The Washington Capitals failed to get their offense untracked in their first game since the team announced superstar captain Alex Ovechkin will be sidelined four to six weeks with a broken left fibula.

The Capitals will look for a better showing on Saturday night when they host the New Jersey Devils. The Metropolitan Division rivals each skated away with a win on the other’s home ice last month.

Washington was unable to generate much in the way of offense in Thursday’s 2-1 setback to the visiting Colorado Avalanche, save for Pierre-Luc Dubois’ goal late in the first period. As a result, the Capitals saw their three-game winning streak come to a halt.

The game was Washington’s first since Ovechkin exited Monday’s 6-2 win over the Utah Hockey Club with 14:30 remaining following a collision with Utah forward Jack McBain. Ovechkin, 39, has scored 13 of his team-leading 15 goals over his last 11 games played.

“It’s an unfortunate injury,” Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. “Anytime you lose your captain, anytime you lose a player that is having the year that he’s having and playing as well as he’s playing — he’s such a big part of our team. … He’ll be back at some point for us. Now we just need other guys to do more.”

Andrew Mangiapane was elevated to the top line to play with Dylan Strome and Aliaksei Protas on Thursday, while Hendrix Lapierre was inserted into the third line to work alongside Lars Eller and Jakub Vrana.

“We had a couple new combinations, guys maybe feeling each other out a little bit,” rugged forward Tom Wilson said, per the Washington Post. “But I think we could definitely hold on to more pucks and create a little bit more offensively.”

Ovechkin, naturally, would have a hand in that — as the Devils would attest. The three-time Hart Trophy recipient had an assist in Washington’s 5-3 loss to New Jersey on Oct. 12 and a goal in a 6-5 overtime victory versus the Devils seven days later.

New Jersey captain Nico Hischier collected two goals among his four points in the two previous games against the Capitals. Hischier scored all 10 of his goals this season in October and is joined by Jesper Bratt and Stefan Noesen for the team lead.

Speaking of Bratt, he scored two goals and set up another while Jack Hughes had three assists in the Devils’ 4-2 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.

“Bratter is just playing elite right now,” Hughes said. “We’re connected. We’re moving the puck well and finding our groove but it’s about staying consistent throughout the year.”

Noesen also scored a goal against his former team while battling an illness. The goal was his third in his last three games and 10th in 22 contests this season after recording a career-high 14 in 81 games in 2023-24 with the Hurricanes.

“Noesen was a game-time decision,” New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. “He almost didn’t play … Then he scores that goal against his former team.”

–Field Level Media

While without another key performer, the Vancouver Canucks hope to have two others along for the ride when they open a six-game trip against the Ottawa Senators, who are mired in their longest slide of the season.

The struggling Canucks will try to right the ship by handing the Senators a fifth straight loss Saturday night.

Vancouver has lost two straight and four of six following a 7-1-1 stretch, and the team announced this week that star J.T. Miller will take a leave of absence for personal reasons. It’s reported he likely won’t be available through this road stretch.

“We don’t know when he’ll be back,” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said of Miller, who is second on the team with 16 points.

Vancouver has also been without fellow All-Star Brock Boeser (upper-body injury), who has 11 points in 12 games, for the past six contests. But it’s been reported Boeser is with the team for this trip and could be set for a return to the ice.

Also, fellow star Thatcher Demko is expected to join the Canucks on this Eastern road trip. However, it’s uncertain when he’ll make his season debut following a knee injury suffered in the 2024 playoffs.

“I definitely know that I’ll be playing here,” said Demko, who set career bests with 35 wins, a 2.45 goals-against average and a .918 save percentage last season.

“I can’t give you the timeline yet, but I’ll definitely be back. (I’m) just enjoying being where I am today and keep making progress.”

In the meantime, veteran Kevin Lankinen has been solid in Vancouver’s net with a 2.71 goals-against average in 13 starts. However, he’s allowed four goals apiece in each of his last two. Backup Arturs Silovs, who made 29 saves in Tuesday’s 4-3 loss to the New York Rangers, is 1-3-1 with a 3.91 GAA in six games (five starts) this season.

The Canucks have not suffered three consecutive regulation losses in 2024-25. The club has won four in a row amid a 5-0-1 stretch versus Ottawa.

Quinn Hughes has a team-leading 19 points, and 18 in 17 career games against the Senators. Meanwhile, teammate Elias Pettersson, with five goals and four assists in the last eight games, has recorded 10 goals and 10 assists in 13 games versus Ottawa.

