Welcome to the NHL On Tap, a daily look at the games on the NHL schedule. There are four games on the schedule for Friday , including one nationally televised in the United States and one in Canada.
Games of the day
Pittsburgh Penguins at Washington Capitals (7:30 p.m. ET; HULU, ESPN+, SN, TVAS)
For the 70th time in their NHL careers -- and first time this season -- Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin will play against each other. Crosby, the Penguins captain, has 90 points (31 goals, 59 assists) in the matchups for Pittsburgh (5-8-2) and Ovechkin, the Capitals captain, has 67 points (37 goals, 30 assists) for Washington (9-3-0). In those 69 games, the Penguins are 40-25-4, the Capitals 29-30-10. Ovechkin continues his march toward Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record of 894 goals, with eight this season and 861 in his career. The game also features three players with at least 500 NHL goals in Ovechkin, Crosby (598) and center Evgeni Malkin (502) for the first time since Feb. 17, 2008, when Jeremy Roenick, Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan played in a game between the New York Rangers and San Jose Sharks.
Detroit Red Wings at Toronto Maple Leafs (7 p.m. ET; TSN4, TVAS-D, FDSNDET)
The Red Wings (6-5-1) and Maple Leafs (7-5-2) get set for the annual Hockey Hall of Fame game, with the seven new members of the Hall -- Natalie Darwitz, David Poile, Pavel Datsyuk, Shea Weber, Krissy Wendell-Pohl, Colin Campbell and Jeremy Roenick -- expected to drop the puck. Auston Matthews was placed on injured reserve Friday because of an upper-body injury and will miss at least the next two games, but the Maple Leafs are 36-19-2 all-time without the center since he entered the NHL in 2016-17, including a 4-0 win against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
Minnesota Wild at Anaheim Ducks (10 p.m. ET; FDSNWIX, FDSNNOX, Victory+, KCOP-13)
Kirill Kaprizov has been among the most dynamic players in the NHL this season, and with three assists in a 5-2 win at the Sharks on Thursday, extending his road multipoint streak to seven games. He’s the fourth active player with such a streak of that length, along with Nashville Predators forward Steven Stamkos (eight with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2017-18), Predators defenseman Roman Josi (eight in 2021-22) and Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid (seven in 2020-21) and will try to extend that Friday for the Wild (9-2-2). The Ducks (4-6-2) have lost three in a row (0-2-1). Forward Troy Terry had an assist in a 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday to give him 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his past 11 games.
