Photo: Fox Sports
The Washington Capitals will clash with the Calgary Flames on Monday night (8:30 PM ET, Monumental Sports Network locally, NHL Network nationally) in the final meeting between the two teams this season. Washington came back from down 2-0 to win, 3-2, in a shootout at Capital One Arena in their second game of 2023-24 and the two teams’ first duel. Washington is 7-1-1 in their past nine games vs. Calgary dating back to 2018.
Schedule
Washington: finishes five-game Northwest road trip, stretch where they play on the road for six of seven (4-2-0 so far)
Calgary: concludes four-game homestand (2-1-0) before having four days off prior to their next game
How Each Team Is Doing
Washington: is 10-5-2 in last five weeks, has won two in a row after a 2-1 win over Vancouver Canucks on Saturday
Calgary: has won last two after a 5-2 victory vs. Montreal Canadiens on Saturday since dropping three straight, is 4-4-0 since four-game winning streak to end February was snapped
Standings
Washington: 32-25-9 (.553 points percentage — fourth in Metropolitan Division, eighth in Eastern Conference); one point back of Detroit Red Wings (with two games in hand) for second wild-card spot, five behind Tampa Bay Lightning (one) for the first, three back of Philadelphia Flyers (two) for third place in Metropolitan Division; tied with New York Islanders (one) in wild card standings, four ahead of Pittsburgh Penguins (one) and Buffalo Sabres (two)
Calgary: 33-29-5 (.530 points percentage — fifth in Pacific Division, 11th in Western Conference); eight points behind Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings (with each team having played 67 games) for third place in Pacific Division/final wild-card spot in West
Team Leaders
Neither team has a skater in the top-43 league-wide in scoring. Over 37% of Calgary’s offense comes from the three forwards on their leaderboard, and that includes the production they got from Elias Lindholm, Noah Hanifin, Chris Tanev, and Nikita Zadorov, all of whom have been traded since Thanksgiving.
Team Statistics
Calgary ranks fourth in penalty-killing efficiency while both teams allow awfully similar shots-per-game averages.
Both teams are close in PDO but Calgary holds the edge in nearly every other category besides team save percentage. None of these numbers are particularly sparkling.
Expected Goalie Matchup
Lindgren could make his third straight start and 20th in the past 28. His statistics are better than Wolf’s across the board, though with a much larger sample size.
Injuries/Illnesses
Washington
- C Nicklas Backstrom (hip)
Calgary
- C Dillon Dube (personal)
- C Connor Zary (upper-body)
- G Jacob Markstrom (lower-body)
Projected Lines
Washington
Alex Ovechkin — Connor McMichael — T.J. Oshie
Ivan Miroshnichenko — Strome — Tom Wilson
Max Pacioretty — Hendrix Lapierre — Sonny Milano
Beck Malenstyn — Nic Dowd — Aliaskei Protas
Martin Fehervary — Carlson
Rasmus Sandin — Nick Jensen
Alexander Alexeyev — Trevor Van Riemsdyk
Lindgren
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched: C Michael Sgarbossa, RW Nicolas Aube-Kubel, D Ethan Bear
Calgary
Jonathan Huberdeau — Kadri — Martin Pospisil
Andrew Mangiapane — Mikael Backlund — Coleman
Dryden Hunt — Sharangovich — Andrei Kuzmenko
A.J. Greer — Kevin Rooney — Matt Coronato
Oliver Kylington — Andersson
MacKenzie Weegar — Daniil Miromanov
Joel Hanley — Brayden Pachal
Wolf
Dan Vladar
Scratched: RW Jakob Pelletier, RW Walker Duehr, D Dennis Gilbert, D Nikita Okhotiuk
Betting Odds (BetMGM)
Washington: +110, Calgary: -130
Over-under: 6 (-115 over, -105 over)
By Harrison Brown