Colorado Avalanche vs. Washington Capitals Pick & Prediction NOVEMBER 21st 2024
Preview and Prediction
The Washington Capitals are determined to continue their climb without their star player on Thursday as they welcome the Colorado Avalanche to their home ice.
Despite the absence of their captain, the Capitals have managed to score an impressive 27 goals in their last five games, earning a record of 4-0-1. This includes a dominant sweep of their recent three-game road trip, which began with a 5-2 victory over the Avalanche last Friday.
Unfortunately, Washington suffered a major setback when Alex Ovechkin, their superstar captain, sustained a lower-leg injury during a collision in the third period of Monday's 6-2 win against the Utah Hockey Club. The team announced on Tuesday that Ovechkin is considered week-to-week and has been placed on injured reserve. In response, they have called up Ivan Miroshnichenko from the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League.
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Losing Ovechkin is a significant blow for the Capitals. The three-time Hart Trophy winner has scored an impressive 13 goals in his last 11 games, bringing his career total to 868. He is just 27 goals away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's all-time record of 894, which he set from 1978-99.
Nic Dowd, a forward for the Capitals, expressed his disappointment at the news, saying, "It (stinks). Hate to see it. He's been absolutely on fire and he's huge for our team. He's our captain. You've got to score goals to win games. He's been playing incredible hockey, so, yeah, I hate to see it."
Goalie Charlie Lindgren also shared his thoughts on Ovechkin's injury, saying, "He's our leader. He's our bull. It's tough to see him go down. ... He's a guy that's doing it all right now, not just scoring. He's the captain for a reason."
Lindgren made 17 saves in their last game against the Avalanche, snapping a two-game losing streak and handing Colorado their only loss in their last five games.
The Avalanche bounced back from their loss to the Capitals with a 3-2 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday, the first game of their four-game road trip.
Defenseman Cale Makar had an impressive performance, scoring two goals and bringing his point total to 27 in just 19 games. He commented on the team's offensive success, saying, "I felt like we were offensively rolling. When the forwards are moving around, it's fun for us as (defensemen). We can kind of move up top and create space. So yeah, I thought we were working out well."
Makar could have completed a hat trick in the game, but his third goal was disallowed due to interference with the netminder.
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Head coach Jared Bednar praised Makar's performance, saying, "He got two, I'm not sure about the third one that was disallowed. He got into some good areas on some nice plays from some other players on our team, (Nathan MacKinnon) fed across on the one right into the slot. Just picked the right spots, I felt like (on Monday), to get up in the rush and join, especially on the entries into the (offensive) zone. In the (offensive) zone play, he was pretty active. He found himself in the slot two or three times, all alone, and he didn't make any mistakes on those."
Casey Mittelstadt and Mikko Rantanen also had strong performances, with Mittelstadt scoring and setting up a goal, and Rantanen earning two assists and bringing his point total to 10 in his last five games.
Colorado Avalanche vs. Washington Capitals
Nazem Kadri had a goal and two assists as the visiting Colorado Avalanche scored four goals on their first five shots in the first period and defeated the Washington Capitals 6-3 on Monday.
Colorado remains perfect so far this season after winning all five games.
The Avalanche scored their four goals in a span of 5 minutes, 43 seconds to knock out Washington starting goalie Braden Holtby and take an early 4-0 lead. The Avalanche scored on their first three shots and wound up going 4-for-5.
Erik Johnson got the first goal at 3:42 with former Capitals forward Andre Burakovsky posting one of the assists -- with Kadri adding the other. Then Nikita Zadorov scored at the six-minute mark for a 2-0 lead.
After that, Kadri scored on a rush up the left wing. He ripped a shot past Holtby and the Avalanche had gone 3-for-3. Ilya Samsonov replaced Holtby, who finished the game without a save.
That goal came at 7:54, and Colorado stretched the lead to 4-0 when Mikko Rantanen (one goal, two assists) scored on the power play. His goal came at 9:25 and gave the Avalanche a four-goal lead.
Rantanen also got an assist on the Zadorov goal and added a second helper later.
Washington began to climb back in the second period, scoring twice. Lars Eller took advantage of an Avalanche turnover in their zone and beat former Capitals goalie Philipp Grubauer (29 saves) on a high shot at 6:56.
The Capitals then cut the lead to 4-2 when T.J. Oshie scored on a backhander with 4:32 remaining in the period. Washington had a few more scoring chances after that but Grubauer finished with 14 saves against his former mates in the second period.
Matt Nieto then stopped the Capitals' comeback with his goal early in the third period, giving the Avalanche a 5-2 lead.
Alex Ovechkin added a late third-period goal, and John Carlson scored 15 seconds later, but the play was ruled offsides. Nathan MacKinnon of Colorado then clinched it with an empty-net goal during the last minute.