Capitals at Red Wings
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin was foiled in his initial bid to become the league's top Russian-born goal scorer in last week's meeting with the Detroit Red Wings. The three-time Hart Trophy recipient will give it another go on Wednesday when he attempts to move ahead of longtime Red Wing Sergei Fedorov as the Capitals pay a visit to Joe Louis Arena.
Ovechkin unleashed a career high-tying 15 shots in Washington's 1-0 setback to Detroit on Nov. 10 and has been held off the scoresheet in each of his last three contests. Despite playing with Ovechkin for 10 years, former Capital and current Red Wings defenseman Mike Green isn't aware of a strategy that can consistently neutralize the superstar forward. "Even playing with him, I don't know what other teams did or said; they tried everything and he would still have chances," Green told MLive. "We talked about it before the game and he still ended up getting 15 shots."
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ABOUT THE CAPITALS (11-4-1): Washington has been idle since its 3-2 overtime loss to Calgary on Friday, allowing coach Barry Trotz to get a bit creative in his spare time. Trotz elected to pair Ovechkin with center Nicklas Backstrom - as opposed to countryman Evgeny Kuznetsov - in practice on Monday. While Trotz made no guarantees, the coach noted that Ovechkin and Backstrom have "scored too many goals together; for me to just ignore that, that would not be smart on my part."
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (9-8-1): Looking for offense, Detroit unleashed a season-high 37 shots on goal in Monday's 4-3 overtime win against Ottawa. Tomas Tatar's tally ended the wild contest for the Red Wings, who mustered more than two goals in a game for the first time in seven outings while reaching the 30-shot plateau for just the second time in 18 contests. Coach Jeff Blashill did not reveal his hand in regard to his starting goaltender, but Petr Mrazek appears to be in line after stopping all 38 shots in the previous meeting with Washington.
OVERTIME
1. Detroit C Andreas Athanasiou scored his first career NHL goal in the teams' last meeting, but has been held without a point in each of his last three contests.
2. Capitals G Braden Holtby, who has yielded six goals in his last four outings, suffered the hard-luck loss versus the Red Wings last week despite making 26 saves.
3. Detroit assigned F Tomas Jurco to Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League for a conditioning stint on Tuesday.