Red Wings at Capitals
The Washington Capitals reached 37 victories one day after they did last season despite a relatively slow start and look to extend their current winning streak to five when they host the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday. The Capitals boast points in 28 of their last 32 games (24-4-4) and lead the league with 80 after posting their second straight 5-0 triumph on Tuesday against Carolina.
Washington continues to get strong goaltending, leads the league in goals-against per game (2.04) and is getting offensive contributions throughout the lineup. “As long as I’ve been here, the equal share of scoring hasn’t been this distributed in a long time,” Capitals forward Tom Wilson told reporters. “It’s awesome to see the third and fourth (line) chip in. You know those superstars in the top six are going to get it done every night too.” The Red Wings are fighting to stay in the Eastern Conference playoff race while gaining points in three straight (2-0-1) after Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime loss to Columbus. “We need results,” Detroit coach Jeff Blashill told reporters. “We got a point, but we need to get two.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, FSN Detroit, CSN Mid-Atlantic (Washington)
ABOUT THE RED WINGS (22-21-10): Thomas Vanek recorded his 13th goal of the season Tuesday to take over the team lead and boasts 33 points – five behind captain Henrik Zetterberg for the top spot in scoring. Defenseman Niklas Kronwall (lower-body) and center Frans Nielsen (shoulder) are expected to miss their third straight contest Thursday, but could be back in a week or perhaps sooner. Goalie Petr Mrazek (12-12-6, 3.07 goals-against, .899 save percentage) might get a fourth consecutive start after turning aside 98 of the 105 shots he faced the last three.
ABOUT THE CAPITALS (37-11-6): The current third line of Brett Connolly, Lars Eller and Andre Burakovsky each chipped in with double-figure goals and coach Barry Trotz told reporters, “We didn’t have that on that third line last year.” Connolly owns three goals and three assists in the last four games and tallied 11 times overall - one shy of his career high with Tampa Bay in 2014-15 - while Eller scored in back-to-back contests. Nicklas Backstrom leads the team with 54 points – seven during a current five-game streak – and captain Alex Ovechkin boasts a team-best 26 goals.
OVERTIME
1. Detroit F Dylan Larkin leads the team with 125 shots and owns 12 goals, but has only 19 points while sitting second-to-last on the team with a minus-15 rating.
2. Washington G Braden Holtby is 7-2-0 with a 1.75 goals-against average in his career against the Red Wings, including a 1-0 shutout Nov. 18.
3. The Red Wings, who are last in the league on the power play (11.4 percent), went to overtime or a shootout in five of their last nine games – losing four of them.