Three storylines

Merry Christmas. It has been a productive month for the Golden Knights, who are 7-1-1 in December.

They would love to go into the Christmas break on an up note, closing their five-game homestand with a win. Containing the Great 8. Everyone knows how good Alex Ovechkin is. The Capitals’ high-scoring forward and future Hall of Famer has 23 goals and is the heart of the team. He won’t be hard to find, as he probably will be camped out at the left faceoff circle looking to rip one past Marc-andre Fleury, who is 2012-2 against the Caps.

GMGM vs. the Caps.

He says he harbors no grudges, but Knights general manager George

Mcphee, who spent 17 years in the same position with Washington before being fired after the 2013-14 season, no doubt would love to see his team beat the Capitals. Will Knights players, who got a win for coach Gerard Gallant against his former team Florida on Sunday, do the same for Mcphee?

Steve Carp doing a good job.”

But there’s more for the Knights to deal with. Center Evgeny Kuznetsov has 36 points and is always a threat. Center Nicklas Backstrom is equally dangerous despite only seven goals and 28 points.

The Capitals also have a talented goaltender in Braden Holtby, who has a .919 save percentage and can win games by himself.

But the Knights faced the same challenge on this homestand with Pittsburgh and Tampa Bay, and won both those games. And the Capitals will be playing back-to-back road games after facing Arizona on Friday.

Don’t look for Knights coach Gerard Gallant to change anything.

‘We’ve fallen behind 2-0 a couple of times (against Florida and Tampa Bay) and came back to win,” Gallant said. “They’re another top team, and so far we’ve done a good job against the top teams in the league, and this is another challenge for us.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @ stevecarprj on Twitter.