MONTREAL (AP) There was nothing rusty about Evgeny Kuznetsov’s game when he returned to the ice for the Washington
Capitals.Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson each scored twice and Nicklas Backstrom had
four assists as Washington defeated the Montreal Canadiens 6-4 on Saturday
night.It was Kuznetsov’s first game back after missing three with an upper-body
injury.”It’s tough to watch hockey from upstairs and it’s so good to be back on
the ice
Adidas Marian Hossa Jersey ,” said Kuznetsov, who has 23 goals this season. ”It’s even better when you win.”Jay Beagle and T.J. Oshie also scored for Washington
(44-24-7), which strengthened its grip on first place in the Metropolitan
Division. Backstrom posted his 20th career game with at least four points, and
second this season.”It was an important game for us and it doesn’t matter how
you play, how many mistakes we (made). We got the two points. That’s the key for
us,” Kuznetsov said.Charles Hudon scored twice for Montreal (27-37-12), which
was coming off a 3-0 win at Buffalo on Friday night. Alex Galchenyuk and Brendan
Gallagher each had a goal for the Canadiens, who are 2-8-2 in their last 12
games.Gallagher’s goal was originally credited to Jonathan Drouin before being
changed.Canadiens goalie Carey Price struggled in his second start since
returning from a concussion as Washington outshot Montreal 30-21.Price, who came
back from a monthlong layoff Wednesday in a 5-3 loss at Pittsburgh, has allowed
11 goals on 69 shots in two outings. He was beaten three times on the first nine
shots by the high-powered Capitals.”I just focus on the next shot,” he said.
”Obviously when you give up a six-spot it’s not that much fun, but just try to
focus on the process and focus on the next shot.”It’s been a tough season for
the 2015 Hart and Vezina Trophy winner, with a subpar 3.10 goals-against average
and a .901 save percentage in 45 appearances.Price was diagnosed with a
concussion after taking a shot to the mask Feb. 20 in Philadelphia. Antti Niemi
has been solid in relief, including a shutout win Friday night in Buffalo,
causing some to question if Price shouldn’t just be shut down for the rest of
the season.But Price and the team thought it better
Adidas Chris Wagner Jersey , with the Canadiens out of playoff contention, to get some games in before the offseason.Montreal coach Claude Julien is
confident Price will be back to his old self soon enough.”There’s a goaltender
on the other side, (Braden) Holtby, who’s having the same kind of year as Price
and he’s a pretty good goalie, so it happens,” Julien said. ”One thing I can
tell you is we know how good (Price) is and how good he will be and I’m not
worried about him bouncing back.”It wasn’t his best night, but at the same time
a lot of our season has gone that way. Our team wasn’t great. We talked about
how many slot chances we’ve been giving up. I’m way more confident than worried
about Carey right now.”Jacob de la Rose provided the forecheck that sent
Galchenyuk in alone to deke Philipp Grubauer 8:35 into the game. Gallagher added
another a minute later but had it called back after an offside review.The
setback seemed to knock the air out of Montreal, and the Capitals jumped on the
Canadiens for three goals before the end of the period.Kuznetsov, back after
missing three games with an upper-body injury, scored on a wrist shot from the
right circle on a power play at 11:11. Price made a soft pass from behind his
net that was picked off by Backstrom and fed to Wilson to score from the slot at
14:49.Wilson was fed alone in front again to score on a high shot at 18:11.A
Washington power play had just ended when Beagle tipped in Dmitry Orlov’s point
shot 4:52 into the second.Montreal got it back with two seconds left in the
period when Hudon redirected Jordie Benn’s shot from 10 feet in front of
Grubauer.Kuznetsov was parked at the side of the net to tip in Backstrom’s pass
on a power play 1:10 into the third period. Capitals defenseman Jakub Jerabek,
who started the season in Montreal, saw his high shot tipped past Price by Oshie
at 4:52.Hudon was credited with his 10th of the season at 9:28 when his shot
through traffic from the left side looked as if it may have gone in off Nikita
Scherbak’s hip at the side of the net. Drouin took a shot on a power play with
1:57 left to play that Gallagher appeared to tip in while standing just outside
the crease.NOTES: Barry Trotz earned his 200th win as coach of the Capitals. …
The Canadiens signed 20-year-old free-agent forward Hayden Verbeek of the Sault
Ste. Marie Greyhounds to a three-year contract starting next season. He is the
nephew of former NHL player Pat Verbeek.UP NEXTCapitals: At the New York Rangers
on Monday night.Canadiens: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Monday night.— Now that
