Capitals at Coyotes preview

CAPITALS (37-15-5) at COYOTES (28-24-8)
10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-A, FS-A PLUS, NBCSWA, NHL.TV

The forward, with 698 goals in his League career, has no points in his past three games after having 15 points (14 goals, one assist) in his previous seven games. Ovechkin, who has 40 goals in 56 games this season, has 23 goals in 27 road games and 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in 19 games against the Coyotes.
The Capitals, 3-4-0 in their past seven games after going 7-2-0 in their previous nine games, leads the Metropolitan Division, three points ahead of the second-place Pittsburgh Penguins.
Washington, seeking its fifth straight road win, is 21-6-1 away from home this season, the best mark in the NHL.
Arizona, 2-6-3 in its past 11 games, holds the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference, one point ahead of the Winnipeg Jets.

Players to watch

Capitals forward T.J. Oshie has five points (three goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak, including one goal in three straight games.
Coyotes forward Christian Dvorak has nine points (six goals, three assists) in his past 13 games.

They said it

"[Ovechkin] seems to get a new milestone every other week. Everybody here is pretty used to the talk of who he's passing next on the goal list or what hundred mark he's passing. Getting to [700], obviously it's a crazy number and something we're all proud of him to get." -- Capitals forward T.J. Oshie on forward Alex Ovechkin
"It's been like that for four to five weeks now. We can't look too far ahead, we've got to focus on this one. Starting tonight, we've got to put some wins together."-- Coyotes captain Oliver Ekman-Larsson

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Lars Eller -- T.J. Oshie
Carl Hagelin -- Travis Boyd -- Richard Panik
Brendan Leipsic -- Nic Dowd -- Garnet Hathaway
Michal Kempny -- John Carlson
Radko Gudas -- Jonas Siegenthaler
Nick Jensen -- Dmitry Orlov
Braden Holtby
Ilya Samsonov
Scratched: Travis Boyd
Injured: Evgeny Kuznetsov (upper body)

Coyotes projected lineup

Taylor Hall -- Christian Dvorak -- Conor Garland
Clayton Keller -- Nick Schmaltz -- Phil Kessel
Lawson Crouse -- Derek Stepan -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Carl Soderberg -- Brad Richardson -- Christian Fischer
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Ilya Lyubushkin -- Jordan Oesterle
Antti Raanta
Adin Hill
Scratched: Michael Grabner
Injured: Darcy Kuemper (lower body), Barrett Hayton (upper body), Jason Demers (lower body)

Status report

Kuznetsov, a center, is expected to miss a second successive game. … Kuemper, a goalie out since Dec. 19 and Hayton, a forward, took part in Arizona's morning skate.

Stat pack

Carlson, who leads NHL defensemen with 69 points (15 goals, 54 assists) needs three points to pass Calle Johansson (474) for most in Capitals history at the position. … Arizona is 5-2-1 in its past eight games against Washington.