MATCH:Penguins vs. Capitals
TIME:7 p.m. ET
PLACE:Capital One Arena
TV:AT&T SportsNet
RADIO:105.9 FM, the X
5 THINGS:
1.The Penguins will play the next two games without assistant coach Mark Recchi behind the bench. He will spend the weekend in Toronto, where he will be elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Monday night.
2.When the Penguins defeated the Capitals, 3-2, on Oct. 11 at Capital One Arena, Pittsburgh scored all three of its goals on the power play, getting tallies from Kris Letang, Patric Hornqvist and Conor Sheary. The power play has continued to thrive, as the Penguins have scored at least one man-advantage goal in 13 of 18 total games and 10 of 11 road games thus far.
3.Tonight Sidney Crosby will become just the third player in franchise history to appear in 800 games, joining Mario Lemieux (915 games) and Jaromir Jagr (806).
4.Braden Holtby is one win away from 200 career victories. He's looking to become the second-fastest goaltender in NHL history to reach that mark, in just 319 games, behind Ken Dryden's 311 games.
5.Alex Ovechkin scored in Washington's last game, a 3-1 win against Buffalo, to give him goals in three straight. Overall, he has 13 goals in 16 games, including nine in 5-on-5 play. Last year, he had 14 even-strength goals in 82 games.
INJURIES:
PIT -
Matt Hunwick
(concussion),
Carter Rowney
(hand)
WSH - Madison Bowey (lower body), Brett Connolly (upper body), Andre Burakovsky (upper body), Tyler Graovac (upper body), Matt Niskanen (upper body)
MORNING SKATE:
\Patric Hornqvist, Phil Kessel and Kris Letang were absent from the optional session.
\Matt Hunwick skated, but head coach Mike Sullivan said he will not play tonight. "It's just part of the process," Sullivan said. "The nature of concussions, and I think we all know this just from the experience of going through it with different players, is that they're all very different. They affect people differently, so it's hard to really generalize or categorize players together as far as where they are going through the process. Everybody is unique and so that's how we treat them. We're listening to our medical doctors and they're putting him through the process, and when he gets clearance we'll let you know."
