Per Alex Prewitt, Barry Trotz is mixing up his forward lines a bit, which means Eric Fehr is back on the top line, Evgeny Kuznetsov moves off of the fourth line and “the twins”, Jason Chimera and Joel Ward, get split up for the first time this year. So expect the Caps to look something like this, with Braden Holtby once again getting the nod in net:
Alex Ovechkin – Nicklas Backstrom – Eric Fehr
Marcus Johansson – Andre Burakovsky – Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Jay Beagle
Liam O’Brien – Michael Latta – Joel Ward
That leaves Justin Peters as the back-up goalie, Chris Brown and Jack Hillen as healthy scratches, Brooks Laich and Aaron Volpatti out with (hopefully) short-term injuries, and Dmitry Orlov and John Erskine out long-term.