Alex Ovechkin will try to match the longest goal-scoring streak of his NHL career when the Washington Capitals visit the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
Ovechkin has scored a goal in six straight games for the fifth time in his NHL career. The only time he scored in seven consecutive games was during his rookie season in 2005-06.
Ovechkin, 38, enters the game with 836 goals in his career, 59 away from breaking the NHL record owned by Wayne Gretzky.
Ovechkin extended his streak when he scored a power-play goal with 11 minutes remaining in the third period of a 6-3 loss to the visiting Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, the eighth loss in the past nine games for Washington.
“I think the effort’s been there, but I think at the end of the day we’re not winning and we’re not good enough,” Washington forward Connor McMichael said. “The compete’s there, the effort’s there, but we’ve got to start capitalizing on our chances and tighten up on our mistakes.”
Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said Washington’s puck handling has been a big issue.
“I find our puck touches are a real struggle,” Carbery said. “It’s just not polished. It’s in someone’s skates. It’s on their backhand. It’s a grenade into the corner. It’s a missed pass.”
The Canadiens are coming off a 7-4 loss against the New York Rangers on Thursday, their lone road game sandwiched between five at home.
Montreal had a 1-0 lead midway through the second period, but then gave up four goals in a 4:10 span and lost for the third time in the past four games.
“Momentum is something that you’ve got to be able to harness,” Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. “We kind of had the game in control (in the second period), and it gets away from us quick. It’s a lesson we’ll learn tonight and hopefully we won’t repeat.”
On the bright side for the Canadiens, rookie forward Juraj Slafkovsky had a goal and an assist against the Rangers to extend his points streak to seven games (six goals, five assists).
“We want to win these games and we want to stay in the mix for the playoffs, so we have to do a better job,” Slafkovsky said. “We can’t let seven goals in. You can’t win the hockey game when that happens.”
The Canadiens should have the confidence of knowing they beat the Capitals in their previous two meetings this season.
After Washington scored twice in the third period to tie the score at 2 in their first matchup Oct. 21 in Montreal, Cole Caufield scored 47 seconds into overtime to give the Canadiens a 3-2 win.
They met again on Feb. 6 in Washington D.C. and Montreal scored three goals in the first period and never looked back in the 5-2 win.
Slafkovsky scored two goals in that win, which is part of the eight losses in nine games for the Capitals.
“We’re tired of losing hockey games,” Washington goalie Charlie Lindgren said. “We need to start stringing together wins. We really got zero choice, so it’s win now or we make our own bed.”
Lindgren and Darcy Kuemper have alternated starts the past five games, so Kuemper would be in line to start against Montreal.
– Field Level Media
