MONTREAL — The Washington Capitals have no time to sit back and digest their high-octane win over the Edmonton Oilers from Wednesday night at Capital One Arena. Washington is right back at it at Bell Centre on Thursday, facing the Montreal Canadiens for the first time since beating them in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring.
The last time the Capitals were at Bell Centre, winger Tom Wilson leveled Montreal defenseman Alexandre Carrier with a hit in the neutral zone that led directly to Washington’s go-ahead goal in Game 4 of the series. The Capitals took control in that third period after Wilson’s hit, and won Game 5 on home ice to close out the series.
“We’re very familiar with them. I think we played them eight times last year, including the playoffs, so we know them really well from a personnel standpoint,” Washington Coach Spencer Carbery said. “A little bit of a few subtle changes from last year, we noticed structurally in a few different areas. A very dangerous rush team, offensive zone possession, the ability to break you down in one-on-one situations, cut back, hold onto pucks and then find openings inside of those. And then they’ve got some game breakers with [defenseman Lane] Hutson and [center Nick] Suzuki.”
In the first meeting of the new season, both teams are dealing with injuries to key players. Washington is without center Pierre-Luc Dubois for the next several months, and center Nic Dowd didn’t travel to Montreal after missing Wednesday’s game with an upper-body injury.
For the Canadiens, Patrik Laine, Kaiden Guhle, Alex Newhook and Kirby Dach are all out with injuries.
Charlie Lindgren will start in goal for Washington. Lindgren began his professional career with Montreal in 2016 after signing with the Canadiens as an undrafted free agent; he spent five full seasons in the organization.
Capitals at Montreal Canadiens
Time: 7 p.m. Eastern
Location: Bell Centre, Montreal
TV/radio: Monumental Sports Network; 106.7 the Fan
Capitals projected lines
Forwards
Anthony Beauvillier — Dylan Strome — Alex Ovechkin
Aliaksei Protas — Justin Sourdif — Tom Wilson
Brandon Duhaime — Connor McMichael — Ryan Leonard
Sonny Milano — Hendrix Lapierre — Ethen Frank
Defensemen
Martin Fehervary — John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun — Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
Charlie Lindgren
Logan Thompson
Canadiens projected lines
Forwards
Cole Caufield — Nick Suzuki — Zack Bolduc
Juraj Slafkovsky — Oliver Kapanen — Ivan Demidov
Joshua Roy — Jake Evans — Josh Anderson
Jared Davidson — Joe Veleno — Brendan Gallagher
Defensemen
Mike Matheson — Noah Dobson
Jayden Struble — Lane Hutson
Arber Xhekaj — Alexandre Carrier
Goaltenders
Sam Montembeault
Jakub Dobes
Pregame reading
His first goal was a beauty. His second? Just watch.
Connor McMichael shifted to wing and rediscovered a spark for the Capitals
This NHL rookie is living the dream. That doesn’t mean life is easy.
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