Preview: Capitals at Avalanche, Game 16

The Avalanche (13-2-0) look to continue their winning ways as the Washington Capitals (9-7-1) roll into town for the final game in a back-to-back road trip that started with a shoot out loss to the Phoenix Coyotes last night. A recent surge of wins has re-established the Caps as a contender in the East after an extremely slow start.

Despite a hot start, the Avalanche continue to be humble about their winning ways. Players and coaches alike insist on not riding too high with each win. However, that hasn't stopped the addiction to Ws from creeping in. Hopefully that desire will push the team to be faster on the feet from the first puck drop as the past couple of games has shown a sluggish team eerily similar to that under the Sacco regime.

Top scorers for each team are within two points: Alex Ovechkin with 20 pts and Matt Duchene with 18. Ovechkin just put up five points(3g, 2a) in three games after sitting out with an upper-body injury. Duchene has three goals and three assists in his past five.

Projected Lines

O'Reilly - Duchene - Parenteau

Landeskog - Stastny - McGinn

Mitchell - MacKinnon - Talbot

McLeod - Cliche - Bordeleau

Hejda - Johnson

Holden - Guenin

Benoit - Sarich

Varlamov

Giguere

Scratches: Tanguay (knee), Wilson (Back), Hunwick

The Bad Guys

Erat-Backstrom-Ovi

Laich-Johansson-Brouwer
Chimera-Grabovski-Ward
Volpatti-Latta-Wilson

Alzner-Carlson
Schmidt-Green
Urbom-Oleksy

Holtby
Neuvirth

Game Time 6 pm MT on ALT

*sorry this is late. internet was down last night.