The 8-8-5 Chicago Blackhawks pay a visit to Washington Wednesday night without Joel Quenneville behind the bench for the first time since 2008 to take on the 10-7-3 Capitals at Capital One Arena. Quenneville, relieved of his duties, is the second winningest coach in NHL history with 890 wins and he finished with a 452-249-96 record overall with a 76-52 playoff record and three Cups with the Hawks. Jeremy Colliton was promoted from AHL Rockford to be the new bench boss and he enters the NHL as the youngest coach at 33.
The Capitals return home after a successful yet trying road trip that saw them win three of four while dealing with some injuries to Kuznetsov, Oshie, Holtby and Orpik. Braden Holtby returned to the line-up last game vs Montreal as he relieved starter Pheonix Copley in the second period to help the Caps escape with an OT win over the Habs.
Making his first regular season relief appearance since Nov. 29, 2014, Braden Holtby earned his third career relief win, and his first since April 5, 2012 when he defeated FLA in relief of Michal Neuvirth, the night the #Caps clinched playoff berth in penultimate game of season.
— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) November 20, 2018
Kuznetsov and Oshie will not play tonight as they remained off the ice for practice and Orpik is on LTIR for 4-6 weeks.
No Oshie or Kuznetsov (both upper body) for Capitals morning skate today. So, looks like they're out again vs. Chicago tonight.
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) November 21, 2018
Something will give tonight as the Caps look for their first three game winning streak of the season but also try and break a two game slide at home in Capital One after losses to Columbus and Arizona before the latest road trip. Washington hasn’t lost three in a row at home in over a year.
Washington should be able to take advantage of a weak Blackhawks special teams. Their penalty kill sits 27th in the NHL at 74.6% and on the road 74.3% while the Capitals continue to be strong on the PP with a 29.7% rate and fourth overall but are even more deadly at home where the PP is scoring at a 36.8% rate good enough for 2nd in the league.
The Capitals penalty kill is still a work in progress though the return of Tom Wilson has helped. Brooks Orpik being out has likely hurt the Caps most here as the Caps sit 29th in NHL PK efficiency at 73.3% while at home it’s slightly worse at 70.3%. However, the Hawks have surprisingly struggled on the PP as a team boasting the likes of Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith are 29th in the NHL with the man advantage at only 14.1%. On the road they are even worse with a dismal 10.1% rating.
Patrick Kane paces the Blackhawk scoring with 25 points and leads in both goals (12) and assists (13). Captain Jonathan Toews is having a great year as well so far with 10 goals and 18 points in 21 games. Duncan Keith will be out against the Backstrom line most of the game as he paces the Hawks ice time leaders playing over 23 minutes a game.
Alex Ovechkin continues to lead the Capitals scoring attack with 15 goals placing him 2nd in the NHL two behind Boston’s David Pastrnak (17). His 23 points tie him with Nicklas Backstrom for the team lead in points. Additionally, Ovechkin’s 7 power play goals have him one back of league leader Pastrnak.
The lineup tonight will again feature Backstrom skating with Ovechkin and Wilson as they produced many scoring chances in Montreal. Tom Wilson has looked great since returning registering 1 goal and 5 points in four games while firing 9 shots on net averaging over 20 minutes a game including a 24 minute game vs Colorado. Wilson is earning the new contract so far and will play his first home game of the season.
Caps lines:
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) November 21, 2018
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Wilson
Vrana-Eller-Connolly
Burakovsky-Boyd-DSP
Jaskin-Dowd-Stephenson
Kempny-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Djoos-Bowey
Braden Holtby (6-5-2) will start his first game since November 11th as he looks to bring his numbers back to what you’d expect though he can’t be faulted entirely as he’s played behind some sparse defense and bad turnovers at times. Over his last five appearances he’s looked sharper with a .933 SV% in that span.
Game time is 7PM EST.
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