The Washington Capitals look to extend their five game winning streak tonight when they take on the Los Angeles Kings at 10:30 p.m. eastern on Monumental Sports Network 2. You can also listen to the game on 106.7 The Fan and Caps Radio 24/7.
Tonight's betting odds per Caesars have the Capitals as 1.5 goal underdogs on the road with +105 moneyline odds. The Kings are favored to win at -125. Tonight's over/under is set for 5.5 goals.
#3 Aliaksei Protas
Aliaksei Protas had his first career hat trick in the win over the Anaheim Ducks at the Honda Center, a place where Caps hat tricks are born. Alex Ovechkin got his first hat trick of his career inside that building his rookie year and Tom Wilson notched his first career hat trick there last season.
Ovechkin also unselfishly fed Protas the puck on his final goal which was an empty net. The captain wanted Protas to finish that and he did just that. On Friday night in a win over the Detroit Red Wings, Protas recorded two goals and one of which was shorthanded along with three points in less than eight and a half minutes that helped the Caps to a 5-2 win.
Connor McMichael said this of Protas in Mike Vogel's game preview:
"I don't think it's crazy to call him a star player in this League. He has really taken hat next step, and a good example was (Friday) night. That's what star players do; when not much is going on, he takes over the game. I can't be happier for him; he's one of the hardest working guys I've ever played with. He is really detailed in practice, working on the little things he thinks he needs. "Connor McMichael
#2 Pierre-Luc Dubois
Pierre-Luc Dubois goes up against his former team in his former building tonight as the Capitals flipped Darcy Kuemper for him last June which was a home run of a trade. He has 17 goals and 40 assists for 57 points leading into this contest. That includes a goal and two assists in the win over the Ducks in which he told Vogs:
"It was fun. There was a lot of back and fourth, and I thought a lot of guys played well. Those games like this, there's 2-1 tight games and there's 6-4 - or whatever it was - tight games. (The Ducks) did a lot of good things out there. They're a team with a lot of young guys that have a lot of energy, that just go on the rush, and it's not easy at times. I thought we played well tonight."Pierre-Luc Dubois
#1 Alex Ovechkin
Alex Ovechkin comes into tonight's game with 33 goals and 20 assists for 53 points in 49 games played. While he didn't score in Anaheim, he did have three assists and scored in the Capitals prior game which was a win over the Seattle Kraken.
His three assist game in Anaheim was the 18th such occassion of his career and now The Gr8 Chase heads to Los Angeles which is the city where Wayne Gretzky borke Gordie Howe's all time goals record nearly 31 years ago back on March 23, 1994.
The Kings are also the team Ovechkin scored his 200th career goal against which you can look back on here. He became the eighth player in NHL history to reach the milestone in 300 games or fewer.
Ovechkin remains nine goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's all time record and owns a goals per game rate of 0.67 this season. That puts him on pace to complete the record on April 12 at Nationwide Arena against the Columbus Blue Jackets which comes at 12:30 p.m. on ABC and ESPN plus.
However, his career average of 0.60 has Ovechkin on pace to break the record against the Blue Jackets the next night at Capital One Arena at 6 p.m. on Monumental Sports Nework.
But before we even get to 895, Ovechkin has to score nine goals. It's all about the next one and then the one after that. Each one bigger than the next.