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Alexander Ovechkin looks to extend his point-scoring streak to 14 games and is coming off two consecutive hattricks as the 19-9-3 Washington Capitals host a 19-9-4 Buffalo Sabres team winners of two in a row. The Caps are in the back end of back-to-backs after a 6-5 win in Carolina Friday night. The Great Eight can become the first player in NHL history to record three consecutive hattricks should he incredibly do it tonight as well.

Ovechkin has 28 goals in 31 games coming into the Sabres game and has some talking about a run at 50 goals in 50 games. It is still highly unlikely that he can maintain a pace that has seen him score in 6 consecutive periods and register 16 goals in his last 13 games but with the Russian Rocket you never know.

Chandler Stephenson will check back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch last night and will slot in on the 4th line in place of Dmitrij Jaskin. Coach Reirden will keep Andre Burakovsky out for the 3rd straight game. The Stephenson insertion likely is a move designed to help the penalty kill unit that was subpar last night in Carolina.

Pheonix Copley gets another start for the Caps as Braden Holtby gets the rest on back-to-back games. Since being pulled in Montreal on November 19th Copley has won his last two starts allowing 5 goals and a healthy .916 SV%.

Evgeny Kuznetsov enters the game on a 7-game point streak with 8 points.

With Christian Djoos out the Caps recalled Defenseman Tyler Lewington from the AHL Hershey Bears.

First NHL call-up for Lewington, a seventh round pick in 2013. Reirden has talked about getting guys one game, so that no matter what happens in the future, they’ll always be able to say they played in the NHL. If Lewington sticks around for a bit, imagine he’ll get in eventually

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 15, 2018

For Buffalo, they announced Patrik Berglund was suspended indefinitely today after failing to report. The former Blues forward had only 4 points in 23 games. Jack Eichel leads Buffalo scoring with 39 points and Cap killer and former Hurricane Jeff Skinner is having a monster year with 22 goals so far.

The number 1 overall pick in last years draft Rasmus Dahlin has looked increasingly comfortable as the season goes on and is chipping in on the scoreboard with 2 goals and 14 points in 32 games playing over 23 minutes a night in all situations. This kid is fun to watch.

Game time is 7PM EST at Capital One Arena in Washington DC.

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