Game #64: Ducks vs. Capitals Gameday Preview

Alex Ovechkin’s quest to break Wayne Gretzky’s goalscoring record continues with a trip to Anaheim to face the Anaheim Ducks.

The Ducks are coming off a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders on Sunday, where eight of the 9 players who got on the scoresheet were 23 years old or younger.

The Washington Capitals are coming off a 4-2 win on Sunday against the Seattle Kraken, a game in which Ovechkin got one goal closer to passing Gretzky with an empty net tally.

“He’s a great human,” Ducks captain Radko Gudas said. Gudas spent one year as Ovechkin’s teammate during the 2019-20 season. “He loves scoring goals, the joy in his eyes every time he lights up the lamp. It’s unbelievable and everybody wants to do it the same way he does when they see how much joy he has in scoring goals. I think it’s a great story and he’s doing an unbelievable job of scoring those goals and keeping on the scoring tracks.”

“People don't realize how big he is,” Ducks head coach Greg Cronin said. “He barrels through people and when he wants to compete, wants the puck, he's really hard to get the puck off his stick. So, he's a unique blend. I’d like to see him on a football field as a fullback. He’d look like John Riggins in the old Redskins days. He’s fun to watch. He’s passionate, he's great for the game. He's obviously a tough guy to game plan against, but it's good for hockey.”

Leo Carlsson, who was a big Sidney Crosby fan growing up, watched the Pittsburgh Penguins battle the Capitals many times over the years.

“Always watched their rivalry as well, a lot of playoff series (between) them, you see him scoring goals (all the time).” 

Defenseman Olen Zellweger said that Ovechkin was probably his favorite player growing up.

“Oddly enough, I’m probably the opposite player, being a defenseman,” Zellweger said. (Ovechkin) is massive. I just love the energy that he brought and still brings as a player with the (celebrations) and scoring goals. That passion is contagious and I think (our team does) a good job of bringing that, especially in these tighter games.”

“I see a lot of positives inside their game,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said of the Ducks. “They are scratching and clawing and you can tell that this team is right there and even from listening to (Cronin), there's a lot of fight and belief that they are right there and they’re playing like that. So, it goes in line with a lot of the teams that we've been playing of late that are right on the fringe of the playoffs, whether they're just in or just out like Anaheim is.

“They’re fighting for every inch and for every point right now and their play is sort of indicative of that. The Islanders game—know the Islanders were on a back-to-back—Anaheim was really strong in that game, they controles play. The Edmonton game (too). There’s a lot of positive things, and you can tell with any young team, their young players, once they get more and more games and experience, confidence starts to grow. All of a sudden, they've got five or six of their younger guys playing at a real high level, so we're gonna have to have our best tonight without a doubt.”

Ducks Projected Lines

Frank Vatrano - Ryan Strome - Troy Terry
Cutter Gauthier - Mason McTavish - Sam Colangelo
Trevor Zegras - Leo Carlsson - Alex Killorn
Jansen Harkins - Isac Lundeström - Ross Johnston

Jackson LaCombe - Radko Gudas
Olen Zellweger - Jacob Trouba
Pavel Mintyukov - Drew Helleson

Lukáš Dostál (projected)

Capitals Projected Lines

Alex Ovechkin - Dylan Strome - Tom Wilson
Connor McMichael - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Aliaksei Protas
Andrew Mangiapane - Lars Eller - Taylor Raddysh
Brandon Duhaime - Nic Dowd - Anthony Beauvillier

Rasmus Sandin - John Carlson
Jacob Chychrun - Trevor van Riemsdyk
Martin Fehérváry - Matt Roy

Logan Thompson (projected)