missing much of the season last year with a concussion was expected to make a difference, only to see the Blackhawks’ competitive issues continue.Chicago has lost its past three games by a total of four goals.“I don’t know how

WASHINGTON (AP) — Evgeny Kuznetsov is scoring http://www.avalancheshoponline.com/authentic-nathan-mackinnon-jersey , the Washington Capitals are winning and it feels like the playoffs in February.Kuznetsov continued his hot streak with two goals and two assists, leading the Washington Capitals to a 6-4 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Monday night. The leading scorer in last year’s playoffs has six goals and six assists in six games since the All-Star break, and the defending Stanley Cup champions went 4-1-1 on their longest homestand of the season.Kuznetsov had just 10 points in his previous 18 games before getting on this roll.“Even if things not going well, you have to work and not just hard work, you have to smart work and you just have to wait for your chance,” Kuznetsov said. “When chances come up, you just have to execute.”Kuznetsov isn’t the only one executing right now. Alex Ovechkin scored his NHL-leading 38th goal and had two assists and Brett Connolly, Christian Djoos and Jakub Vrana scored for the Capitals Patrick Roy Jersey , who had their lines from the Cup Final put back together and produced all over the lineup.“We played together before, so we have some chemistry,” said Vrana, who scored his 17th goal. “It doesn’t really matter who you play with. There is always some chemistry between each other here. Today we play like playoffs last year and important win.”The Capitals got the win and overcame a spate of three hooking penalties in 7:19 in the first period. They’re tied for first in the league with 201 minor penalties — a problem that they hope to fix as they go on the road for the next six.Players were happy leaving on a jet plane because of an offensive outburst and 29 saves from backup goaltender Pheonix Copley, who was making his second start in three games.It was a rougher night for Kings goalie Jonathan Quick, who allowed six goals on 31 shots behind some uneven defense.“That team scores a lot of goals and they have a deadly power play,” said Kings forward Austin Wagner, who scored twice. “We’ve got to try to stay off it next game Womens Samuel Girard Jersey , but we have to focus on the next game and take it into the next one.”Tyler Toffoli and Oscar Fantenberg also scored for Los Angeles, which went 3-2-1 on its six-game trip and remains eight points out of the final playoff spot in an unusually tight Western Conference race with many teams to pass.“The challenging part probably isn’t the points, it’s the leapfrogging teams because everyone’s playing each other,” captain Dustin Brown said. “It’s going to come down to a math problem. If we perform well, it still might just come down to a math problem.”NOTES: Djoos’ goal was his first in 62 games dating to Dec. 30, 2017. He missed 24 games with compartment syndrome in his left leg before returning Saturday. … Connolly has scored four goals in four games. … The Kings traded C Nate Thompson and a 2019 fifth-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens for a 2019 fourth-round pick. … Wagner was put in the lineup only after the Thompson trade and registered his first career multi-goal game. … Kings C Jeff Carter missed his third consecutive game with a lower-body injury. … Kings F Trevor Lewis played for the first time since Nov. 13 after returning from a lower-body injury.UP NEXTKings: Return home to face the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.Capitals: Begin a season-high six-game trip Tuesday at the Columbus Blue Jackets. CHICAGO — If the Montreal Canadiens are to remain in contention for a postseason berth, they will have to rely on contributions throughout their lineup.Montreal will take a two-game winning streak into its game Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks. The Canadiens have discovered a measure of success of late after they stumbled through a five-game skid and hope to continue on the right path as they continue a three-game road trip.The Canadiens are coming off a 5-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators in which they got a goal from each of their four lines and used two goals from Paul Byron to capture both ends of the home-and-home series against Ottawa.Article continues below ...Montreal coach Claude Julien hopes that his team’s style of play along with the balanced scoring attack that has sparked the Canadiens during a four-game stretch in which Montreal is 3-0-1 continues Sunday at the United Center.But now Julien is looking for his team to take another step forward and find a way to play with more of a killer instinct.“We’ve talked about how we want to finish,” Julien told reporters after Thursday’s victory Semyon Varlamov Jersey , according to the team’s official website. “Especially when you have the lead, it’s easy to kind of sit back and get comfortable and weve done that at times this season.“That’s an area we’re trying to improve on. I think in the last little while we’ve been better in the third (period) and we’ve kind of controlled the period — even though we’ve had the lead.”Keeping the scoring coming from all four lines will certainly help Montreal’s case for extended success.“When you’ve got four lines that can play the way we’ve been lately, that can play and push the pace and play in their end, forecheck, it certainly makes it hard for the other team,” Byron told reporters after Thursday’s victory.Chicago enters Sunday’s game on a six-game losing streak, the most recent of which came in a 4-3 setback on the road against the Vegas Golden Knights. While the Blackhawks’ front office hoped that the firing of coach Joel Quenneville might spark change, Jeremy Colliton has failed to change Chicago’s fortunes.Chicago will take an NHL-worst minus-30 goal differential into Sunday’s game and has struggled throughout the season to score http://www.avalancheshoponline.com/authentic-sergei-boikov-jersey , which — coupled with the Blackhawks’ inability to contain opposing teams — has led to predictable results.Frustration has set in on a team that, until recently, had not been accustomed to losing and that is now finding difficulty finding ways to win.Of those fighting the frustration the hardest is goalie Corey Crawford, whose return from missing much of the season last year with a concussion was expected to make a difference, only to see the Blackhawks’ competitive issues continue.Chicago has lost its past three games by a total of four goals.“I don’t know how to deal with (losing),” Crawford told reporters Saturday, according to the Chicago Tribune. “Be pissed off? Let it go and keep playing? I really don’t know. It’s not a good position to be in. It’s definitely frustrating.“I don’t know. Maybe our older guys, our core group Womens Sven Andrighetto Jersey , maybe we all need to play better to get us out of this. Maybe that’s the answer.”Colliton has told his players to keep pushing for change.“No one’s happy,” Colliton told reporters Saturday. “So you can’t expect guys not to show some frustration at times. What we need to do as a team is get right back at it.”