Get On Home – Following a five-game stretch of games against Western Conference foes, the Caps come from their two-game trip to the Midwest to take on the Montreal Canadiens in the opener of a three-game homestand. Washington has earned at least a point in 13 of its last 17 home games (10-4-3) dating back to Nov. 5.
Tonight, the Caps will be without the services of both Tom Wilson and Justin Sourdif. Wilson will miss a fifth straight game with a lower body injury, though he did take the ice for the morning skate in a powder blue non-contact sweater. Sourdif departed Sunday’s 3-2 loss to the Predators in Nashville with an upper body injury after taking a puck to the face early in the second period. Caps coach Spencer Carbery terms both players as “day-to-day.”
The Capitals may get defenseman Jakob Chychrun back in their lineup night. Chychrun missed Sunday’s game because of illness, but he did partake in Tuesday’s morning skate.
When the Caps last faced the Habs on Nov. 20 in Montreal, they caught the Habs at a low point in their season, where the goaltending and the defense were both leaky. Washington handed Montreal an 8-4 loss, the Canadiens’ fifth straight defeat (0-4-1), and the Habs surrendered 26 goals against in those five games.
Since then, the Habs have turned things around. Along with Detroit and the red hot Tampa Bay Lightning – winners of 10 straight games – the Habs are one of three teams separated by just two points and jostling for the top perch in the Atlantic Division. Detroit is currently atop the Atlantic with 60 points, and the Habs are two points back with the Bolts nestled between the two Original Six franchises.
Montreal is 16-7-3 since suffering that setback to the Caps in November, tied with Detroit for the sixth best record in the circuit over that span.
“It looks like they’re just – when I watch – a little bit deeper,” says Carbery of the Canadiens. “The addition of [Alexandre] Texier seems to have really helped them; he’s playing top line, and [Zack] Bolduc as well. They’re still missing a few guys, but the emergence of [Ivan] Demidov gives them another elite offensive scorer in their top six. So, yeah, they’re playing well.”
Century City – Hearty congratulations are in order for Caps defenseman Dylan McIlrath, who reaches the 100-game plateau tonight against the Canadiens. McIlrath, at the age of 33 years and 268 days, becomes the fifth oldest player to reach the 100-game plateau. Two of the players ahead of him – the two oldest to ever achieve the feat – are members of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Didier Pitre (38 years and 167 days) and Newsy Lalonde (38 years and 16 days) are the two oldest players to reach 100 games in the League. Pitre was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1963 and Lalonde was inducted in 1950.
Each of the four players who were older than McIlrath achieved the feat at least 99 years ago; the most recent of the quartet was Cully Wilson of the Chicago Blackhawks, who reached the century mark on Dec. 22, 1926.
Drafted 10th overall in the 2010 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers, McIlrath made his NHL debut with the Blueshirts on Dec. 12, 2013 at Madison Square Garden against Columbus. The span between his first and his 100th game is just over 12 years, which is the fourth longest span in NHL history.
The NHL record for longest span between first and 100th NHL game is held by Montreal-born blueliner Larry Zeidel, who debuted on Oct. 14, 1951 for the Red Wings in Detroit and reached the century mark 16 years and 29 days later with Philadelphia, on Nov. 12, 1967 against the Bruins at Boston Garden.
Both of the other two players – Bill McCreary Sr. and Dick Cherry – ahead of McIlrath on the list were also of the same ilk as Zeidel in that they had lengthy minor league careers dotted with occasional spot duty in the NHL during the Original Six era than ran from 1941-67, and then were able to carve out a more regular role for themselves when the League finally doubled in size via expansion for the 1967-68 season.
The “Goalden” Path – When both Washington’s Alex Ovechkin (his 917th career goal) and Nashville’s Steven Stamkos (his 601st career goal) scored in the same game on Sunday night in Music City, it piqued the awareness and curiosity of Gary Allen, brother of Caps assistant coach Scott Allen.
Gary was along for the weekend’s Mentors’ Trip, and after the Caps, he wondered whether those two future Hall of Famers might have the highest combined total of goals scored by two players playing in the same NHL game. Gary was so close to being right, but he also mentioned that if it wasn’t Ovechkin and Stamkos, then maybe it was Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby in one of the recent meetings between the Capitals and the Penguins.
And on that note, Gary was spot on.
After reaching out to the good people at NHL stats, we learned that Ovechkin and Crosby set the standard on that esoteric piece of League historical data in the final game of the 2024-25 regular season in Pittsburgh on April 17, 2025. In the second period of that game, Crosby scored the 625th goal of his NHL career, and in the third period Ovechkin netted goal No. 897. That’s a combined total of 1,522.
Sunday’s game in Nashville featured the 917th goal of Ovechkin’s career and No. 601 for Stamkos, so the duo’s combined total of 1,518 falls four goals shy of the Ovechkin/Crosby standard set last season.
And by the way, when Ovechkin and Crosby established that new mark last season, they erased the duo of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier from the record books. Gretzky and Messier last scored in the same game on Oct. 11, 1997, a point at which they had combined for 1,440 career goals.
In The Nets – Logan Thompson returns to the crease tonight against the Canadiens. Across his last two starts, Thompson has permitted just one goal on 40 shots at 5-on-5 (.975 save pct.). On the season to date, Thompson has saved 18.2 goals above expected according to Money Puck, the second highest figure in the NHL and trailing only the Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin (19.0).
Lifetime against the Canadiens in the regular season, Thompson is 1-0-1 in two appearances (one start) with a 3.04 GAA and an .889 save pct.
Montreal hosted the Canucks on Monday night before heading south to open a three-game road trip in DC tonight. The Habs are carrying three goaltenders, and they used Jakub Dobes in their 6-3 win over Vancouver last night, while sending Samuel Montembeault ahead to Washington to get rested up for the starting assignment against the Capitals tonight.
Lifetime against the Caps, Montembeault is 2-3-0 in seven appearances (six starts) with a 3.77 GAA and an .883 save pct.
All Down The Line – Here’s how the Caps and Canadiens might look on Tuesday night in the District:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 17-Strome, 21-Protas
72-Beauvillier, 24-McMichael, 9-Leonard
22-Duhaime,26-Dowd, 53-Frank
15-Milano, 29-Lapierre, 20-Leason
Defensemen
42-Fehervary, 74-Carlson
6-Chychrun, 3-Roy
38-Sandin, 52-McIlrath
Goaltenders
48-Thompson
79-Lindgren
Healthy Extras
47-Chisholm
57-van Riemsdyk
Injured/Out
34-Sourdif (upper body)
43-Wilson (lower body)
80-Dubois (abdomen)
MONTREAL
Forwards
13-Caufield, 14-Suzuki, 85-Texier
20-Slafkovsky, 91-Kapanen, 93-Demidov
76-Bolduc, 24-Danault, 11-Gallagher
27-Blais, 90-Veleno, 62-Beck
Defensemen
8-Matheson, 53-Dobson
48-Hutson, 45-Carrier
21-Guhle, 72-Xhekaj
Goalies
35-Montembeault
32-Fowler
Healthy Extras
47-Struble
75-Dobes
Injured/Out
15-Newhook (ankle)
17-Anderson (upper body)
71-Evans (lower body)
77-Dach (foot)
92-Laine (abdomen)
