Owning the league's best road record at 20-6-1, the Caps are even better when they're away for more than a game at a time. Washington owns a 12-2-1 mark on multi-game trips this season.
"I think sometimes on the road, it's a little easier to keep it simple at the start, going into another team's barn and trying to go at them a little bit," says Caps right wing T.J. Oshie. "We've been on our heels a little bit lately, so I think going on the road might help us with that."
Washington will be playing without center Evgeny Kuznetsov on Thursday. During the second period of Monday's game against the New York Islanders, Kuznetsov left the game and did not return after taking a hard hit into the boards from Isles forward Leo Komarov. Kuznetsov is day-to-day with an upper body injury, but the Caps believe he will be able to play at some point on the trip, so he is accompanying the team on the trip.
In Kuznetsov's absence, Lars Eller will slide up to the middle of Washington's second line between Jakub Vrana and T.J. Oshie, and Travis Boyd will draw into the lineup for the first time since Jan. 27, filling Eller's spot on the third line with Carl Hagelin and Richard Panik.
After the Caps skated at Pepsi Center on Thursday morning, Kuznetsov took the ice for the first time since Monday's game.
"We'll see how today goes, but a positive sign to have him back on the ice," says Reirden. "It's really good for us moving forward, but every day we will kind of evaluate and see where he is at. But glad to have him on the ice and on the trip as a positive for us."
Chasing The Milestone - Stuck on 698 goals for two games now, Caps captain Alex Ovechkin renews his pursuit of becoming just the eighth player in NHL history to reach the 700-goal plateau for his NHL career. Ovechkin went from 684 career goals to 698 in a span of just seven games, recording three hat tricks and five multi-goal games to put himself on the precipice of the achievement, but he came up empty in each of the last two games of a four-game homestand.
The NHL altered the start time of tonight's game, there were far more reporters and media here in Denver than when we last visited here in November of 2018, and that's all because Ovechkin is sitting on 698. If he had scored two goals in his last game, tonight's game would start 30 minutes earlier, and the press box wouldn't be as full.
"To be quite candid about it," says Reirden, "it has carried more media attention than 600. I was fortunate enough to be there for that as well, and I think this one - with him going through and bypassing some of the superstars he has with his most recent goals - I think this has taken on a lot more media attention, and obviously social media as well.
"It's something that he has always done an amazing job of dealing with, but for us it's about trying to get our team game going. And if our team game is where it should be, then he is going to benefit and get plenty of chances offensively. That's our focus tonight, is to get our team game in order, and as a byproduct - as it has been for many years - he has always found ways to score goals. I'm looking forward to watching him play again tonight."
