Washington Capitals continue their season-long five-game road trip this Thursday night with a visit to the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place. Edmonton is the first team the Capitals have already seen twice this season. The prior meeting was on October 14th at Verizon Center where the Capitals earned their second win of the season with a final score of 4-2.
The Capitals began their road trip with a 5-4 shootout win over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night. Captain Alex Ovechkin scored two goals, both in the second period. The game marked Ovechkin's 78th career multi-goal game and is currently ranked fourth among active players in multi-goal games. Ovechkin is now also the league leading goal scorer with a total of nine goals this season - two goals ahead of Sidney Crosby.
Mikhail Grabovski and Troy Brouwer also scored, but Washington was having a sloppy game on their end, which led to numerous breakdowns and many odd-man rush opportunities for the Jets. Eventually, Mike Green was benched with 9 minutes and 25 seconds remaining in the game. Capitals were outshot 47-32 and were unable to hold onto three different one-goal leads throughout the game. Thankfully, Branden Holtby made a career high of 43 saves and stopped three of six skaters in the shootout.
[embed]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDwKuNQwPaI
Alex Ovechkin said, "It was not our game at all. I think we made too many mistakes. But we got lucky in the shootout. ... We didn't play how we have to play at all."
Though the Capitals are coming off a hot streak and are trying to get their third win in a row, the Oilers have won eight of the past nine games against the Capitals in Edmonton. Oilers, however, have lost forward Taylor Hall for at least the next four weeks due to a left knee injury that was obtained on Saturday after their win over the Senators. Ryan Jones will be taking Hall's place and he recently scored his first goal against Montreal on Tuesday night.
Holtby has stopped 28 out of 30 shots already against the Oilers whereas Devan Dubnyk has yet to face off against the Capitals. Backup Jason LaBarbera gave up four goals on 20 shots back on the 14th.
The Oilers are currently 0-for-15 on their power play in their last five games.
Prediction: Capitals 3, Oilers 2.
Tonight's game will begin at 9:30 EST.
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