Montreal @ Washington preview
Capital One Arena
Last Meeting ( Feb 17, 2024 ) Washington 4, Montreal 3
The Washington Capitals have been riding high with six wins in their last seven games.
The Montreal Canadiens, in turn, couldn't have felt much lower after being on the business end of a shellacking in their last outing.
The Capitals aim to continue their winning ways on Thursday when they host the Canadiens, who dropped an 8-2 decision to the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday for their fifth loss in their last seven games (2-4-1).
Washington recorded its fourth consecutive win in the nation's capital following its 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Tuesday.
Superstar captain Alex Ovechkin scored twice in a span of 1:47 in the first period to double his goal total this season and boost his career tally to 857. The three-time Hart Trophy recipient is 38 goals shy of passing Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky for the most in NHL history.
"I thought he was fantastic tonight," Washington coach Spencer Carbery said of Ovechkin. "I thought he was skating. I thought he had the puck. I thought he made good decisions with it. He should be real confident after his performance tonight."
Ovechkin recorded at least one point in all three games versus Montreal in 2023-24, although the Canadiens skated away with two wins in the season series.
Ovechkin's linemates also fared well on Tuesday, with Aliaksei Protas scoring a goal and setting up two others while Dylan Strome notched a pair of assists for the Capitals.
"Yeah, first couple games we just play out there and try to find the right thing and right now it's kind of clicking," Ovechkin said of his line. "You can see (Strome) playing unbelievable, win the faceoff, feeling the puck and when you have two guys when they feel the puck, it's very important for you to just try to get open and find the shot."
The Capitals also have been limiting shots by the opposition. They held the Rangers to 19 on Tuesday, marking the second time they've held a foe under 20 this season.
While Washington is taking steps forward, Montreal took a giant step backward in its lopsided loss. The Canadiens yielded four goals in the first 10:33 of the contest to bring out the boobirds at the Bell Centre.
"It's so frustrating right now, to answer all these questions," defenseman Mike Matheson said, per the Montreal Gazette. "I don't want to let my emotions say something tomorrow I'll regret."
Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki wasn't too happy either after seeing his seven-game point streak come to a halt.
"You're down 4-0 10 minutes in after we played two good games," Suzuki said, per the Montreal Gazette. "I'm just trying to move on right now. We were slow right from the start. We weren't forechecking very well."
The lone bright spot was Cole Caufield, who scored in his third straight game and for the ninth time in 10 games this season. Caufield scored off an assist from former top overall pick Juraj Slafkovsky, who returned from a three-game absence due to an upper-body injury.
--Field Level Media