November 20 vs. Montreal Canadiens at Verizon Center     
Time: 7:00 pm
TV: Comcast SportsNet
Radio: 820AM, 1500AM and XM
Pre-Game: Pre-Cap Podcast at 2 p.m. and Two-Man Advantage Pre-game show at 5:45, both on washingtoncaps.com

Montreal Canadiens (10-11-0)
Washington Capitals (13-4-4)

Home games will be few and far between for the Capitals in the upcoming weeks. Washington is in the midst of a stretch in which it plays 18 of 27 games on the road and has only four home dates in a span of 33 days. The first of those four games is Friday when the Montreal Canadiens make the first of their two visits to Verizon Center this season.

Washington’s 7-1-3 home ice record is one of the best in the league. Only Tampa Bay (5-0-4) and San Jose (6-0-2) have fewer home ice losses than the Caps thus far, and both have had fewer home dates.

The Caps are coming off a hard-fought 4-2 win over the Rangers in New York on Tuesday. Washington got left wing Alex Ovechkin back after a six-game absence that night, but it played without forwards Alexander Semin (wrist), Mike Knuble (broken finger) and Boyd Gordon (back) and without defenseman Milan Jurcina (lower body muscle pull).

Caps forward Quintin Laing (broken jaw) and defenseman Shaone Morrisonn (upper body) were injured in the loss to the Rangers. Laing is out for 4-6 weeks and Morrisonn is day-to-day. Washington’s total of 64 man-games lost to injury will likely jump to 70 after Friday’s game with the Canadiens, who have also lost 64 man-games because of injuries.

A quarter of the way through the season, the Caps are already down to just seven players who have appeared in all 21 of the team’s games to date. Among all NHL teams, only Edmonton (five) has fewer players who have played in all of its games this season.

On Thursday the capitals recalled defenseman John Carlson from AHL Hershey. The 19-year-old blueliner, the Caps’ second choice (first round, 27th overall) in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, is set to make his NHL debut on Friday against Montreal.

Carlson is tied for the lead among all AHL skaters with a plus-14 mark in 17 games. He has 10 points (one goal, nine assists), which is tied for 15th among the league’s blueliners.

The youngster will likely skate alongside veteran Tom Poti, Washington’s most experienced rearguard.

You won’t hear the Capitals using injuries as an excuse for poor play. Washington went 4-2 during Ovechkin’s recent absence from the lineup. The Caps are 3-0 with Semin on the sidelines. They went 7-2-2 without Tomas Fleischmann in the lineup at the start of the season.

“Every team is going through it and every team is whining,” says Caps coach Bruce Boudreau of injuries. “I don’t want to be one of those teams.”

“It doesn’t matter who’s in the lineup or who’s out of the lineup,” says Poti. “This is the NHL and we’re all capable of being here and we’re all capable of playing.

“The good thing about the guys coming up is they’re hungry and they want to stick around and they’re playing really hard. That’s huge for us. The big thing about us is Hershey plays the same system as we do. Guys can step in seamlessly and they don’t have to worry about learning a new system or learning new things. They just step in and just do their jobs. It showed last year, how guys can step in and not miss a beat, not make mistakes, play really well and give us a chance to win, which is what we need.”

Washington has already received strong contributions from several members of last year’s Calder Cup champion Bears team. Laing and Tyler Sloan both made the Caps roster out of training camp and both have proven to be more than useful. Earlier Hershey recalls Keith Aucoin, Alexandre Giroux and Mathieu Perreault have all made their mark with Washington this season at one time or another.

“I think it speaks a lot about our depth,” says Caps defenseman Brian Pothier. “I think we can call guys up from Hershey or just guys who aren’t in the lineup here that can be effective. We all know the system and I think the system is our biggest asset on this team. We play it well and everybody in this organization has been playing it for between three and seven years. We’ve all had Bruce for a while. We’re pretty interchangeable.”

Washington’s total of four regulation losses is tied for the fewest in the NHL. The Caps’ Tuesday win over the Rangers came on the heels of a Saturday night loss in New Jersey, a setback that halted the Capitals’ winning streak at four games. The Caps now hope to build another streak, using that win in Manhattan as the foundation.

“When you lose a game like we did against New Jersey,” says Caps forward Brooks Laich, “you want to get right back to winning. You don’t want to go one win, one loss; two wins, one loss. You never pull away from the pack when you do that. We had won four in a row. If we drop one, now we want to get back to four, five, six in a row. Now you’re looking at winning 10 of your last 11 as opposed to six or seven of your last 11.”

Friday’s game against the Habs is the first of five straight against Northeast Division foes.

“It’s a big game,” says Laich. “With injuries and guys out, it’s an opportunity for other guys to perform and it’s a big challenge for us.

“I think we want to be soldier-like. We want to play the same way [regardless of who is in or out of the lineup]. When Ovi was out, when we were on the bench during games we never thought, ‘Oh, we’re missing Alex.’ We just thought, ‘We have to win. We have to win.’

“The other night when Semin was out in New York, we didn’t think, ‘Oh, I wish we could put Alex Semin on the ice.’ You just keep working and Matt Bradley steps up and does a great job and scores a goal. It’s an opportunity for other guys. Other guys get excited when they get more ice and get more of a role than what they’re used to. It makes it fun to play.”

Montreal had a five-game losing streak followed by a four-game winning streak in October. In the 24 days since (10 games), the Canadiens haven’t won consecutive contests.

Most recently, the Canadiens took a 3-2 home ice shootout decision from the Hurricanes on Tuesday.

The Canadiens finished 2008-09 with an average of 2.95 goals per game, 13th in the NHL. Montreal’s roster underwent a significant off-season overhaul, and the team has scored just 2.29 goals per game this season. The Habs rank 26th in the league in scoring in 2009-10.

From an ice-time perspective, three of Montreal’s top four defensemen and three of the team’s top four forwards are newcomers to the Canadiens this season.

The Habs have not drawn more than four power plays in any of their last 11 games. Montreal is 3-for-23 (13%) on the power play in its last nine contests.

Montreal is missing defensemen Andrei Markov (ankle) and Hal Gill (foot) and forwards Matt D’Agostini (concussion) and Brian Gionta (foot). Gionta, tied for the team lead with eight goals, originally believed his injury was a bruise. He tried to play through the pain, but he actually has a broken bone in his left foot and will be out indefinitely.

The Canadiens are anticipating the returns of defenseman Ryan O’Byrne (knee) and forward Georges Laraque (back) on Friday after lengthy absences because of injury.