The set-up: The Western Conference-leading Vegas Golden Knights look to rebound from a flat performance when they continue a six-game road trip Sunday afternoon against the Washington Capitals. The 34-13-4 Golden Knights (72 points) own a 10-point lead in the Pacific Division but managed just 24 shots on goal in a 5-2 loss at Minnesota on Friday. "We didn't play well at all (Friday)," Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant told reporters. "We looked like a tired team for the first time this year. There's no excuse. You're playing back-to-back, but everybody plays them." Washington, which has won the Presidents Trophy the last two seasons, leads the Metropolitan Division at 30-16-5 (65 points) but is just 3-3-2 in its last eight games after surrendering the final three scores in Friday's 7-4 setback at Pittsburgh. "At the end of the day, we just gave them a few too many odd-man rushes, and we lost the special-teams war," Capitals coach Barry Trotz told reporters. "We didn't kill any (penalties) off, and we didn't score any (on the power play), so that ends up being the difference - three goals. We can play better."

Vegas: The Golden Knights are 2-1-0 on their current trip and will visit Pittsburgh and San Jose after meeting the Capitals. Erik Haula is riding a five-game goal-scoring streak during which he reached 20 goals for the first time in his career and has notched at least one point in eight straight contests to match David Perron, who is second on the team behind Jonathan Marchessault (48) with 46 points. Perron has recorded four goals and eight assists during his run. William Karlsson (27 goals) has gone four straight games without one and All-Star James Neal (22 goals) was held without a shot in Friday's setback.

Washington: Captain Alex Ovechkin scored twice in the loss at Pittsburgh and has collected five goals and five assists over his last seven games to increase his team-leading total to 56 points. Evgeny Kuznetsov scored for just the second time in nine games Friday and has 48 points to rank second on the team while defenseman John Carlson has produced five of his 40 points over the last six contests. All-Star Braden Holtby (26-10-4, 2.78 GAA & .914 SP) has allowed nine goals in his last two games but backup Philipp Grubauer (4-6-3, 2.60 GAA & .916 SP) is expected to start Sunday.

The pick: Sunday will be the Knights' first visit to Washington. In the teams' first meeting, back on Dec. 23 in Las Vegas, Alex Tuch, Oscar Lindberg and William Karlsson scored first-period goals in a 3-0 Golden Knights win. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 shots for the shutout. Fleury is 21-12-2 with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage against Washington during his career. However, as noted often here, a "typical" Vegas road game features an average final score of 6.19 goals. I'm not completely sold on Philipp Grubauer but the Capitals do own a 17-7-1-0 record all-time on Super Bowl Sunday. Let's make the Over a 10* play.