NHL: Washington Capitals at San Jose Sharks
Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images

The Washington Capitals (24-17-6) continue their three-game homestand on Thursday night. They will host the San Jose Sharks (23-19-3) at Capital One Arena.

The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. ET.

The Capitals began the homestand on Tuesday when they rallied to beat Montreal 3-2 in OT. The team trailed 2-0 in the third when Ethen Frank scored twice, while Connor McMichael recorded the game-winner.

Frank has been on a roll lately with four goals in his last three games. In fact, the last three goals came from around the same spot, between the hash marks.

Since scoring twice against Montreal on Nov. 20, Frank has 10 goals on the season. He is tied with Aliaksei Protas for fourth on the team across that stretch.

If the Capitals beat the Sharks on Thursday night, they will have strung together victories for the first time since early December. Washington’s previous winning streak was capped with a sixth consecutive victory against San Jose on Dec. 3.

Meanwhile, San Jose opens a four-game road trip where they play two sets of back-to-back games. They head to Detroit on Friday, then take a day off, and then head south to face Florida and Tampa Bay.

San Jose last played on Sunday at home when its three-game winning streak was ended by Vegas 7-2. The Sharks have surrendered exactly seven goals against in each of their last three losses. The team also gave up seven goals to the Capitals when they lost 7-1 in early December.

Expected Capitals Lines

Forwards

Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Ethen Frank

Aliaksei Protas – Connor McMichael – Ryan Leonard

Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Anthony Beauvillier

Sonny Milano – Hendrix Lapierre – Brett Leason

Defensemen

Martin Fehervary – John Carlson

Jakob Chychrun – Matt Roy

Rasmus Sandin – Dylan McIlrath

Goalie

Logan Thompson

Expected Sharks Lines

Forwards

Igor Chernyshov – Macklin Celebrini – Collin Graf

William Eklund – Alexander Wennberg – Tyler Toffoli

Pavol Regenda – Michael Misa – Adam Gaudette

Barclay Goodrow – Zach Ostapchuk – Ryan Reaves

Defensemen

Dmitry Orlov – John Klingberg

Mario Ferraro – Timothy Liljegren

Sam Dickinson – Vincent Iorio

Goalie

Alex Nedeljkovic

How to Watch

TV: Monumental Sports Network

Radio: 106.7 The Fan/Caps Radio Network

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