Two future Hall of Famers renew their rivalry when Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals visit Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday night.
Ovechkin comes in after scoring his 900th NHL goal and third of the season as the Capitals beat the visiting St. Louis Blues 6-1 on Wednesday night, snapping a four-game losing streak (0-3-1).
“I’m still playing, but when I’m going to be done playing, of course, I’m going to think about it,” Ovechkin said of the milestone. “And lots of guys on the bench said, ‘Nine hundred. That’s pretty special.’ But I’m still playing, still have lots of games left, so we’ll see what’s going to happen.”
His next game is against the Penguins, who return home after completing a four-game road trip with a 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday.
The Thursday game will be the 74th regular-season meeting between Ovechkin and Crosby. Ovechkin has 68 points (38 goals, 30 assists) in those contests and Crosby has 95 points (33 goals, 62 assists).
Anthony Beauvillier and Tom Wilson each had two goals against the Blues, and John Carlson had a goal and an assist for the Capitals, who set a season high for goals. Jakob Chychrun had three assists, and Logan Thompson made 23 saves.
“It’s been a long time coming for our guys,” Thompson said. “I think we’ve had a lot of chances. It was good to see them finally going in. Credit to the guys, it was overall one of our best games of the season and just build off it as we start this road trip.”
Washington killed off all three St. Louis power plays, extending its penalty-kill streak to 12 dating back to Oct. 28.
Charlie Lindgren starts in goal for the Capitals on Thursday. He is 1-3-0 with a 2.54 goals-against average and a .922 save percentage in his career vs. Pittsburgh.
On Monday night, the Penguins could not hold a 3-0 third-period lead against the Maple Leafs, leaving them with a 1-2-1 mark on their road trip.
“It has to be a full 60 minutes, though, and we got away from it there,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said. “It was a number of different factors. When they took momentum, we weren’t able to at least pause the momentum. They kept coming and then we were back on our heels, and you can’t play the game that way.”
Rookie Ben Kindel scored twice for his first multi-goal NHL game for the Penguins, who have lost two in a row.
Kindel, an 18-year-old who was a first-round pick in this year’s draft, has five goals on the season.
“Just the sense, his ability to read space, the ability to attack space, to know where the next play is — those are the types of things that I think we’ve seen from him on a pretty consistent basis,” Muse said.
Penguins goalie Tristan Jarry got hurt in the Toronto game and will be out a minimum of three weeks with a lower-body injury. Sergei Murashov, 21, was called up from AHL Wilkes-Barre/Scranton.
Arturs Silovs, the likely starter on Thursday, has never faced the Capitals.
The Penguins also will be without Noel Acciari, who left the Monday game with an upper-body injury and will be out at least three weeks.
