Alex Ovechkin enters Friday night's game against the Chicago Blackhawks sitting on 892 career goals. That puts him a hat trick away from breaking Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record, and Ovechkin now gets to face one of the worst defensive teams in the NHL.

Analyzing Friday’s Chicago Blackhawks at Washington Capitals odds and lines, with NHL expert picks, predictions and best bets.

Leonard won a battle on the wall and then two races to loose pucks to keep the play alive before feeding Aliaksei Protas at the point, which began a tic-tac-toe passing sequence that led to Dylan Strome’s goal with 9:23 left in the game.

Capitals, including Alex Ovechkin goal props as he chases Wayne Gretzky's goals record, make sure to see what the SportsLine Projection Model has to say

After attending Leonard’s Capitals debut some 24 hours earlier, the crew of Eagles players headed to New York to support Perreault.

The Avalanche’s Cale Makar scored against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night to become the NHL’s ninth defenseman, and the first with Colorado, to reach the 30-goal plateau in a season. The sixth-year player is the NHL’s first defenseman to reach the 30-goal mark since Mike Green of the Washington Capitals had 31 in 2008-09.

The decision to bring up Shepard from the minors likely means that Logan Thompson (upper body) won't be available versus the Blackhawks on Friday. As such, fantasy players should probably be expecting Shepard to serve as the backup to Charlie Lindgren against the Hawks.