The Washington Capitals (10-8-2) have won consecutive games for the first time in nearly a month. They will look for their third straight win when they visit the Montreal Canadiens (10-6-3) at Bell Centre on Thursday night.
The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. ET.
Thursday’s game in Montreal finishes the fifth set of back-to-backs this season. It’s also the first time the two teams meet since the Capitals eliminated Montreal in the first round of last year’s playoffs.
The Capitals are coming off back-to-back home wins over Los Angeles and Edmonton on Monday and Wednesday, respectively. One thing to note is that the Capitals never trailed in either game.
The Capitals took care of business on Wednesday night with a 7-4 win over Los Angeles. They had been in a stretch of seven home games in a span of eight.
Both games featured shuffling of the forward lines from head coach Spencer Carbery. Nic Dowd had to miss Wednesday’s victory due to an upper-body injury, and he’ll miss Thursday too.
Dowd was able to play all 82 games last season, but that obviously won’t happen again this year. He was one of seven Capitals players to accomplish that feat. The only two Capitals players that can do it again are Brandon Duhaime and Connor McMichael.
Ryan Leonard also had one of the best games of his career on Wednesday night. He scored twice to record his first career multi-goal game. Also in the same game, McMichael finished with three assists, including both of Leonard’s goals.
Meanwhile, Montreal has dealt with a ton of injuries, despite starting the season 9-3-0. Montreal has been on a four-game slide at 0-3-1, which will make Thursday’s game against the Capitals a huge challenge.
Expected Capitals Lines
Forwards
Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Anthony Beauvillier
Aliaksei Protas – Justin Sourdif – Tom Wilson
Brandon Duhaime – Connor McMichael – Ryan Leonard
Sonny Milano – Hendrix Lapierre – Ethen Frank
Defensemen
Martin Fehervary – John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun – Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin – Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goalie
Logan Thompson
Expected Canadiens Lines
Forwards
Cole Caulfield – Nick Suzuki – Zach Bolduc
Juraj Slofkovsky – Oliver Kapanen – Ivan Demidov
Joshua Roy – Jake Evans – Josh Anderson
Jared Davidson – Joe Veleno – Brendan Gallagher
Defensemen
Mike Matheson – Noah Dobson
Jayden Struble – Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj – Alexandre Carter
Goalie
Sam Montembeault
How to Watch
TV: Monumental Sports Network
Radio: 106.7 The Fan/Caps Radio Network
Harry Lichtman is an award-winning journalist who covers the Washington Capitals for Sportsnaut. He also contributes to the sites … More about Harry Lichtman