Per Mike Vogel, Alex Ovechkin appears to be no worse for wear after leaving practice early with an upper-body issue yesterday (although his coach is still going with the “gametime decision” line, so stay tuned). Meanwhile Jack Hillen draws in for an injured Mike Green and Liam O`Brien returns from his recent injury, which could move Eric Fehr to center… and push Evgeny Kuznetsov back to the press box.
With that in mind – and the notion that it could be subject to change – here are tonight’s probable forward lines and defensive pairings, with Braden Holtby back between the pipes:
Alex Ovechkin – Nicklas Backstrom – Tom Wilson
Marcus Johansson – Andre Burakovsky – Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera – Jay Beagle – Joel Ward
Liam O’Brien – Eric Fehr – Michael Latta
Nate Schmidt – Jack Hillen
That leaves Justin Peters backing up Holtby, Kuznetsov out as a healthy scratch, Mike Green and Brooks Laich out “day to day” and Dmitry Orlov, Aaron Volpatti and John Erskine out with long-term injuries.