There's no clear number-one goaltender so far in Washington; since the start of the season, the Capitals have alternated between former Montreal Canadiens goaltender Charlie Lindgren and Logan Thompson. Since the latter was in net on Tuesday night, the former will be in net tonight.

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The 30-year-old netminder was never drafted into the NHL, but after graduating from St. Cloud's in the NCAA, he signed a contract with the Canadiens and had an impressive start. He won his first three NHL starts with a save percentage of .940, which unfortunately set unrealistic expectations for the netminder.

At the end of his third contract, Lindgren was allowed to walk away as an unrestricted free agent, and he landed in St. Louis for a year before moving on to the Capitals on a three-year deal, giving him $1.1 M per season. In a contract year, the netminder has a 2-2-0 record so far with a 2.52 goals-against average and a .895 SP.

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The Canadiens come to town with co-second-place goal scorer in the league Cole Caufield, who's scored nine goals in 10 games so far this season, but there are a lot of questions in net. Now, without veteran goalie Jake Allen, the Canadiens have put all their chips on the Samuel Montembeault and Cayden Primeau tandem. While Montembeault had a great game to start the year, he reached rock bottom Tuesday night, giving up five goals on just 10 shots.

Yesterday at practice, the goaltender was put through his paces with a lot of deflected and through-traffic shots to handle. Speaking to the media after the morning session, Martin St-Louis said he had yet to choose who would be manning the net tonight. The pre-game skate is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. this morning, and we should have a better idea of any lineup changes by then.

Montembeault and Primeau have rough numbers against tonight's opponent. The former has faced Washington five times and has a 2-2-0 record with a 3.34 goals-against average and a .895 save percentage. As for the latter, he's only had one start against them, which he lost, surrendering four goals on 14 shots for a 9.49 GAA and a .714 SP. Still, tonight, it's Primeau who gets the nod and will hope to help the Canadiens bounce back.

As for the Caps' goaltenders, Logan Thompson has never faced the Canadiens, and Lindgren has taken on his former team three times. He has a 2-1-0 record to show for it, with a 2.70 GAA and a .908 SP.

Up front, the pilot decided to mix things up a bit, with three of his four lines being altered at practice yesterday:

Emil Heineman - Nick Suzuki - Cole Caufield
Juraj Slafkovsky - Kirby Dach - Oliver Kapanen
Alex Newhook - Christian Dvorak - Joel Armia
Josh Anderson - Jake Evans - Brendan Gallagher

These new lines are interesting, it would finally give Heineman a real opportunity offensively speaking as he wouldn't be saddled with Dvorak who really is struggling so far this season. As for the Slafkovsky and Dach combination, it looked brilliant a year ago, and clearly, the training staff would like to rekindle that magic. It could be a tough one for the third line, though, as all of its players have been struggling to an extent. Those lines stuck for this morning's skate, although Kapanen and Newhook have now been swapped lines.

On the back end, his pairs were as follows:

Lane Hutson - David Savard
Mike Matheson - Justin Barron
Kaiden Guhle - Jayden Struble
Arber Xhekaj - Logan Mailloux

There's no telling what will stick for tonight's game, but this sure looked like changes could be expected on defense, a feeling confirmed when Mailloux was sent back down to Laval. It would, therefore, make sense for Xhekaj to be the odd man out tonight since he was skating with the demoted Mailloux yesterday. Yes, Tom Wilson is in the Capitals' lineup, but so far this season, he's only taken two minor penalties. St-Louis has now confirmed that Guhle and Barron will be dressed tonight, meaning Xhekaj will skip a turn. It will be interesting to see if Jakob Chychrun will be in the lineup for the Capitals, as he left the last game, and if Matt Roy could be ready to return.

After reviewing the tape of the game against the Seattle Kraken, the bench boss insisted his team wasn't dominated by the Washington state outfit on Tuesday night. He believes his young charges need to mature and stop helping the opponent. When asked what he meant by that, the coach clarified that his players have to be ready for faceoffs, stop taking bad penalties, and be efficient in shot-blocking.

Unsurprisingly, the Capitals' most productive forward against the Canadiens is Alexander Ovechkin, who has 67 points in 58 career games against Montreal. Defenseman John Carlsson also has a respectable 24 points in 41 tilts. Pierre-Luc Dubois landed in Washington this off-season after his failed Los Angeles adventure and has 21 points in 24 duels against the Habs.

As for the Canadiens, the usual suspects are the most productive elements against the Caps. Caufield has eight points in as many games (including five goals), and Suzuki has 15 points (seven goals and eight assists) in 12 meetings. While the captain's point streak came to a grinding halt on Tuesday night, Caufield will be looking for a fourth goal in as many games.

Montreal and Washington have faced each other 180 times so far, and the Canadiens have an 83-71-17-9 record against tonight's hosts. The Capitals have won six of the last 10 meetings between the two sides, including the last one by a score of 4-3 last February. Tonight will be the first of this season's three games between the Eastern Conference rivals.

The puck drop is set for 7:00 PM and whatever happens, it will be your chance to follow Alexander Ovechkin's race to Wayne Gretzky's goal record.

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