Feb. 28 vs. Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre
Time: 7:00 p.m.
TV: MNMT
Radio: 106.7 THE FAN/Caps Radio Network
Washington Capitals (31-23-7)
Montreal Canadiens (32-17-8)
The Caps are in Montreal on this final Saturday night of February, taking on the Canadiens in the back half of a weekend set of back-to-backs and closing out the February portion of their 2025-26 slate.
Having won each of its last three games – sandwiched around the Olympic break, Washington will also be seeking its first winning streak of four or more games in nearly three months, since it had a season-long six-game winning spree halted at the hands of the Ducks in Anaheim on Dec. 5.
After dropping the Philadelphia Flyers by a 3-1 count on Wednesday, the Caps claimed their fifth straight victory on home ice and their sixth win in seven games overall with a 3-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday at Capital One Arena.
P-L Dubois scored twice, and Jakob Chychrun’s 22nd goal of the season – the most by a Caps defenseman since Mike Green netted 31 goals in 2008-09 – stood up as the game-winner. Chychrun played in his 600th career game on Friday against Vegas.
After missing 47 consecutive games – more than he had missed in his entire career to that point – Dubois has hit the ice running in his return to the Washington lineup. In three games since his return, he has totaled three goals and two assists for five points.
Washington comes out of the Olympic break with three games in four nights, and Dubois will be playing a set of back-to-back games for the first time since Oct. 11-12 of last year.
“If you ask me [Saturday] morning, I’ll have a different answer than right now,” says Dubois. “It’s never easy back-to-back, whether it’s game six or [game] 82,” says Dubois. “But that’s when the little details of the game become even more important. Sometimes, you don’t have that extra push to give. But if you make the right play at the right time and execute, then you might not have to backcheck when you’re already tired. It’s never easy, but we need these points, especially at this time of the year.”
Friday’s win moved the Caps to within two points of a playoff berth, but Washington has played more games than any team in the NHL. The Caps head into this Saturday night as the only Eastern Conference club with as many as 60 games played this season, and Washington will be playing game No. 62 tonight in Montreal.
“There are zero reasons to stop for us,” says forward Aliaksei Protas. “We obviously have not reached our goal yet; we are not even in the playoffs. We’ve got to keep pushing, keep fighting. We know where we have to get. Our focus is obviously short, like one game. But we also think there is a long way to go. Thera are 21 games left and we’ve got to keep going.”
After overcoming the Canadiens in five games in a first-round Stanley Cup playoff series last spring, the Caps have taken each of the first two meetings between themselves and the Habs this season.
Behind an Alex Ovechkin hat trick and two goals each from Ethen Frank and Sonny Milano, the Caps earned an 8-4 win over the Canadiens on Nov. 20 in their first visit to Montreal this season. That game was also the back end of a set of back-to-backs for Washington; the Caps defeated the Edmonton Oilers by a 7-4 count on home ice the night before, so they filled the net 15 times in a span of just over 24 hours in that set of back-to-backs.
Montreal made its lone visit to the District this season on Jan. 13, and the Caps staged a late comeback to overcome a 2-0 third-period deficit in a 3-2 overtime triumph in that contest.
After Montreal forged a two-goal lead on Josh Anderson’s shorthanded goal in the first period and Brendan Gallagher’s tally in the second, Washington got even on another pair of goals from Frank in the third, the second of which came with less than two minutes remaining in regulation. Frank’s second two-goal game of the season against Montreal set the stage for Connor McMichael’s game-winner in the final minute of overtime.
The Habs are currently in fourth place in the tightly packed Atlantic Division standings. Montreal has earned at least a point in each of its last six games (4-0-2), but it squandered leads of 2-0 and 3-2 in a 4-3 overtime setback against the New York Islanders on Wednesday at Bell Centre on Thursday in its first game following the Olympic break.
After Saturday’s home game against the Capitals, the Canadiens take to the road and head west for their California trip to start off the month of March.
