation:

Tweet

Western Pennsylvania doesn't have a reputation for producing much top Division I college basketball talent over the past couple decades, but some former players from the district have done some big things this season, evidenced by the honors they received in the past couple days.

You'll be hard-pressed to come up with a year when this many former WPIAL-City League players got this many honors at the Division I level. On top of that, we could see a handful of WPIAL-City League players in the NCAA tournament this year (see below).

But first, the all-conference honors:

T.J. McConnell

University of Arizona point guard T.J. McConnell was named second-team all-Pac 12. While that's quite an honor in a power conference, McConnell might be just as proud of this honor: He was named to the five-player all-Pac 12 defensive team.

And McConnell, a former Chartiers Valley High School star, has been named one of the 24 finalists for the Cousy Award, given annually to the top college point guard in the country. (McConnell is pictured during his Chartiers Valley days).

McConnell is averaging 8.3 points, 3.7 rebounds, 5.5 assists and leads the team in steals with 57. He is 16th in the country in turnover-to-assist ratio (172 to 57) and 30th in the country in assists.

It makes me chuckle that some people are surprised that McConnell would play this much or have such an impact for Arizona. But when McConnell decided to leave Duquesne University and Arizona coach Sean Miller courted him, Miller's design all along was to have McConnell as a starting point guard.

"He's the missing piece to our team's puzzle," Miller said two years ago when McConnell decided to go to Arizona.

Oh, by the way. Shoutout for Miller, the former Blackhawk High School and Pitt point guard who was named the Pac-12 coach of the year. 

DeAndre Kane

Kane is a senior guard at Iowa State who was named first-team all-Big 12 Conference. On top of that, Kane was named today as a third-team All-American by Sporting News, BleacherReport.com and NBCSports.com.

Kane, a former star at Schenley High School in the City League, averages 17.1 points, 6.7 rebounds and finished the regular season 20th in the country in assists at 5.9. (The photo is of Kane in his junior year playing against Aliquippa's Herb Pope in a regular-season game in 2006. It was sort of Kane's coming-out party when he scored 18 points early in the season for a team that featured DeJuan Blair, D.J. Kennedy and Onion Bryant).

Like McConnell, Kane is a Cousy Award finalist. Who would've thunk it: Two Western Pa. players, who attended high schools only 12 miles from each other, are finalists for the Cousy Award. I say tremendous. McConnell and Kane are good examples of how Western Pa. guys can be better than a lot of people - or college coaches - think.

Jesse Reed

Reed isn't as well-known as McConnell and Kane, and he isn't playing on a level like the Pac-12 or Big 12, but what Reed has done is awfully impressive also.

Reed is a 6-foot-5 sophomore guard at American University and named second-team all-Patriot League. He also was named the conference's scholar athlete of the year for basketball.

Reed played at Greensburg Central Catholic and then attended Kiski School in Saltsburg for one post-graduate year. (Reed is pictured during his senior year at GCC). He has helped American reach the championship game of the Patriot League tournament and American plays Boston U. Wednesday night for the right to go to the NCAA tournament.

Reed averages 14.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.2 steals a game. He is shooting 51.4 percent from the field and 472 percent from 3-point range (57 of 125).

Devin Wilson

Virginia Tech got involved with Devin Wilson late in the recruiting process last year when he was a senior at Montour. But the Hokies ended up signing Wilson and Wilson ended up one of the top freshmen in the ACC.

Virginia Tech is having a rough year record-wise, but Wilson (pictured at Montour) has been a bright spot. He was named to the all-ACC freshman team. And how is this for select company. Only five players were named to the team and the others were Jabari Parker of Duke, Tyler Ennis of Syracuse, Kennedy Meeks of North Carolina and London Perrantes of Virginia.

Wilson is fourth in the ACC in assists at 4.8 a game. He is averaging 9.2 points and 3.3 rebounds. He is playing 34 minutes a game and is the only player on the team to start all 30 games.

Consider what McConnell, Kane, Reed and Wilson have done this year, and throw in that Duquesne's Micah Mason (Highlands) led the country in 3-point percentage during the regular season, and it's been quite a year for former Western Pa. players.

Now about the NCAA tournament. Could we see as many as four players from the area in the tourney? McConnell and Kane are in because their teams are locks. I thought Sewickley Academy's Tom Droney might also get in at Davidson, but Davidson lost in the Southern Conference tourney final in overtime last night.

Reed makes it if American beats Boston U. in the Patriot League tourney final Wednesday night. And Gateway's Barnett Harris could make it. He is a freshman at Delaware and Delaware is playing in the Colonial Athletic Association championship tonight against William & Mary. Harris has played in 27 games for Delaware.

Join the conversation:

Tweet

I consider my colleague Sam Werner a friend, but the fact that he titles all of his Pitt football practice blog posts 'Talkin Bout Practice" is something I will never forgive him for, mostly because it means I can't do it.

Anyway, Andy Toole and select players were made available to the media today after practice. With the NEC championship game almost 24 hours away, I'll let A.I. kick things off...

And away we go.

Andy Toole

Does anything change for your team in terms of preparation, given what a big game is is? “That’s what we’ve talked about all year. It has nothing to do with conference tournament time, it doesn’t have to do with anything except that’s how you have to play all year long. You can’t get emotionally too high, you can’t get emotionally too low. You have to go do the things you’re capable of doing and the things we work on every day. Obviously, with the atmosphere surrounding this game, it makes it a little more of a challenge at times, but it’s something we talk about all year long of playing the way we can play, doing the things we can do, controlling the things we can control. Then we’ll give ourselves the best chance to be successful.”

