#CapsHabs Postgame Notebook: Middle Men Take Center Stage

Caps centers Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov were reunited for the first time in four games on Saturday night in Montreal, the latter having missed the previous three games with an upper body injury. Washington's top two centers made a lot of difference in Saturday's 6-4 win over the Canadiens, Backstrom registering four assists and Kuznetsov scoring a pair of power-play goals to help lead the attack.

Center Jay Beagle also scored for Washington while winning 14 of his 18 face-offs (78%) on the night.

Since Lars Eller came to Washington at the start of the 2016-17 season, the Caps' quartet of centers - Backstrom, Beagle, Eller and Kuznetsov - has combined to miss a grand total of seven games. That's seven man-games lost out of a possible 628 total man games, or an attendance rate of 98.9%, and three of those seven came earlier in the week when Kuznetsov missed three straight games.

Washington won two of three games in Kuznetsov's absence, both by a single goal. The Caps went 1-for-9 without him on the power play, and it went 2-for-3 in his first game back, as he scored a pair of power-play goals in the same game for the first time in his NHL career.

"Like I said in the morning," says Kuznetsov, "It's tough to watch hockey from upstairs. It's so good to be back on the ice, and it's even better when you win. It's a very important game for us today, and it doesn't matter how we play, how many mistakes we did. We get two points, that's the key for us."

Road Warrior - Backstrom assisted on both of Kuznetsov's goals and both of Tom Wilson's goals, too. It marks the 11th time in Backstrom's 11-season career in which he has notched four assists in a game, and according to Elias Sports Bureau, eight of those four-assist games have been produced on the road.

Also according to Elias, only one player - Anaheim's Ryan Getzlaf - has more than two road games with four or more assists since 2007-08, Backstrom's rookie season. Getzlaf has four.

Off The Board - The entire complexion of the game changed midway through the first period in the immediate aftermath of what appeared to be the Canadiens' second goal. Bell Centre was rocking on a Saturday night, but the home team's early two-goal lead turned out to be too good to be true.

Washington's video coaching staff of Brett Leonhardt and Tim Ohashi urged a coach's challenge on the basis of an offside play, and a brief video review confirmed that Montreal's Jonathan Drouin was indeed offside, wiping the goal off the board and keeping the score at a more manageable 1-0 count.

Less than two minutes later, Kuznetsov scored the first of his two goals and the first of three Washington goals on just four shots in a span of exactly seven minutes during the back half of the first frame. Once the Caps went up 2-1 at 14:49 of the first, they never trailed.

It was the second consecutive game in which Caps' video coaches took an opposition goal off the scoreboard.

"Did Timmy put you up to that for a shout out?" asks Wilson. "Those guys are the best in the business, I think. We're pretty fortunate to have the tag team of Stretch and Timmy. Those guys get definitely no limelight; they're behind the scenes kind of guys.

"Monster shout out to those two - they're two of the best and pretty sharp. I think anytime there is anything close or anything that we know is offside, they're right in the microphone telling us. That's huge. Goals are hard to score in this league and when you can wipe one off the board, you've got to use it like we did."

Two For Tom - Wilson registered his fourth two-goal game of the season, and he came tantalizingly close to a hat trick late, just sliding a shot a couple of inches wide to the left in his bid for a last-minute empty netter that would have completed his first hat trick in the league.

According to Elias, Wilson has four multiple-goal games in 2017-18 after entering this season with none in his first 313 games in the league.

Also according to Elias, Wilson's goal total this season (13) is now equal to his total of fighting majors, and he is tied for second in the league in that department. The only other player in the league with as many as five fighting majors and two multi-goal games is Nashville's Austin Watson (seven fighting majors, two multi-goal games).

Powering Up - Washington had six games with multiple power-play goals in the first half of 2017-18, and its two-goal output on Saturday in Montreal marks the seventh game with multiple power-play goals in the second half.

The Caps' power play is now clicking at a rate of 23% on the season, fifth best in the league.

Top Spot -With a pair of assists in Saturday's game, Caps defenseman John Carlson is now the league leader in scoring by defensemen with 63 points (15 goals, 48 assists). Carlson has 16 points (four goals, 12 assists) in his last 14 games.

Killing With Kindness - The Habs came into Saturday's game on the heels of a 3-0 shutout win over the Sabres in Buffalo on Friday. That game ended a dubious streak for the Canadiens, who had permitted at least one power-play goal in 11 straight road contests before Friday's win over the Sabres.

The Canadiens' penalty killing outfit was dented for two goals on three shorthanded missions against Washington.

Montreal now occupies the 30th rung on the league's penalty-killing efficiency ladder this season. Sitting at 74.4% on the season, the Habs are ahead of only the New York Islanders (74.3%) on that list.

Down On The Farm - The AHL Hershey Bears earned a 2-1 road victory over the Wolf Pack in Hartford on Saturday. Bears defenseman Madison Bowey supplied all of the offense in the victory, scoring his first two goals of the season in support of Vitek Vanecek's goaltending (26 saves).

With help from Jeremy Langlois and Nathan Walker, Bowey staked the Bears to a 1-0 lead at 6:30 of the second period. Hartford pulled even less than two minutes later, and the two sides went into the third all even at 1-1.

Bowey scored the difference maker at 12:49 of the third on a single assist from Wayne Simpson, making a winner of Vanecek (11-8-2) and the Bears.

The two teams tangle again on Sunday afternoon at Hershey's Giant Center.

By The Numbers - Matt Niskanen led the Caps with 23:20 in ice time and five blocked shots … Carlson led the Caps with six shots on net and Alex Ovechkin led the way with nine shot attempts … Andre Burakovsky led the Caps with four hits and chipped in a pair of assists … Kuznetsov won 11 of 18 face-offs (61%) … T.J. Oshie played exactly 17 minutes and he scored his 17th goal of the season … Beagle scored at 4:52 of the second and Oshie scored at 4:52 of the third.