Caps (17-6-2, 36 points) at Blues (12-8-3, 27 points)
What » Game #26
Where » Scottrade Center
When » 8 p.m.
TV » CSN+ HD
Radio » WFED-1500 AM
Winners of three in a row, the Caps test their recent resurgence with a pair of road games against Western Conference teams. Tonight, looks like Semyon Varlamov gets his fourth start in a row since returning from his season-long groin injury. No Scott Hannan tonight. The defenseman, acquired in a trade Tuesday for Tomas Fleischmann, will get a chance to gather his thoughts and watch from an arena suite. He should make his Washington debut on Thursday against Dallas.
While visits to Western arenas are rare, the Caps actually played at Scottrade Center last Feb. 13 – a 3-2 shootout loss in the final game before the Winter Olympics break. The last time Washington won a game outright in St. Louis? Not since Oct. 26, 1996. That’s an eight-game drought.
Forward D.J. King will see the ice for the first time since Nov. 9 against the New York Rangers. The Caps enforcer spent four season in St. Louis – though played in just 13 games total during the past two. He has appeared in six games with Washington so far. The Caps traded King in July straight up for forward Stefan Della Rovere, their seventh-round draft pick in 2008. The feisty 20-year-old just happens to be making his NHL debut tonight for the Blues. He appeared in two playoff games with Hershey last spring after graduating from junior hockey. So far in 20 games at AHL Peoria he has three goals and four assists, but 33 penalty minutes.
Not that Washington’s players wanted to dwell on it all that much – but they see their nemesis from last spring’s playoffs tonight with Jaroslav Halak in goal for the Blues. Last time they saw him was at Verizon Center on April 28 as he and his Montreal Canadiens teammates celebrated their shocking Game 7 win in the first round. Halak stopped 131 of the final 134 shots he saw in that series. That’s a pretty good way to help your team overcome a 3-1 series deficit. But Montreal had to choose between Halak and Carey Price and so shipped Halak to St. Louis, where he immediately signed a four-year contract.
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