Blues at Capitals
THE STORY: The St. Louis Blues are enjoying success under new coach Ken Hitchcock. The Washington Capitals are hoping their own coaching change will make a similar difference. The Capitals on Monday fired coach Bruce Boudreau, who had guided the team to the Southwest Division title in each of the last four years but posted only a 17-20 record in the playoffs. Boudreau will be replaced by former Washington captain Dale Hunter, who will have his work cut out for him. The Capitals are one of the worst teams in the league at preventing goals and have struggled on the penalty kill. Washington has dropped six of its last eight games while allowing an average of 4.7 goals in the setbacks. Hitchcock has led the Blues to a 7-1-2 record since taking over earlier this month. Hitchcock and company will continue their three-game road trip at Washington on Tuesday.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FS Midwest (St. Louis), CS Washington
ABOUT THE BLUES (13-8-2): Hitchcock may have finally figured out the right combination for his power-play unit. Special teams were something Hitchcock had vowed to fix when he took over behind the bench earlier this month, and though the team had been winning, the Blues were still converting only 8.5 percent on the power play. The man advantage yielded one goal in five opportunities Sunday but it was an improvement as Jason Arnott, T.J. Oshie and David Backes showed strong puck movement and deft passing on the game-winner in St. Louis' 2-1 victory over Columbus on Sunday.
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (12-9-1): Washington seemed to have tuned out Boudreau, who had taken to benching his star players because of performance issues. The Capitals are 13 of 21 (62 percent) on the penalty kill over their last five games. The offense has been a problem as well, managing more than two goals only three times in the last eight contests. Since beginning the season with seven straight wins, the Capitals have gone 5-9-1.
OVERTIME:
1. Backes is minus-4 with two points in five career games against Washington.
2. Capitals goaltender Tomas Vokoun owns a 1.93 goals-against average in 28 career games against St. Louis.
3. Washington took both meetings last season.