Per Mike Vogel, Barry Trotz was messing with the lines again at today’s morning skate… and while there’s no way to know whether he was being serious or just funning with us again, we’ll take it at face value (for now). Here’s a look at what those delightful line combos and defensive pairings could look like tonight, in front of Braden Holtby, who gets his 13th-straight start:
Jason Chimera – Nicklas Backstrom – Alex Ovechkin
Marcus Johansson – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Troy Brouwer
Brooks Laich – Eric Fehr – Joel Ward
Jay Beagle – Michael Latta – Tom Wilson
That leaves Justin Peters backing up Holtby, Andre Burakovsky and Nate Schmidt out as healthy scratches, and Dmitry Orlov, John Erskine and Aaron Volpatti still on the IR.