NHL: The Canadian welcomes the Capitals who are struggling these days

Pre-match

After losing to one of the powers in the ring on Thursday, the New York Rangers, the Canadian receives a visit this evening from a club that is going through tough times these days, the Washington Capitals.

In fact, the Caps have just one win in their last nine games, notably losing 5-2 to CH during this series, on February 6 in Washington.

Washington's failures at the moment put the team out of the playoff picture, six points out of last place, allowing them to reach the Eastern Conference.

Therefore, there is a great opportunity for Martin St. Louis's forces to recover after the harsh 7-4 setback it inflicted Blue shirts.

Arber Xhekaj also stated that he believed the team was competitive with New York until the slide in the middle period. For his part, Martin St. Louis was very satisfied with the start of the match: “It was 1-0 and it could have been 3-0. We controlled the game in the first 30 minutes, and we didn't give them much.”

The author of the first goal during Thursday's match, Jake Evans, says that he is happy to be able to contribute, as he is the one who wanted to be able to improve his game. When asked about the chair that Evans occupies, the CH coach believes that this position can help him: “These training “It will allow him to develop as a player. He will be more confident, and he will also have more touches. His three have brought us a lot recently. »

Jake Allen will be the starting goaltender for the Habs in this meeting, while no other changes will be made to the lineup.

Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slavkovski can take advantage of this to extend successful offensive sequences. The captain will try to extend his streak of games with at least one point to 10, while Slavkovski will try to do the same for the eighth match in a row. This is the best offensive sequence of the two linemen's careers.

Suzuki and Cole Caufield also did not participate in the team's morning training session to undergo treatment.

Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin is also having a good time as he has scored a goal in each of his last six games.

The Habs will be looking for a third win in as many games against the Capitals this season.

Harris is in training, Dutch is still skating

For the second day in a row, defenseman Jordan Harris participated in the Canadian's morning practice wearing a jacket that reminded him that he could not make contact. Harris surprised Samuel Bliss of the St. Louis Blues last Sunday.

Forward Kirby Dutch, who is recovering from a knee injury that ended his season, skated again in a tracksuit before his teammates took to the ice.

Kirby Dutch, who started skating again on Wednesday, returned to the ice this morning wearing tracksuits. The club confirms that it is out of the question for him to return to play this season. pic.twitter.com/nvrMeSU8Xm

– Luc Gelinas (@LucGelinasRDS)
February 17, 2024

More details to come