Former Canadiens Goaltender Ready In DC

There isn’t any clear primary goaltender up to now in Washington, because the begin of the season, the Capitals have been alternating between former Montreal Canadiens’ goaltender Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson. Because the latter was in internet on Tuesday night time, the previous needs to be taking over Montreal tonight.

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The 30-year-old netminder was by no means drafted into the NHL however when he graduated from St. Cloud’s within the NCAA, he signed a contract with the Canadiens and had a formidable begin, profitable his first three NHL begins with a save proportion of .940, which set unrealistic expectations sadly for the netminder.

On the finish of his third contract, Lindgren was allowed to stroll away as an unrestricted free agent and he landed in St. Louis for a yr, earlier than transferring on to the Capitals on a three-year deal giving him $1.1 M per season. Now in a contract yr, the netminder has bought a 2-2-0 document up to now with a 2.52 goals-against common and a .895 SP.

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The Canadiens come to city with co second place purpose scorer within the league Cole Caufield who’s put up 9 targets in 10 video games up to now this season, however quite a lot of questions in internet. Now with out veteran goalie Jake Allen, the Canadiens have put all their chips on the Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau tandem. Whereas Montembeault had an important recreation to begin the yr, he reached rock-bottom Tuesday night time, giving up 5 targets on simply 10 photographs.

Yesterday at follow, the goaltender was put by his paces with quite a lot of deflected and thru visitors photographs to deal with. Chatting with the media after the morning session, Martin St-Louis stated he had but to selected who could be manning the web tonight. The pre-game skate is scheduled for 10:30 AM this morning and we should always have a greater thought of any lineup adjustments by then.

Montembeault and Primeau have tough numbers towards tonight’s opponent. The previous has confronted Washington 5 instances and has a 2-2-0 document with a 3.34 goals-against common and a .895 save proportion. As for the latter, he is solely had one begin towards them which he loss surrendering 4 targets on 14 photographs for a 9.49 GAA and a .714 SP.

As for the Caps’ goaltenders, Logan Thompson has by no means confronted the Canadiens and Lindgren has taken on his former group 3 times. He has a 2-1-0 document to point out for it with a 2.70 GAA and a .908 SP.

Up entrance, the pilot determined to combine issues up a bit with three of his 4 traces being altered at follow yesterday:

Emil Heineman – Nick Suzuki – Cole Caufield
Juraj Slafkovsky – Kirby Dach – Oliver Kapanen
Alex Newhook – Christian Dvorak – Joel Armia
Josh Anderson – Jake Evans – Brendan Gallagher

These new traces are fascinating, it could lastly give Heineman an actual alternative offensively talking as he would not be saddled with Dvorak who actually is struggling up to now this season. As for the Slafkovsky and Dach mixture, it regarded good a yr in the past and clearly, the coaching employees want to rekindle that magic. May very well be a tricky one for the third line although as all the gamers on it have been struggling to an extent. On the again finish, his pairs had been as follows:

Lane Hutson – David Savard
Mike Matheson – Justin Barron
Kaiden Guhle – Jayden Struble
Arber Xhekaj – Logan Mailloux

There isn’t any telling what is going to stick for tonight’s recreation, however this positive regarded like adjustments could possibly be anticipated on protection, a sense that was confirmed when Mailloux was despatched again right down to Laval. It could due to this fact make sense for Xhekaj to be the odd man out tonight since he was skating with the demoted Mailloux yesterday. Sure, Tom Wilson is within the Capitals’ lineup, however up to now this season, he is solely taken two minor penalties. This appears to point each Guhle and Barron could possibly be again. It will likely be fascinating to see if Jakob Chychrun will be in the lineup for the Capitals as he left the final recreation and if Matt Roy could possibly be able to return.

Having had the good thing about going over the tape of the sport towards the Seattle Kraken, the bench boss insisted his group wasn’t dominated by the Washington state outfit on Tuesday night time. For him, his younger expenses must mature and cease serving to the opponent. Requested what he meant by that, the coach clarified saying his gamers should be prepared for faceoffs, cease taking dangerous penalties and be environment friendly in shot blocking.

Unsurprisingly, the Capitals’ most efficient ahead towards the Canadiens is Alexander Ovechkin who has 67 factors in 58 profession video games towards Montreal, defenseman John Carlsson additionally has a decent 24 factors in 41 tilts. Pierre-Luc Dubois, who landed in Washington this low season after his failed Los Angeles journey, has 21 factors in 24 duels towards the Habs.

As for the Canadiens, the standard suspects are the most efficient components towards the Caps, Caufield has eight factors in as many video games (together with 5 targets) and Suzuki has 15 factors (seven targets and eight assists) in 12 conferences. Whereas the captain’s level streak got here to a grinding halt on Tuesday night time, Caufield might be in search of a fourth purpose in as many video games.

Montreal and Washington have confronted one another 180 instances up to now and the Canadiens have a 83-71-17-9 document towards tonight’s hosts. The Capitals have gained six of the final 10 conferences between the 2 sides together with the final one by a rating of 4-3 final February. Tonight would be the first of this season’s three video games between the Japanese Convention rivals.

The puck drop is about for 7:00 PM and no matter occurs, will probably be your likelihood to follow Alexander Ovechkin’s race to Wayne Gretzky’s goal record.

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