3 – Number of times the Capitals have faced a team fresh off of firing their coach since the start of the 2014-15 season. That was tied for the most in the league with LA and San Jose… but the Caps will jump into the lead when they face Montreal tonight.
Yesterday the Canadiens became the sixth team to make an in-season coaching change in 2021-22 when they fired Dominique Ducharme and replaced him with former Tampa Bay Lightning forward Martin St. Louis.
This will also be the second time the Caps have faced a team under new leadership this season, having previously faced the Winnipeg Jets back in December just hours after they relieved Paul Maurice of his coaching duties (a game the Caps won 4-3 in overtime). When they take on the Canadiens, it’ll be the first time in the last eight seasons that a team has played two different opponents in the same season who have just fired their coach.
Including that outing against the Jets, the Caps have actually found some success when taking on a new coach, going 3-0 in those three games (all on the road). They also previously beat the Penguins 4-1 – handing new bench boss Mike Sullivan his first L – back on December 14, 2015 and demolished the Leafs 6-2 a day after they let Randy Carlyle go in January of 2015.