What makes Mount St. Mary's such a consistently good program? “They have good coaching staffs. Obviously Milan Brown, who’s now at Holy Cross, did a great job when he was there. Jim Phelan before that was a legendary coach. Jamion is doing a terrific job. He’s got talented players, he’s got them playing hard, he’s got them playing together and he’s got them playing a good system. They play very well come tournament time and they always have.”

Do you slow them down? Can you play their game? “I don’t think we can play that game as well as they play that game. They obviously like to make the game frenetic. It can be chaotic and speed you up, make you take quick shots. It’s not that we won’t take advantage if we have advantages because we have some guys that can maybe get some looks in those kind of conditions and make plays in those situations. But we don’t want to play as fast as they play. We don’t want to play slow, but we don’t want to play as fast.”

Do you change anything from your past two meetings this season? “Obviously, there are things you have learned from the past meetings that you’re going to try to not necessarily exploit, but maybe lean toward. The problem is making sure guys can handle it in two days. You have to be smart about what you might change or what you might add or what kind of situations you might put guys in. You can’t all of a sudden throw completely new ideas or concepts at them and expect them to be successful at it versus something you’ve been doing for months on end. There are obviously some things we would like to try to tweak, things we can obviously do better. I’m sure they look at it the same way and say ‘We were successful with this in the first game or second game, maybe it’s something we can go to.’ I think both teams will try to figure those things out. Then it will be a battle of who can adjust on the fly during the course of a game to either limit something they’re trying to do or continue to do something that’s allowing you to be successful.”

Does their style of play translate well to these kind of tournaments? “I think obviously if you look at the success of the people who are doing it, it translates well to all games. You look at what VCU has done, you look at Tennessee-Chattanooga, who has an assistant from VCU. They had a great season in the Southern Conference. Then obviously what Mount has done. It’s just a unique style that if you’re not ready for, it’s difficult to face. It’s a unique style that, even if you have a lead or feel like you’re getting some good things early, it can take its toll on you and eventually turn the tide. It’s something that we’ve seen a number of times, we’ve had success against it on a few occasions, they’ve had success on a few occasions. It will be a good battle tomorrow night to see whose style and whose system can be better.”

Karvel Anderson

Thoughts on tomorrow? “I’m very excited. I’m blessed to have the opportunity to even have a chance to play tomorrow. We feel very confident in our chances of winning. We’re very secure in our gameplan and people we have in our locker room and in our uniforms. We’ve just got to go out there and get it done.”

Is it weird to think about what could be coming up? “It is, but we’ve got to try hard not to think about the end of the game until that time comes. We have to focus hard on winning the game first. Preparing and getting ready to actually play the game is what’s been on our minds. I think the start of the game and going into the game is the weirder feeling. Actually being able to go out there and step on the floor for a championship game is the feeling we have going through our bodies right now. We’ll worry about the court storming and all that stuff when the time comes.”

As an athlete, is this kind of a dream scenario? Win and you’re in? “It definitely is. Going to the NCAA tournament has been all of my teammates’ dream, including myself. It’s the reason we play this game at this level. In other conferences, they have to wait for Selection Sunday to see if they get a bid. To have the chance to control your own destiny is something we feel very confident in. It’s a good feeling. It’s on us if we get in or not.”

What makes Rashad Whack so effective on defense? “With him, the most difficult part is actually getting the ball. Once I get the ball, I feel like I can do what I need to do against whoever is guarding me, but he does a very good job of not allowing me to get the ball. He probably does the best individual job of doing that in the league.”

Is there any pressure as the one seed? “Last year was a little different. We had so much experience on that team that I don’t think we really felt like there was pressure. I’m not really sure what happened, but it just kind of fell apart for us at the end. But this year, the only pressure we have is the pressure we put on ourselves. We worked so hard to be put in this position that it would hurt us individually if we didn’t succeed.”

Is there any extra pressure knowing it's your last chance? “As I said, this is my dream right here. Unless something crazy like the Kentucky thing happens, it’ll probably be my final game here no matter what happens. We have a very high sense of urgency tomorrow. We just want to go out there and have fun. Like we said last year with the Kentucky game, ‘Win or lose, leave everything you’ve got out on the floor, empty your tanks.’ That’s why half the team was cramping last year. Just leave everything you’ve got on the floor and we’ll be happy with the result.”

Lucky Jones

Does this kind of game sort of exemplify the 'going to war' motif you all came up with? “The coaches came up with this from the start of the tournament. They got a new motto – ‘We’re going to war each and every game.’ And to play Mount in the championship, who ended our season-long hope of making the NCAA tournament, it just puts more emphasis on why we really wear these shirts.”

How do you prepare for the game? “Enjoy the rest of your day. Life is too short to be stressing about a basketball game that we have to go out and play hard and have fun in. These are the times like this that people come to college to play for.”

Any pressure as the one seed? “I wouldn’t say there was pressure. We were lucky enough to finish number one because of the hard work we put in. In my opinion, we didn’t take Mount as seriously as we needed to. With us being the number-one seed, we thought we had everything in the bag because we had home court and it’s hard to beat us at home. This year, they went on the road and first, they came back by 20 to a New York team who was very physical. Then they went to Wagner and beat them. We’ve got to understand this is a dangerous, dangerous conference. Anybody can win at any given time.”

With having eight guys, does their pressing style become that much more difficult? “Not really. We played them at their house the first time and not much has changed. The only thing that’s changed that was on the court was Jeremiah Worthem, who really helped us out. In the second game, we had to adjust without him. We just took our time. If they’re going to press us, they’re wearing themselves out as well. We’re going to take it play by play and just take our time. We’re not going to rush anything because we’ve seen what happens when we rush – we turn the ball over and do chaotic stuff. That’s what they want us to do. We’re just going to go out there, go with our game plan and try to be successful at it.”

Craig Meyer: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  and Twitter @CraigMeyerPG

Join the conversation:

Tweet