The Washington Capitals host the Los Angeles Kings, who have an NHL-best 13-2-1 road record, on Sunday afternoon (3 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network locally, NHL Network nationally) for the final meeting of the season between the two teams. Washington won the first game by a score of 2-1 at Crypto.com Arena on November 29.
Schedule
Los Angeles: begin six-game road trip after going 0-1-2 on a three-game homestand
Washington: continue five-game homestand (tied for their longest of the season) and stretch where they host eight of 10 games (1-2-1) at Capital One Arena
How Each Team Is Doing
Los Angeles: has lost four in a row (0-2-2) and eight of their last 12 (4-5-3)
Washington: has dropped back-to-back games (getting outscored 12-5) and six of their last seven (1-4-2)
Standings
Los Angeles: 20-9-6 (.657 points percentage — second in Pacific Division, fifth in Western Conference); three points behind Vegas Golden Knights for second in division (with four games in hand) and five behind Vancouver Canucks for first (three) in actual points
Washington: 18-13-6 (.568 points percentage — tied for sixth in Metropolitan Division, ninth in Eastern Conference with Pittsburgh Penguins); two points back of New Jersey Devils (with both teams having played 37 games), Philadelphia Flyers (one) for wild-card spots, four behind New York Islanders (one) for third in Metropolitan
Team Leaders
The graph pictures each teams’ player leaders. Doughty leads the NHL in average ice time-per-game.
Team Statistics
The following chart shows Los Angeles and Washington’s game averages going into Sunday afternoon. Los Angeles allows the fewest goals and has the best penalty kill. They also fire the most pucks on goal and trail only the Carolina Hurricanes in shots-against.
The final graph looks at both teams’ underlying numbers at five-on-five. Los Angeles is worse than only Carolina in Corsi-for percentage in addition to the Edmonton Oilers in expected goals-for percentage. They also rank fourth in both scoring chances-for percentage and shooting percentage.
Injuries/Illnesses
Los Angeles
- RW Viktor Arvidsson (back)
- G Pheonix Copley (ACL)
Washington
- C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
- RW Sonny Milano (upper-body)
- RW T.J. Oshie (lower-body)
- G Charlie Lindgren (upper-body)
- D Rasmus Sandin (illness)
Expected Goaltending Matchup
Los Angeles: Cam Talbot, 36 — 14-8-3, .925 save percentage, 2.10 goals-against average, two shutouts; 13 saves (.867) vs. Washington in November
Washington: Darcy Kuemper, 33 — 9-9-2, .891 save percentage, 3.25 goals-against average in 20 games
Projected Lines
Los Angeles
Quinton Byfield – Anze Kopitar – Moore
Kempe – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Alex Laferriere
Fiala – Phillip Danault – Arthur Kaliyev
Blake Lizotte – Trevor Lewis – Carl Grundstrom
Mikey Anderson – Doughty
Vladislav Gavrikov – Matt Roy
Jordan Spence – Brandt Clarke
Talbot
David Rittich
Scratched: C Jaret Anderson-Dolan, D Andreas Englund
Washington
Ovechkin — Evgeny Kuznetsov — Tom Wilson
Aliaksei Protas — Connor McMichael — Anthony Mantha
Max Pacioretty — Strome — Hendrix Lapierre
Beck Malenstyn — Nic Dowd — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Martin Fehervary — Carlson
Joel Edmundson — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Alexander Alexeyev — Ethan Bear
Kuemper
Hunter Shepard
Scratched: D Nick Jensen, RW Matthew Phillips
Betting Odds (BetMGM)
Los Angeles: -155, Washington: +130
Over-under: 5.5 (-120 over, +100 under)
By Harrison Brown
Vrana has been recalled to the Blues.
That is encouraging so he is not fully dead in the water yet. Everyone loves a good come back story!
New HC, they need a forward immediately, yes, a chance for him to make a new start.
In the injury department, Ovi took a maintenance day and is a game time decision for tomorrow. So the team is more banged up.
I look at Ovie taking a maintance day more a product of being 38 than anything else. Surprised that he does not take more of them especially when there are back to backs or like this where ther are 4 games in 6 days. Totally expectto see mor eof it as the season goes on.
Staal fell on Ovi’s left leg, and his knee got twisted underneath him, in the middle of the third period. He played only, what, two shifts in the last 10 minutes or so. Might still be hurting. Hope it’s not his collateral ligaments (LCL, MCL). If so, could be out anwh from 2 to 5 months. At least he was able to get back on the ice, so I hope it’s not that serious. But it could plague him going forward.
With the way this season is going, Ovie will need to have his leg amputated