Dec. 6 vs. Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena

Time: 7:00 p.m.

TV: MNMT

Radio: 106.7 THE FAN, Caps Radio 24/7

Washington Capitals (17-6-2)

Toronto Maple Leafs (16-7-2)

Still in the midst of a patch of a dozen games in which they must travel for each one, the Caps hit the road for the next three. They’re taking their first trip over the border this season to play a set of back-to-back road games against Toronto on Friday and Montreal on Saturday. Then they’ll return home for a few days before departing for Columbus on Wednesday.

Friday’s game is the front end of a set of back-to-back games for the Leafs as well. Toronto visits Pittsburgh on Saturday.

On Friday in Toronto, the Caps will be seeking to extend their road winning streak to eight straight games. If successful, they’ll establish a new franchise record for consecutive road victories. Washington’s previous seven-game game road winning streak spanned a month and the turn of a calendar two years ago; the Caps won seven straight games on the road beginning with a 3-2 win over the Oilers in Edmonton on Dec. 5, 2022 and concluding a month later with a 6-2 victory over the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Jan. 5, 2023.

The most notable game during the streak was a Dec. 13, 2022 game in Chicago, a game in which Alex Ovechkin recorded a hat trick to reach 800 goals for his NHL career. Washington’s season came unraveled soon after that road winning streak ended; the 2022-23 season is the only one in the last decade in which the team has missed the playoffs.

The Capitals’ four-game winning streak came to a halt on Tuesday night in a one-off home game against San Jose. The Caps started well enough; they were around the net and the offensive zone for the game’s opening 20 minutes, creating several strong chances that either just missed the mark or were saved by Sharks’ goalie Mackenzie Blackwood, who entered the game with a 3-9-1 career record against Washington.

But the Caps couldn’t get a puck to drop in the first, while San Jose struck in the final minute of the frame. Washington’s attack regressed over the final 40, and the Caps were fortunate to scrape a point out of a 2-1 overtime loss to the Sharks on William Eklund’s power-play goal in the first minute of overtime.

“I think we got off to a really good start; guys were making plays,” says Caps’ forward Connor McMichael. “And I think we just expected that the rest of the night, instead of going to work like we have all season, in working for pucks, winning pucks back and creating second chances. It’s one we want to put behind us.”

The Caps did extend their point streak to five straight games (4-0-1), and now they’ll aim to set a new franchise standard for consecutive road victories on Friday night in Toronto, a place that’s been difficult for them in recent seasons. The Capitals haven’t won in Toronto since before the pandemic; they earned a 4-3 overtime win there on Oct. 29, 2019.

Since that victory more than five years ago, the Caps are 0-4-0 in their last four visits to Toronto, and they’ve been outscored by an aggregate 20-7 in the process. Following Tuesday’s loss to San Jose, the Caps conducted a full practice on Wednesday and another on Thursday in preparation for Friday’s game against the Leafs.

After finishing November with six games in 10 nights, the Caps are playing just three games in the first 11 days of December, and of course two of those games come in a set of back-to-backs. After playing four sets of back-to-backs in November, the Caps have four more sets this month. The Caps will play nine sets of back-to-backs in the front half of the 2024-25 season, and they’ll have just four – one in January, one in February and two in April – in the back half of the campaign.

The Caps have played their last seven games (4-2-1) without captain Alex Ovechkin, who was lost for 4-6 weeks with a fractured fibula suffered in a Nov. 18 game in Utah. Although the Capitals still lead the NHL with 70 goals at 5-on-5 in 25 games, their output has slowed significantly in that regard in Ovechkin’s absence.

The Caps have scored 24 goals in their seven games without Ovechkin, but less than half (11 of 24) have been scored at 5-on-5. At seven games and counting, this is Ovechkin’s longest continuous absence from the Washington lineup in his 20-year NHL career. Without him in the lineup these last seven games, the power play has been humming along nicely (8-for-23, 34.8%), but Washington ranks 25th in the NHL in 5-on-5 scoring in Ovechkin’s absence.

In a pair of practices on Wednesday and Thursday to prepare for this week’s back-to-backs in the northlands, the Caps tried to get back to the basics of bringing pucks and bodies to the net, creating movement and making the opposing goaltender’s life difficult.

“That’s one of the things that we’ve talked and worked a lot on, is when you just rely on beating a goalie straight up, and you don’t do the things that we’ve talked about, then flip a coin,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “Goalies are so good in this league now that he could absolutely face 12 shots right in the slot and make every single save. And if you’re just going to rely on those, you’re going to lose some nights, because a goaltender is going to stop those.”

While the Caps have been on their seven-game road winning spree, they’ve scuffled on home ice, winning just once in their last six games (1-3-2), and scoring just 15 goals in those six games. The Caps have outscored the opposition by a combined 39-17 during the life of their road winning streak.

In the only previous meeting between the Capitals and the Maple Leafs this season – on Nov. 13 in the District – Toronto arrived in town after suffering a 3-0 shutout setback at the hands of Atlantic Division rival Ottawa the night before. Down 3-1 to Washington as the third period got underway that night, the Leafs staged a late rally, tying the game on goals from William Nylander and Mitch Marner in the final five minutes of regulation, and winning on John Tavares’ goal in the final minute of overtime.

Beginning with that victory in Washington just over three weeks ago, the Leafs have won seven of eight games (7-1-0) since. Since the start of November, Toronto has been the League’s stingiest team in terms of goals against. The Leafs have yielded an average of just 2.14 goals against per game over that stretch, posting a 10-3-1 record in the process.

Most recently, the Leafs rallied from a 1-0 deficit on Wednesday night to overcome the visiting Nashville Predators 3-2 at Scotiabank Arena. Auston Matthews scored twice in the first two and a half minutes of the third period and Nylander added a late power-play goal to lift the Leafs to victory.