Caps Take on Habs in Montreal

February 10 vs. Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV:NBCSW
Radio:Capitals Radio 24/7, 106.7 FAN
Washington Capitals (25-14-9)
Montreal Canadiens (8-30-7)

Reeling from a stretch in which they've won only five times in 15 games (5-8-2) since the calendar flipped to 2022, the Caps take a quick trip north of the border to take on the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night. The game marks the Capitals' first visit here in just over two years, since Washington earned a 4-2 victory over the Canadiens on Jan. 27, 2020 at Bell Centre.
The Caps navigated their way past the midway mark of the season before losing consecutive games in regulation for the first time in 2021-22, and for the first time since last April. But after falling 5-4 to Columbus on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena, the Caps have now dropped consecutive regulation games twice in a span of two weeks. All four of those losses have also come consecutively at home, the first time Washington has dropped four in a row in regulation in D.C. since it dropped six straight home games in regulation nearly 15 years ago, from Oct. 26-Nov. 26, 2007.
The loss to the Jackets was particularly vexing because the Caps scored first for the first time in their last six home games and lost hold of two leads in the second period, a two-goal lead and a one-goal advantage. After falling down a goal early in the third, the Caps pulled even at 4-4 on Tom Wilson's 6-on-5 goal with 2:26 left. But for the second straight game, the Caps came away empty-handed in a game that was all even with five minutes left. Boone Jenner's goal with 42.2 seconds left won it for the visitors.
"[Tuesday] night we had an opportunity to win a game, and we failed," says Caps coach Peter Laviolette. "We didn't get it done. And so, no excuses on that from us. It needed to be better in certain areas through the game, it certainly needed to be better once we tied the game and had it on the line and had a point in front of us. We needed to get that done and push it to overtime and try to get the second point, and we didn't.

"The year has been one of those years. Certainly, we'd like to have everybody healthy, we'd like to have everybody back, but that has not presented itself to us. We play the cards that we're dealt, and we look at that game [Tuesday] night without any excuse and say that we should have walked away with points and we didn't."
The cards dealt for Thursday's game in Montreal are missing Washington's ace captain, Alex Ovechkin. Just back from the COVID-19 protocol earlier this week, Ovechkin isn't permitted to enter Canada so soon after leaving the list. The Capitals endured a similar situation in Winnipeg in mid-December when Nic Dowd and Trevor van Riemsdyk headed home after the Caps' game in Chicago because they weren't allowed to travel to Winnipeg, the site of Washington's next game.
Special teams and goaltending have been problematic for the Caps during their recent struggles, but they've played well during patches and pockets of most of their games of late. Washington roared out to a 14-3-5 start on the season, but it has been played to what passes for .500 in the modern NHL (11-11-4) since.
"We feel in the room that we're in all these games and we have chances to win," says Washington winger Conor Sheary. "We seem to blank for either a couple of minutes or one power play or whatever it might be, and we're just letting teams crawl back into games and win.
"I think we're doing a lot of good things. We're getting a lot of chances. Some guys are snake bitten and not scoring as much, but overall there's no panic. It's just one of those things where maybe if we get one, we get rolling. And hopefully, we can start that [Thursday]."

Although the Caps have struggled mightily on home ice for the last two months, they've forged a 6-2-2 record in their last 10 road games.
Saddled with the League's worst record by far, the Canadiens made a coaching move on Wednesday afternoon. The Habs relieved Dominque Ducharme of his head coach position just months after reaching the Stanley Cup Final, and they've replaced him with Hockey Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis, who will be stepping directly into the coaching profession at the NHL level and as a head coach.
Playing without goaltender Carey Price and defenseman Shea Weber since the outset of the season, the Canadiens have yet to win consecutive games at any point in 2021-22, and they've won only eight of their first 45 games.
Ducharme's death knell was a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2) in which each of the last five losses have come in regulation, and during which the Habs have yielded 33 goals in those five games. Montreal is midway through an eight-game homestand, and it will play six of its next seven games at Bell Centre overall.