While the Montreal Canadiens have lost pretty much every game between the month of December and now, the Washington Capitals have lost just six games in regulation. The Habs are in Washington tonight to take on the NHL’s best team, a team currently on a 9-1-0 run in its past ten, and has the NHL’s most wins at 44 and a winning percentage 13% higher than the NHL’s second best team at 79.31 percent.
Although the Canadiens are trying to keep the perception of hope up, the fact of the matter is that the Habs have 22 games left and have a lot of ground to make up, seven points back and with two more games played than the eighth place Pittsburgh Penguins.
While last year’s trade deadline build up saw the Habs add some grit to bolster their playoff run, this year, the Canadiens will be sellers at the deadline, with the likes of Dale Weise immersed in trade rumours involving multiple teams. Paul Byron was signed to a three-year deal last night, putting rest to rumours about him being moved. There is still a long list of players who could potentially be moved between now and next Monday at 3PM, so if there’s anything to watch for at this point, it’s either hoping for a miraculous end of season run, or watching some of these guys in a Habs uniform for the last time.
Lineup Notes: Victor Bartley draws into the lineup in place of Nathan Beaulieu who was injured Monday against the Preds; Dale Weise is back in the lineup after missing Monday’s game with the flu; Lucas Lessio will be a healthy scratch to make room for Dutch Gretzky, who has been slotted into the top line replacing Sven Andrighetto who moves down to the fourth.
The puck drops at 7:00 PM EST.
How To Watch:
In Canada (French): RDS
In Canada (English): Sportsnet East
In the Capitals region: CSN-DC+
Elsewhere: NHL GameCenter, NHL Center Ice
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Max Pacioretty | Lars Eller | Dale Weise |
| Alex Galchenyuk | Tomas Plekanec | Brendan Gallagher |
| Tomas Fleischmann | Jacob de le Rose | Paul Byron |
| Sven Andrighetto | Torrey Mitchell | Devante Smith-Pelly |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Andrei Markov | P.K. Subban |
| Alexei Emelin | Greg Pateryn |
| Victor Bartley | Mark Barberio |
| Goaltenders |
| Mike Condon |
| Ben Scrivens |
Scratched: Lucas Lessio
Injuries: Carey Price (lower body), Daniel Carr (lower body), Jeff Petry (lower body), Brian Flynn (lower body), David Desharnais (broken foot), Tom Gilbert (lower body), Nathan Beaulieu (lower body)
| Left Wing |
Center |
Right Wing |
| Alex Ovechkin | Evgeny Kuznetsov | Justin Williams |
| Andre Burakovsky | Nicklas Backstrom | T.J. Oshie |
| Jason Chimera | Marcus Johansson | Tom Wilson |
| Brooks Laich | Mike Richards | Michael Latta |
| Left Defense |
Right Defense |
| Matt Niskanen | Karl Alzner |
| Nate Schmidt | John Carlson |
| Brooks Orpik | Dmitry Orlov |
| Goaltenders |
| Braden Holtby |
| Philp Grubauer |
Scratched: Stanislav Galiev, Taylor Chorney
Injuries: Jay Beagle (upper body)
Check out the enemy over at Japer’s Rink.
