Hockey Night In Canada – It’s Saturday night, and the Caps are in Montreal to finish up a weekend set of back-to-back games. On Friday night in Toronto, the Caps won their eighth straight road game – establishing a new franchise standard for consecutive road victories – with a 3-1 triumph over the Leafs.
Since losing back-to-back games for the only time this season on Nov. 21-23, the Caps have put together a six-game point streak (5-0-1).
Connor McMichael – one of several Caps who hail from the Toronto area – was the hero on Friday, scoring the game-winning goal to snap a 1-1 tie midway through the third period. As the Caps aim to double down on their Saturday night visit to Montreal, they have a couple of local products, including one who will be playing here at the NHL level for the first time.
Caps’ forwards P-L Dubois and Hendrix Lapierre are both natives of Quebec. While Dubois has played a number of NHL games here in Montreal in his eight seasons in the League – and has scored four goals here – Lapierre will be playing at Bell Centre for the first time tonight.
As a teenager in 2021-22, Lapierre cracked the Caps’ opening night roster, memorably scoring his first NHL goal on opening night against the Rangers. He played in six NHL games that season before being returned to his junior team, and the only road game Lapierre skated in that season was in Ottawa, just across the river from Canada’s capital city.
Tonight, Lapierre suits up for the first time in Montreal as he takes the ice against the team he grew up rooting for.
“I’m excited,” he says. “Ottawa was fun, because it’s right by my house, so a lot of people were there. But obviously Montreal on a Saturday night, it doesn't get much better than this. I've always been a Canadians fan, and I’ve watched them since I was a kid. I watched all the games, the easy entry to ‘Fix You’ by Coldplay, all that stuff. So I think it's going to be a pretty special night. I’ve got the family coming too, and a bunch of friends.
“But I’m very, very excited. I think it's a super fun opportunity, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Diamonds In The Back – Washington’s remade blueline is one of the many aspects of the team that has taken root and performed extremely well this season. The Caps’ deep group of eight defensemen is near the top of the NHL in offensive production, and they’ve also handled the responsibilities associated with their position with aplomb.
Nearly a third of the way through the season, the Caps’ blueline brigade has combined for 72 points (16 goals, 56 assists) in the team’s 26 games. Their average production of 2.77 points per game is just a shade behind that of League-leading Colorado (2.78), and Washington is – along with Pittsburgh – one of only two teams in the circuit that boasts as many as four defensemen with double-digit point totals to this point of the season.
“I think it’s a big part of today’s game, getting contributions from the back end,” says Caps’ defenseman Jakob Chychrun, whose eight goals are tied for the League lead among defensemen. “You’ve got to keep those plays alive when you can in the [offensive] zone and make it hard on their wingers to clear pucks and having good gaps and everything.
“That’s something I try to focus on. Our forwards are working hard down low to hold onto pucks and tire out other teams’ lines. And when they do that, we want to be able to hem them in a bit. It’s about making those reads, and when the opportunity is there, to keep the puck alive. It’s definitely important. And obviously, I love shooting the puck. I love finding and making plays, finding sticks and trying to contribute offensively.”
Last season, the Caps finished the campaign with a total of 135 points (20 goals, 115 assists) from their back end, ranking 30th in the League in that department, ahead of only San Jose (114 points) and Chicago (104). Washington’s average of just 1.65 points per game from the blueline was its first season under the two-point average mark since 2015-16 (1.89) and its lowest since 2010-11, a season in which the team’s defensemen managed just 1.48 points per game.
Washington still leads the NHL with an average of 4.04 goals per game, and the defense has obviously been a factor in the Caps’ significant offensive uptick this season. But the group has been good in its own end, too. The Capitals have yielded 2.77 goals against per game this season, the seventh best rate in the League.
Another impressive feature of the Caps’ current top six is that all are capable of playing 20 or more minutes on a given night. Ageless wonder John Carlson has skated 20 or more minutes in 25 of 26 games this season, but each of the other five members of the top six has logged 20 or more minutes on at least five occasions this season, led by Chychrun’s 10.
Carlson’s average of 24:18 per night is tops among the top six and Trevor van Riemsdyk’s 18:10 is sixth.
“We feel like all eight of our NHL guys can play games and can contribute,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “We want to have three pairs – with our depth – that can play against the majority of lines on any given night on the road.”
In The Nets – Logan Thompson gets the start for the Caps on Saturday night in Montreal. Thompson has been in net for three of the eight victories on Washington’s current eight-game road winning streak, and he has fashioned a 1.33 GAA and a .955 save pct.in winning those three games. He is a perfect 4-0-0 in four road starts this season.
Since the beginning of November, Thompson is 6-1-2 in nine starts, with a 2.21 GAA and a .927 save pct. Among all goaltender with at least seven appearances over that span, Thompson is fourth in save pct. and seventh in GAA.
Thompson is making his first career appearance against Montreal tonight.
For the Habs, we expect Sam Montembeault to be the starting goaltender tonight. Montembeault enters tonight’s game on the heels of a 29-save shutout of the Nashville Predators on Thursday night. In winning each of the first two games of Montreal’s current season-long five-game homestand, he has permitted just one goal on 60 shots.
Lifetime against the Capitals, Montembeault is 2-2-0 in five appearances (four starts) with a 3.34 GAA and an .895 save pct.
All Lined Up – Here’s how we believe the Caps and the Canadiens might look when they take to the ice on Saturday night in Montreal:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
21-Protas, 17-Strome, 43-Wilson
24-McMichael, 80-Dubois, 16-Raddysh
29-Lapierre, 20-Eller, 88-Mangiapane
22-Duhaime, 26-Dowd, 63-Miroshnichenko
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
38-Sandin, 3-Roy
6-Chychrun, 57-van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Extras
13-Vrana
27-Alexeyev
52-McIlrath
Out/Injured
8-Ovechkin (fractured fibula)
15-Milano (upper body)
19-Backstrom (hip)
77-Oshie (back)
MONTREAL
Forwards
13-Caufield, 14-Suzuki, 15-Newhook
92-Laine, 77-Dach, 20-Slafkovsky
11-Gallagher, 28-Dvorak, 17-Anderson
51-Heineman, 71-Evans, 40-Armia
Defensemen
48-Hutson, 8-Matheson
52-Barron, 47-Struble
72-Xhekaj, 58-Savard
Goaltenders
35-Montembeault
30-Primeau
Extras
21-Guhle
55-Pezzetta
Out/Injured
31-Price (knee)
64-Reinbacher (knee)
