Music: {allcanada} CAPITALS (42-25-10) at CANADIENS (47-22-8)

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

{allcanada} CAPITALS (42-25-10) at CANADIENS (47-22-8)

ESPN Fantasy Baseball / Yahoo Fantasy Baseball

Thursday, April 2, 2015

7:30 PM ET

CAPITALS (42-25-10) at CANADIENS (47-22-8)

TV: RDS, SNE, CSN-DC

Season series: The Montreal Canadiens have an opportunity to sweep the Washington Capitals in a season series for the first time in 24 years. Montreal, which went 3-0-0 against Washington in 1990-91, needed to go beyond regulation in each of its two wins this season. Canadiens goalie Carey Price earned the shutout and Max Pacioretty scored in overtime for a 1-0 win at Bell Centre on Jan. 31, and Brendan Gallagher scored the deciding goal in a 2-1 shootout win on Oct. 9.

Capitals team scope: Washington (94 points) has the Pittsburgh Penguins and New York Islanders in its sights when it begins a three-game trip against Atlantic Division opponents. The Capitals are fourth in the Metropolitan Division and occupy the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference. "It's a real big trip for us," coach Barry Trotz told the Capitals website. "Everything's in our hands and we've got to go out and play well, that's plain and simple." Alex Ovechkin scored 50 goals for the sixth time Tuesday in the Capitals' 4-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes. Ovechkin's goal was the 472nd of his NHL career, which tied Peter Bondra's Capitals record. Trotz said Wayne Gretzky called Ovechkin to congratulate him on tying Bondra's record and for joining him as one of six NHL players with at least six 50-goal seasons. Forward Jay Beagle (upper body) will not make the trip to Montreal.

Canadiens team scope: Coach Michel Therrien was not interested in revisiting the struggles this season against the Tampa Bay Lightning, who completed a five-game sweep of the Canadiens on Monday. "The only thing that we concentrate on is the next game, so the game on Monday is behind us," Therrien said after practice Wednesday. Goalie Carey Price was asked about Ovechkin reaching 50 goals again. "He's got a couple of really good playmakers playing with him," he said. "They find him all over the ice [and] obviously he gets a lot of time on the power play throughout the season so it is impressive." Therrien believes defenseman Tom Gilbert will be ready to return. Gilbert, who is wearing a clear plastic jaw protector on his helmet, has missed four games since he was struck in the face by a puck for a second game in a row in a 2-0 win against the San Jose Sharks on March 21.

Team Stats