Capitals at Islanders
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin routinely has gashed the New York Islanders throughout his impressive career - just not this season. After being held without a point in each of the first three contests, Ovechkin looks to resume his dominance of the cellar-dwelling Islanders on Tuesday as the Metropolitan Division rivals return from the Christmas break for a tilt at the Barclays Center.
Ovechkin scored his 15th goal of the season and 540th career in Washington's 4-0 rout of Tampa Bay on Friday, moving one shy of tying Stan Mikita for 30th place on the NHL's all-time list. The three-time Hart Trophy winner has collected 47 points (32 goals, 15 assists) in his first 41 career encounters before being held off the scoresheet in three meetings this season - including two in December. While Washington is 7-1-2 this month, New York was mired in a five-game skid (0-4-1) before erupting for nine goals to record back-to-back wins to enter the break with optimism. Thomas Greiss made 28 saves in Friday's 5-1 victory over Buffalo to improve to 6-2-0 in his last eight starts, with two goals or fewer yielded in five of those six wins.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, CSN Mid-Atlantic (Washington), MSG-Plus2 (New York)
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (20-8-4): Braden Holtby has rediscovered his Vezina Trophy-winning form by recording his third shutout of the season and 26th career on Friday to improve to 5-1-2 with a 1.47 goals-against average and .949 save percentage in his last eight starts. Like Greiss, the 27-year-old Holtby has been downright stingy by permitting two goals or fewer in seven of those last eight outings and takes a 12-2-3 career mark versus the Islanders into Tuesday's tilt. Nicklas Backstrom has also owned New York to the tune of 33 points (nine goals, 24 assists) in 34 career encounters and resides three assists shy of 500 for his career.
ABOUT THE ISLANDERS (13-4-6): Ryan Strome scored and set up a goal on Friday, has three goals in his last five games overall and also netted his team's lone tally in a 2-1 loss to the Capitals on Oct. 15. Josh Bailey has set up four goals during his three-game assist streak and also had a helper in New York's 3-0 triumph at Washington on Dec. 1. Bailey's 21 points this season are second only to captain John Tavares (24), who had been limited to just one assist in his previous five games before scoring against the Sabres on Friday.
OVERTIME
1. New York LW Anders Lee has scored 11 of his team-leading 12 goals over his last 15 games.
2. The Capitals have won two of three meetings with the Islanders this season, but have lost six of eight versus the rest of the Metropolitan representatives.
3. The Islanders have killed off all five short-handed situations over the last two games after yielding eight power-play goals in their previous five.