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NHL on NBCSN Doubleheader: Capitals at Red Wings; Golden Knights at Sharks

Washington Capitals v Detroit Red Wings

DETROIT, MI - FEBRUARY 18: Henrik Zetterberg #40 of the Detroit Red Wings skates with the puck while playing the Washington Capitals at Joe Louis Arena on February 18, 2017 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

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NBCSN’s coverage of the 2017-18 NHL season continues with a doubleheader on Thursday night. In the early game, the Detroit Red Wings host the Washington Capitals at 7:30 p.m. ET. You can watch the game online by clicking here.

The Capitals have an opportunity to put a little distance between themselves and the second place Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. Washington is two points ahead of the Pens with a game in a hand, so a win tonight would put them four points clear of second.

The Caps got some good news, as Evgeny Kuznetsov (upper body) made the trip to Detroit. Kuznetsov suffered an upper-body injury against the Isles last week. Even though he’s traveling, it’s unclear if he’ll actually suit up tonight.

Since losing back-to-back games in Anaheim and Los Angeles, the Capitals have rattled off five victories in their last six contests. That includes a win in San Jose, a win over the Jets, a pair of wins over the Islanders and a victory over Dallas.

As for the Red Wings, they’ll look to play spoiler again. They’re 5-4 overtime win over the Flyers on Tuesday night allowed to snap their 10-game losing skid. Before Tuesday’s game, you had to go all the way back to Feb. 25 to find Detroit’s last victory. Yeah, it took them long enough.

Even though they aren’t in the playoff picture, there’s no denying the win felt good for the struggling Wings.
“We talked about it as a team after the last game, certainly frustration was starting to boil over,” coach Jeff Blashill said after the win over Philly, per the Detroit News. “Our guys came out and played great. The third period wasn’t good enough, but we played great for two periods (and) to finish was critical.

“You don’t want to come in here and talk about another loss. It was critical (to win).”

Blashill’s team currently find themselves in 26th place with 65 points. A few more losses down the stretch and they’ll be able to improve their NHL Entry Draft lottery odds.

In the late game, the San Jose Sharks host the Vegas Golden Knights at 10:00 p.m. ET. You can watch the game online by clicking here.

The Golden Knights are still at least eight points clear of any other team in the Pacific Division, but there’s no denying that their play has dipped. Of course, that was to be expected. Not because they’re an expansion team, but because every team in the league takes a dip at a certain point over an 82-game season.

In fairness to Vegas, they have won back-to-back games over Calgary and Vancouver, but injuries have been problematic for them of late. Now, it looks like they’ll have to deal with another injury, as Marc-Andre Fleury. As you’ll probably remember, they faced a pretty tough test earlier in the season when Fleury, Malcolm Subban and Oscar Dansk were all hurt.

Head coach Gerard Gallant was pretty on Wednesday when he was asked about Fleury’s status.

“I’m not getting into specifics about what he’s doing, but he’s not going to come today,” Gallant said, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “He could join us tomorrow or in the very near future.

“He’s not coming on our plane today. He could be there tomorrow. He could be there the next day. I’m not sure.”

Since then, they recalled Dansk from the minors. So don’t expect to see Fleury in San Jose.

The Sharks are eight points behind Vegas for that top seed in the division. Both teams have played 73 games, so it’s unlikely that they’ll be able to catch the expansion side with only nine games remaining. Winning tonight would obviously make that a little more possible.

Since dropping a 2-0 home decision to the Caps, the Sharks have rattled off five straight wins.

“You always find out what the group’s made of when they’re pushed up against the wall,” head coach Pete DeBoer said, per the San Jose Mercury News. “We were in a group, a couple weeks ago, of five or six teams that were all pretty much in the same spot and we’ve found a way to separate ourselves.”

San Jose has certainly separated themselves from the pack, as they’re three points ahead of Anaheim (third place) with a game a hand.

It’ll be interesting to see how they handle themselves against the number two team in the conference.

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Joey Alfieri is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @joeyalfieri.