photo from russianmachineneverbreaks.com: The Washington Capitals Evgeny Kuznetsov at the Saturday morning skate at the Capital One Centre in Washington preparing for their game 3 meeting for Saturday night

On the NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast with Matt:

#1 Washington Capitals’ top scorer Evgeny Kuznetsov is expected to be back in the lineup on Saturday night in Washington for game three. With the series tied at 1-1, Kuznetsov in Game 2 in Vegas was hit into the boards by the Vegas Golden Knights’ Brayden McNabb. The hit crumpled Kuznetsov to the ice holding his left wrist. Doctors and trainers have worked on Kuznetsov and say he good to go for Game 3. He was originally listed as day-to-day.

#2 Talk about the Capitals’ top players versus the Knights’ top players. For the Caps, Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Tom Wilson. For the Golden Knights, Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, and Reilly Smith

#3 Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has allowed more goals per game in the finals than he did in the playoffs. Matt talks about those allowed Fleury goals.

#4 For the playoffs the Knights have scored first in 13 of their 17 contests and took 11 of those games. The Knights are potent in getting the lead in the first period–they’ve won seven out of eight times.

#5 So it’s Game 3 tonight for Washington a win on home ice would give them a 2-1 lead and an advantage going into Game 4 on Monday night. For the Knights a win would not only give them the one-game lead, but also a shot at a two-game lead if they can win Game 4 and a leg up going back to Vegas.

Matt Harrington does the NHL Stanley Cup Finals podcast each Saturday at http://www.sportsradioservice.com