Per Mike Vogel, a 1-4-2 record in the last seven games seems to be enough of a reason to change things up, with three of the four lines getting a facelift (and one familiar face making his season debut). That means Marcus Johansson up, Andre Burakovsky in and Aaron Volpatti back as the Caps host the defending champs. Here’s a look at how the lines and D pairs shake out, with Braden Holtby back between the pipes after a day off:
Alex Ovechkin – Nicklas Backstrom – Marcus Johansson
Andre Burakovsky – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Troy Brouwer
Brooks Laich – Eric Fehr – Joel Ward
Aaron Volpatti – Jay Beagle – Tom Wilson
That leaves Justin Peters backing up Holtby, Michael Latta and Jason Chimera as healthy scratches, and Dmitry Orlov and John Erskine still on the IR.