Mike Sullivan and Barry Trotz have matched wits in a playoff series for three
consecutive years, they harbor very few secrets.The Pittsburgh Penguins and
Washington Capitals know each other inside-out from 17 postseason games since
2016. The coaches are very familiar with the dynamics of Sidney Crosby, Evgeni
Malkin, Alex Ovechkin and just about all the other moving pieces.”Every move
that we make there’s a counter move
Adidas Joakim Nordstrom Jersey , and every move they make there’s a little counter move,” Trotz said. ”It’s funny: A lot of them are the same things that
we’ve seen at different parts in the last couple series. They just come in
different order sometimes at you. There’s only maybe so many bricks that you
have and they are just lined up a different way all the time.”Sullivan moved his
pieces around as Pittsburgh tied the series at 2-2, and now Trotz gets the next
chance in their chess match for Game 5 on Saturday (7 p.m. EDT, NBC). After Alex
Ovechkin put no shots on net for the third time in his playoff career – with Tom
Wilson suspended the first of three games – it starts with finding the right mix
on the top line.Trotz tried Devante Smith-Pelly with Ovechkin and Evgeny
Kuznetsov, and that trio was outshot 21-9 at even strength. Maybe Smith-Pelly
will be back on that line, maybe he won’t after the Capitals coaching staff
pored over video to see what went wrong.”We’re looking at that,” Trotz said. ”I
think that whole line has to be better for us. They’re going to need to be
productive.”Pittsburgh’s top line of Jake Guentzel, Sidney Crosby and whoever
else has been incredibly productive. All 10 of the Penguins’ goals in the series
have come with Crosby on the ice, and Guentzel leads all players in the playoffs
with 10 goals and 21 points.”I just think he’s the best player in the game,”
Sullivan said of Crosby, who played with Guentzel and Dominik Simon in Game 4.
”Sid certainly makes everybody around him better players but you’ve got to give
Jake a lot of credit for the game that he’s playing.”The Penguins got speedy
winger Carl Hagelin back from injury while the Capitals lost Wilson. That’s a
disadvantage for Washington, but the spotlight is still on Trotz to make the
necessary adjustments as Capitals-Penguins becomes a best-of-three series.”I
think every game both teams recalibrate, if you will, in some areas,” Trotz
said. ”There’s little changes we’ve noticed with them
Timothy Liljegren Jersey Womens , and there’s some changes that we added in. Some of them worked and some of them didn’t have the effect that we wanted
to. At the end of the day, it’s two guys going nose to nose, battling for
position, battling for free pucks, executing on plays under pressure. Once we
put a plan in place, we put the players in charge, really.”CHESS MATCH IIIn the
West, Nashville coach Peter Laviolette also made a key change in the series
between the NHL’s top two teams, benching Game 2 double-overtime hero Kevin
Fiala in favor of veteran Scott Hartnell for more size, strength and experience
against Winnipeg. That, plus replacing Alexei Emelin with Yannick Weber, allowed
Nashville to better counter imposing Winnipeg defenseman Dustin Byfuglien in
tying the series at 2-2. Game 5 is Saturday night in Nashville (9:30 p.m. EDT,
NBCSN).Laviolette said making a change involves taking into account the
opposition, building, a player’s experience and style of play.”They’re never
easy
Antoine Roussel Jersey Womens ,” Laviolette said. ”But I thought the guys that went in the lineup last night did a really good job. Hartnell played a good
game. He did what we were hoping he would do, and I thought Yannick Weber went
in and played a good game.”With the Jets held without a shot for the first 12
minutes of the third period, Winnipeg coach Paul Maurice started mixing up his
lines. He swapped centers, skating Mark Scheifele with Nikolaj Ehlers and Patrik
Laine with Paul Stastny between Blake Wheeler and Kyle Connor. Laine scored his
first goal of the series and first in the postseason since Game 2 on April 13
against Minnesota.DERBY DAY ODDSThe betting favorite to win these two series
will be whoever comes out on top in Game 5, based on history alone. The 256
previous times where it was tied at 2, the Game 5 winner went on to win the
series 78.9 percent of the time. So there’s no urgency lacking.”We’re going to
need our best effort of the series probably in Game 5 to get a win,” Washington
defenseman Matt Niskanen said. ”I think we’re building a belief that we can beat
these guys. We know we’re going to have to play really well, but it’s possible.
We think we can do it.”—AP Sports Writers Will Graves in Pittsburgh and Teresa
M. Walker in Nashville, Tennessee, contributed.—
