Photo by John McCreary/NHLI via Getty Images

The Washington Capitals host the Montreal Canadiens for the final time this season when they meet in the District on Saturday afternoon, New Year’s Eve. Washington took the first meeting by a score of 3-1 on October 15 and are 5-0-1 in their last six vs. Montreal, including four straight wins.

Action from Capital One Arena can be seen on NBC Sports Washington in-market or ESPN+ out-of-market starting at 4 PM ET.

SCHEDULE

Montreal: continue four-game Southeast road trip after dropping the first two by a combined score of 11-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning and Florida Panthers on back-to-back nights, stretch where they play seven straight away from Bell Centre (1-3-1 so far)

Washington: continue three-game homestand where they play just Atlantic Division opponents, which opened with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Thursday

RECORDS

Montreal: 15-18-3/.458 points percentage – last in Atlantic Division, 14th in Eastern Conference; 6-9-3 on road, 19th in NHL

Washington: 20-13-5/.592 points percentage – third in Metropolitan Division (but sixth in points percentage), tied for fifth in Eastern Conference (ninth); 11-5-2 at home, tied for seventh

HOW EACH TEAM IS DOING

Montreal: four straight losses, are 4-9-2 since November 29 (third-worst)

Washington: have points in six straight (5-0-1) and are 10-1-1 in last 12, 13-3-2 in their last 18 since dropping nine of their previous 11 (2-6-3)

TEAM LEADERS

Montreal

• RW Cole Caufield (19 goals)
• C Kirby Dach (17 assists)
• C Nick Suzuki (31 points, 20:58 TOI/game) — excluding D Mike Matheson (24:14)/D David Savard (22:17)

Notes: Caufield, 21, has gone scoreless in four straight and has a -4 rating over that span; Suzuki, 23, has gone scoreless in five straight, has a -4 rating over that span, and has just one goal in his last seven (-8); RW Josh Anderson has one goal, one assist in last eight and went scoreless in three straight before scoring in Florida; LW Mike Hoffman ended a three-game scoring drought with an assist on Thursday, has just one goal, two points in last nine; D Arber Xhekaj has one goal, three points in last three; LW Juraj Slafkovsky has gone scoreless in seven straight; LW Brendan Gallagher has gone scoreless in five straight but didn’t play for a month over that stretch; LW Evgenii Dadonov has just two goals, eight points in 29 games this season

Washington

• LW Alex Ovechkin (23 goals, 42 points)
• C Evgeny Kuznetsov (24 assists)
• D Dmitry Orlov (22:23 TOI/game) — excluding D John Carlson

Notes: Ovechkin, 37, has 21 goals and 37 points in his last 32, including 10 goals, 17 points, five multi-point efforts in his last 12; Kuznetsov, 30, has 11 assists and 14 points over his last 13, including two goal and seven points in his last six; LW Anthony Mantha has just two assists in his last seven; D Erik Gustafsson has a +14 rating over his last nine and five goals, 10 points over a six-game point-streak; LW Sonny Milano has two goals, six points in his last seven; LW Conor Sheary has four assists, five points over three-game point-streak; C Nic Dowd has four goals, six points in his last eight

KEY TEAM STATS

Goals-per-game:                 MTL – 2.61 (T-28th)     WSH – 3.11 (17th)

Goals-against per game:   MTL – 3.58 (T-26th)     WSH – 2.74 (T-9th)

Power Play:                          MTL – 14.9% (32nd)     WSH – 21% (T-20th)

Penalty Kill:                         MTL – 75.4% (22nd)     WSH – 81.8% (7th)

Shots-per-game:                 MTL – 28.2 (30th)         WSH – 31.3 (18th)

Shots-against per game:   MTL – 33.5 (26th)          WSH – 30.5 (T-11th)

Faceoff-winning %:           MTL – 50.2% (13th)       WSH – 48.8% (T-21st)

5v5 Corsi-for %:                 MTL – 47.91% (24th)     WSH – 50.66% (16th)

5v5 x Goals-For %:            MTL – 44.04% (29th)    WSH – 50.9% (17th)

5v5 SCF %:                          MTL – 44.35% (26th)    WSH – 50.92% (13th)

5v5 Shooting %:                 MTL – 8.39% (15th)       WSH – 8.04% (21st)

5v5 Save %:                         MTL – .9073 (28th)       WSH – .9235 (9th)

5v5 PDO:                             MTL – .991 (24th)          WSH – 1.004 (14th)

EXPECTED STARTING GOALTENDERS

Montreal: Jake Allen, 32 — 9-14-1, .900 save percentage, 3.29 goals-against average in 24 games this season; 3-3-0, .902 save percentage, 2.97 goals-against average, one shutout in six career games vs. Washington

Washington: Charlie Lindgren, 29 — 10-4-2, .912 save percentage, 2.60 goals-against average in 17 games this season; 22 saves (.957 save percentage) in St. Louis Blues’ 4-1 win over Montreal on December 11, 2021, the lone appearance he has made against his former team in his career

INJURIES/ILLNESSES

Montreal

• Matheson (lower-body, will miss sixth straight game, out indefinitely)
• Savard (upper-body, 13th, week-to-week)
• G Carey Price (knee, 37th, entire season)
• LW Paul Byron (hip, 37th, indefinite)
• C Sean Monahan (lower-body, 12th, week-to-week)

Washington

• Carlson (upper-body, third, indefinite)
• RW Connor Brown (ACL, 35th, indefinite)
• LW Carl Hagelin (hip, 39th, indefinite)
• RW Tom Wilson (ACL, 39th, indefinite)
• C Nicklas Backstrom (hip/COVID-19 protocol, 39th, indefinite)
• RW T.J. Oshie (upper-body, sixth, day-to-day)

PROJECTED LINEUPS

Montreal

Caufield — Suzuki — Dach
Hoffman — Jake Evans — Anderson
Slafkovsky — Christian Dvorak — Gallagher
Dadonov — Jonathan Drouin — Joel Armia

Joel Edmundson — Kaiden Guhle
Xhekaj — Johnathan Kovaceviche
Jordan Harris — Justin Barron

Allen
Sam Montembault

Scratched: LW Mike Pezzetta, C Anthony Richard, D Chris Wideman

Washington

Ovechkin — Kuznetsov — Sheary
Milano — Dylan Strome — Mantha
Marcus Johansson — Lars Eller — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Aliaksei Protas — Dowd — Garnet Hathaway

Gustafsson — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Orlov — Nick Jensen
Martin Fehervary — Matt Irwin

Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper

Scratched: LW Joe Snively, D Lucas Johansen, D Alex Alexeyev

By Harrison Brown