Capitals lineup tonight: Washington’s projected lineup for game against the Montreal Canadiens | January 10, 2025

The Washington Capitals will host the Montreal Canadiens on Friday at 7 p.m. ET. Washington (27-10-4) is coming off a 2-1 OT win over the Vancouver Canucks. Ahead of the game, here is what the Capitals lineup is projected to look like.

Capitals projected lineup

Forwards

• Alex Ovechkin - Dylan Strome - Aliaksei Protas
• Connor McMichael - Pierre-Luc Dubois - Tom Wilson
• Ivan Miroshnichenko - Lars Eller - Taylor Raddysh
• Brandon Duhaime - Nic Dowd - Andrew Mangiapane

The Capitals forward group has been a major surprise. Strome and Protas have played well, while Dubois has had a nice rebound season.

Washington is averaging 3.65 goals per game. The Caps are led by Strome who has 45 points, Protas has 36 points, Dubois has 33 points, McMichael and Wilson have 32 points, and Ovechkin has 30.

Defenseman

• Rasmus Sandin - John Carlson
• Jakob Chychrun - Trevor van Riemsdyk
• Martin Fehervary - Matt Roy

Washington's defense has been solid this season as the Capitals rebuilt it in the offseason adding Chychrun and Roy.

Goalies

• Charlie Lindgren
• Logan Thompson

Washington has two solid goaltenders as the Caps have been alternating who starts. Lindgren is 10-8-2 with a 2.70 GAA and a .898 SV%. In his career against Montreal, he's 3-1 with a 2.80 GAA and a .888 SV%.

Capitals vs Canadiens: Preview

Washington is a -218 favorite while Montreal is a +180 underdog. The over/under is set at 5.5 goals.

The Capitals have been playing well as of late, but coach Spencer Carbery believes the team's offense needs to get going.

“We’ve got to get back to it,” Carbery said via NHL.com. “We’re still fighting it a bit. Tonight was a good example. This felt a little bit like we knew it wasn’t going to be pretty, and we were going to have to keep them to one or zero [goals].

"And I haven’t felt that a lot this year, because we were scoring so often early in the year, we’ve always kind of had that mindset – and you can feel it on the bench – of ‘we’ll score our way back into a game."

The Capitals will be able to get a big win at home here. Washington's offense should be able to have success at home here against Montreal, who give up plenty of shots.

Prediction: Capitals 4, Canadiens 2.