Caps vs Habs; Back to business!
Tonight our fearless Capitals (33-11-5) head to the Bell Centre, to take on the Montreal Canadiens (22-21-7) . This is our first game since January 18th, before the All-star break. Which we was on a three game win streak. Our last game before the break was an unbelievable come- from-behind in a 4-1 deficit against the Islanders, to win 6-4. Tonights game will be our second of three games against Montreal. Our last meeting the Habs bested us by a score of 5-2, to break our 13 game pt. streak.
Tonight we will be without Alex Ovechkin, since he has a one game suspension for his decision to miss the All-star game. Ovechkin had scored 8 goals in three games before the break. This will be our first game this season without our captain. We will get to see the return of Travis Boyd tonight. The lines for the Capitals tonight will be as follows
Panik – Backstrom – Wilson
Vrana – Kuznetsov – Oshie
Hagelin – Eller – Boyd
Leipsic – Dowd – Hathaway
Kempny – Carlson
Orlov – Jensen
Seigenthaler – Gudas
Lines for the Habs..
Tatar – Danault – Kovalchuk
Domi – Suzuki – Armia
Poehzing – Kotkaniemi – Lehkonen
Cousins – Thompson – Weiss
Chariot – Weber
Kulak – Detry
Mete – Fluery
Price
Starting between the pipes tonight is Braden Holtby. Holtby is 18-9-4 with a 3.09 GAA and .897 sv % . He has been in a bit of a slump lately, hopefully tonight he will pull himself together and be the netminder that we all know and love. In his last game vs Islanders, he was pulled after letting 4 in. But our young Samsanov stepped up and our boys put their boots on and put in work, for an amazing comeback victory!
The Habs went into the break winning four out of their last five games. They have also recently signed Ilya Kovalchuk after Los Angeles put him on waivers. Since joining us has scored four goals and eight points in eight games. The Habs need to jump over four teams in order to get a chance in the playoffs.
Tonight will be a chance for Boyd to make a good show with Ovechkin being out. The Capitals will need to work on their power play, since December they are ranked 30th in the NHL at 14.1 percent. Time to turn up the heat after the break! Puck drops at 7pm.
