Tonight at 7:00 p.m. ET, the Edmonton Oilers (1-3-1) and Washington Capitals (1-4-0) faceoff live from the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. The game can be live streamed here. Edmonton fans can hear all the hard-hitting action on CHED 630 AM, while Washington fans can do the same on WJFK-FM 106.7.
This is the first of two meetings between these two struggling teams, and both will look to start getting it going tonight. Washington has dropped its last three contests while Edmonton is hoping to avoid a three-game losing streak by topping Washington tonight.
The Oilers dropped a heartbreaker to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday and despite veteran Ryan Smyth notching two tallies in the game, the team still fell 6-5. Smyth is tied for the team lead in goals with three and has added an assist for four points so far this season, but knows that it was a hard loss for the team to take after Toronto scored the game-winner with just 30 seconds remaining.
"We generated a lot of offense but we gave up some on the other end," Smyth told NHL.com "[The Maple Leafs] were hungry. They found some odd-man rushes that they capitalized on and it's frustrating, taking the loss with 30 seconds to go."
Taylor Hall is tied for the Oilers lead in points with five--coming off of one goal and four assists, but the team hasn't been able to stop opponents from scoring thus far this season. Hall has a three-game point streak on the line tonight.
The Caps lost their most lopsided game of the season Saturday against the surging Colorado Avalanche, and will look to bounce back after another rough outing that saw the team get handed a 5-1 defeat.
"It's looking at yourself and wanting to win. It's about wanting to work hard, wanting to help your teammates out, wanting to win," Troy Brouwer, who has no points and a minus-2 rating through five games, told NHL.com. "That's all it comes down [to]. Our talent level is there. Our effort's not."
Braden Holtby has struggled in the crease for the Caps, as he is 0-3-0 and is still looking for his first victory through four appearances this season. Holtby has allowed 13 goals already and has stopped just 89 of the 102 shots he's faced, leading him to a 4.04 GAA and a .873 save percentage. Michal Neuvirth took over on Saturday but didn't fare much better as he allowed the first four goals against Colorado in the loss.
Alex Ovechkin has led the way offensively for the Capitals with a team-high five goals to go along with two assists for a club-high seven points throughout the first five games.
Edmonton goaltender Devan Dubnyk hasn't had a ton of success thus far this season, yielding 19 goals and stopping just 92 of 111 chances against him thus far.
Two struggling teams will look to put early season woes behind them when the Capitals and Oilers take the ice tonight.
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