Per Katie Carrera, Alex Ovechkin will miss tonight’s game in Jersey with a groin injury (because of course) and John Erskine draws back in replacing Nate Schmidt, so here are tonight’s projected lines (interesting second line) and defensive pairings, with Michal Neuvirth getting the start between the pipes:
Marcus Johansson – Nicklas Backstrom – Troy Brouwer
Martin Erat – Mikhail Grabovski – Eric Fehr
Jason Chimera – Brooks Laich – Joel Ward
Aaron Volpatti – Jay Beagle – Tom Wilson
That leaves Schmidt as the lone healthy scratch, Ovechkin and Jack Hillen out with injuries, and Braden Holtby backing up Neuvirth.