The Senators have struggled to win consistently. They’ve allowed 17 goals while mired in an 0-3-1 rut after winning two straight. That said, Ottawa battled Vegas hard during Thursday’s 3-2 home loss.

“We just need to keep working, keep believing in each other,” said the Senators’ Drake Batherson, who scored his eighth goal Thursday. “You can’t get down. Just come to the rink positive and work hard.”

Former Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark has allowed 13 goals during his current 0-2-1 starting stretch for the Senators, but made 29 saves against the Golden Knights. Teammate Anton Forsberg has yielded three goals apiece in losing his last two starts.

Despite Ottawa’s middling performance to begin the season, Tim Stutzle has recorded 17 of his team-leading 23 points at home. He has a goal and five assists spanning his last five games versus Vancouver.

–Field Level Media

Things are starting to look up for the Seattle Kraken.

The Kraken won five of six games on their just-completed homestand to surpass hockey’s version of .500 (10-9-1) and move within a point of the Western Conference’s two wild-card playoff spots.

Seattle will try to carry that momentum into Saturday’s game against the host Los Angeles Kings, who have lost three of their past four games.

The Kraken dropped four road games in a row — a span in which they scored just four goals — before returning home.

“We were obviously losing those games, and I think your confidence, momentum and mindset starts to change a little bit,” Kraken center Matty Beniers said. “So, I think being able to get home, we just kind of had a couple of days off. We were able to get some really good days of practice and make sure that our mindset and game was good and together.

“And then we were able to get that first win … and once that happens, you build confidence, and you build chemistry from there.”

The Kraken are coming off a 3-0 victory against visiting Nashville on Wednesday as Joey Daccord made 24 saves for his first shutout of the season. Brandon Montour (one goal, one assist) and Chandler Stephenson (three assists), Seattle’s big offseason acquisitions, sparked the offense.

Forward Jared McCann, the Kraken’s leading scorer with nine goals and 21 points, scored three times during the homestand, including an overtime winner against Vegas.

“The way things ended on the road trip, we felt like we’d let some games get away from us,” McCann said. “Obviously, it wasn’t good but coming home here we kind of turned the page and just tried to focus on the next game.

“I mean, it’s just more of a mental thing. You’ve got to get past that mental block. We didn’t have our best (on the road), but you’ve got to just push that aside and worry about the next one.

“That’s kind of the way we had to look at it and it’s worked out for us.”

The Kings lost 1-0 to visiting Buffalo on Wednesday despite 18 saves by David Rittich. It was the first time this season that Los Angeles was blanked.

“There’s nights that I’m really frustrated with how we played, and it’s hard to be disappointed with the guys (Wednesday),” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “They tried, it didn’t go their way. Live with it and move on.”

The Kings came close to scoring several times, including a two-on-one rush late in the second period when Trevor Moore tried to pass to Phillip Danault instead of shooting.

“Just one too many passes,” Hiller said. “We thought Mooresy should have shot it. If the pass gets through and Phil taps it in the back door, we’re saying, ‘Wow, what an incredible goal.’ So you can’t take that decision-making off the players. They have to play hockey and choose what’s right in the situation.

“On a night like (Wednesday) where it was hard to find a goal, you don’t want to pass too many up. Maybe that was one that we passed up.”

–Field Level Media

Bruce Cassidy became the eighth active coach in the NHL to hit the 400-win mark on Thursday when his Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights held on for a 3-2 victory at Ottawa on Thursday. But the Ottawa native had little time to celebrate.

The Golden Knights jumped on a train for Montreal shortly after the contest and will continue a season-long five-game road trip against the resurgent Canadiens on Saturday night.

“It feels great,” Cassidy said of hitting the 400-win milestone. “You never know where your numbers are going to end up but I’m going to tell you that in this business I’m just worried about No. 401 right now.”

The win over the Senators was the second game of a back-to-back that began with the team’s first shutout loss since early January, 3-0, at Toronto on Wednesday. It was just the fourth road victory in 10 games (4-4-2) for Vegas, which improved 6-0-1 all-time at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Ilya Samsonov made 38 saves, including 16 in the final period when the Senators outshot the Golden Knights, 18-5, and Pavel Dorofeyev scored his team-leading 10th goal midway through the third period for what proved to be the game-winner as Vegas snapped a two-game losing streak.

