Capitals at Avalanche: Lines, Notes, & How to Watch

The Washington Capitals (24-19-6) begin a six-game, 12-day road trip on Monday afternoon. Their first stop is Denver to face the Colorado Avalanche (33-5-8) at Ball Arena.

The puck drops at 4:00 p.m. ET.

The Capitals are set to embark on their longest road trip since Nov. 26-Dec. 7, 2022. After Colorado, they will face Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Seattle, and Detroit.

The Capitals are coming off a three-game homestand where they went 1-2. They rallied to beat Montreal, but fell to San Jose and Florida.

Throughout the season, the Capitals have been dealing with a series of ups and downs. They currently rank 10th in the Eastern Conference and have still not won consecutive games since early December.

Although they gave up the game-winning goal to Florida, the Capitals penalty kill unit has seemingly improved. They are killing at a rate of 82.9 percent, which is fifth-best in the league.

However, the power play is much worse at 13.6 percent, ranking 29th in the NHL. Injuries have been a key factor why the man advantage just hasn’t been clicking as of late.

Most recently, the Capitals loaned forward Brett Leason back down to AHL Hershey. That opens up the possibility of Tom Wilson or Justin Sourdif returning from injuries.

Meanwhile, Colorado is the NHL’s top team and has earned points in 41 of its first 46 games this season. They started by pulling points in 22 straight games (19-0-3) on home ice. However, that streak ended on Friday when Colorado lost to Nashville 7-3.

The Avalanche will be playing their fifth of a seven-game homestand on Monday. The team went 2-1-1 in their first four games.

Expected Capitals Analysis

Forwards

Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Anthony Beauvillier

Aliaksei Protas – Connor McMichael – Tom Wilson

Ethen Frank – Nic Dowd – Ryan Leonard

Brandon Duhaime – Hendrix Lapierre – Ivan Miroshnichenko

Defensemen

Martin Fehervary – John Carlson

Jakob Chychrun – Matt Roy

Rasmus Sandin – Trevor van Riemsdyk

Goalie

Logan Thompson

Expected Avalanche Lines

Forwards

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas

Ross Colton – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin

Parker Kelly – Jack Drury – Victor Olofsson

Zakhar Bardakov – Ivan Ivan – Gavin Brindlay

Defensemen

Sam Malinski – Cale Makar

Josh Manson – Brent Burns

Samuel Girard – Ilya Solovyov

Goalie

Scott Wedgewood

How to Watch

TV: Monumental Sports Network

Radio: 106.7 The Fan/Caps Radio Network

By Harry Lichtman

Harry Lichtman is an award-winning journalist who covers the Washington Capitals for Sportsnaut. He also contributes to the sites ... More about Harry Lichtman