NHL Game Preview - Anaheim at Washington

Mon Nov 18, 2019 7:00 PM EST

After one bad game Friday night, the Washington Capitals found their form again on Saturday and hope to keep rolling when the Anaheim Ducks come to town Monday night.

Washington enters the Anaheim game after beating Boston 3-2 Saturday in a game that went to a shootout. That's when Jakub Vrana made an eye-popping move in the fifth round to beat Bruins goalie Jaroslav Halak, who has given the Capitals many problems at times during his career.

Goalie Braden Holtby made a save in the bottom of the fifth round that locked up the victory. Holtby is 9-0-1 in his past 10 starts after beginning the season a bit slowly. He's also 17-3-0 against the Bruins in his career.

The victory in Boston gave Holtby the 267th of his career and pushed him past Felix Potvin and into 50th place on the NHL's all-time wins list.

"Wins have always been important to me," Holtby told the team's site. "It's the one thing I care about because it shows consistency, not only personally, but team-wise. It's a (statistic) that comes directly as part of a group, so I think that's pretty cool. But hopefully there are a lot more."

The Capitals have won five in a row on the road -- and each victory came in overtime or a shootout.

Washington is 10-1-1 on the road this season, which is the best in the NHL, and has scored a point in nine consecutive games away from home (8-0-1). The Capitals have not fared too badly at home, either, going 5-2-3 and gaining points in eight of their 10 games.

The Ducks, meanwhile, are coming into this game after their own big win, a 4-1 victory over the Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues -- on the road, no less -- on Saturday.

Anaheim snapped a five-game losing streak with the win as it began a tough four-game road trip. St. Louis had been on a roll, getting points in its previous nine games (7-0-2).

Derek Grant led the way for the Ducks in the win over the Blues by coming up with his first hat trick. He also posted his first career short-handed goal and closed things out by scoring an empty-net goal.

And just for good measure, NHL.com said he won nine of 12 face-offs. Now, that's a busy night.

"This one feels good, for sure," Grant told the team's site. "It's good to get a win early on the road. We just have to start preparing for the next one the same way we did for this one."

Anaheim will need to come out firing on offense as Washington is by far the top offensive team in the NHL (84 goals).

The victory also put the Ducks back over the .500 mark at 10-9-2 after they slipped during their losing streak. It was the beginning of a road trip that will test Anaheim as it heads to Florida and Tampa Bay after taking on the Caps.

--Field Level Media