“We managed to get it to the finish line,” Cassidy said. “That’s a good win for the team even though it got a little hectic there but you’ve got to find ways to win. There are no easy wins in this league, so good on the guys.”

Now the Golden Knights play a Montreal team that has won two straight and three of its last four games and is coming off an impressive 3-0 blanking of Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers on Monday. Sam Montembeault made 30 saves for his second shutout of the season, Jake Evans had a goal and an assist and Brendan Gallagher and Kaiden Guhle also scored to lead the Canadiens.

“I’m just really proud of the way we played tonight,” Montembeault said after posting his third career shutout. “The last few games we took a really good step in the right direction defensively and now we’ve just got to be more consistent with it.”

Montembeault is 3-1-0 with a 0.93 goals-against average and .966 save percentage and a shutout in his last four games.

Montreal outscored Columbus and Edmonton, 8-1, in the two wins but still has allowed an Atlantic Division-high 71 goals this season and is minus-17 in goal differential.

“The win was great,” Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis said. “Obviously the result. But to me it’s how we won that galvanized the group. … To me, it’s how we did it, not so much the result. I feel, right now, we’re in a good place to reinforce the stuff that’s working.”

It will be the third game in four nights for the Golden Knights while Montreal is enjoying a rare four-day break. Montreal held team practices on three of those days.

“We should come out with some good energy (Saturday),” St. Louis said. “I think our start is (going to be) very, very important.”

–Field Level Media

The Florida Panthers and Colorado Avalanche, who both have Stanley Cup aspirations this season, have been going in different directions entering Saturday’s matchup in Sunrise, Fla.

Florida is 1-4-0 in its past five, while Colorado is 5-1-0 in its past six.

Panthers coach Paul Maurice, however, said he is not particularly concerned over a 3-1 loss at Chicago on Thursday.

“This is bigger,” Maurice said. “This is a five-game block. We played one (game) we liked, and that’s not good enough for us.”

That one game the Panthers liked was a 6-0 home win over NHL-leading Winnipeg last Saturday. But other than that, the Panthers have struggled, and Maurice bemoaned his team’s unforced turnovers on Thursday.

On offense, Maurice said his players were “late on a whole bunch of things out there” that could’ve been goals.

The reigning Stanley Cup champions have stars all over the ice, including forwards Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk, defenseman Gustav Forsling and goalie Sergei Bobrovsky.

Reinhart has a 12-game points streak (10 goals, eight assists) and entered Friday tied for the NHL lead in goals with 15.

Barkov, the team captain and one of the NHL’s best defensive forwards, has missed eight games this season. But he is still tied with Reinhart for the team lead in assists with 15.

Tkachuk, who has missed five games, has five goals and eight assists in 15 contests. However, his value goes far beyond the numbers as the heart and soul of the team.

Forsling, an offensive defenseman, has 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in 20 games and leads the team in plus/minus at plus-13.

Bobrovsky, who is expected to start on Saturday, is 9-4-1 this season with a 2.98 goals-against average and a .893 save percentage. For his career, he is 12-4-2 with a 2.66 GAA and a .912 save percentage against Colorado.

The Avalanche, meanwhile, are coming off a 2-1 win over host Washington on Thursday.

Colorado coach Jared Bednar said his team’s depth has been showing up during this recent hot streak.

“All four lines are contributing,” he said.

Like the Panthers, the Avalanche have stars up front, on the blue line and between the pipes. Center Nathan MacKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar are considered by many to be among the top five players in the NHL. Winger Mikko Rantanen has turned in two straight 100-point seasons and goalie Alexandar Georgiev is coming off his first All-Star Game in 2024.

MacKinnon, a seven-time All-Star and the reigning league MVP, has averaged 125 1/2 points over the past two seasons. This season, he led the NHL in assists (27) and was tied for first in points (34) entering Friday.

Rantanen, a two-time All-Star, has nine goals over his past eight games. For the season, he leads Colorado with 13 goals and is tied for second with Makar in points (28).

Makar, a three-time All-Star and the Rookie of the Year in 2020, won the Norris Trophy in 2022 as the league’s best defensemen. Entering Friday, he leads all NHL blueliners in points.

Georgiev is 5-5-0 with a 3.31 GAA and a .874 save percentage. He missed two games due to an upper-body injury before returning on Thursday to beat Washington with 28 saves.

For his career against Florida, Georgiev is 2-3-0 with a 3.78 GAA and a .903 save percentage.

–Field Level Media