Per Katie Carrera, all hell has broken loose in the lines and defensive pairings, with the forward combos mirroring those that made their debut midway through Sunday’s shootout loss in Nashville. That means Jay Beagle stays on the “top” line with Alex Ovechkin (…yup) and Mikhail Grabovski slots in as a left wing (…….yup), with Evgeny Kuznetsov centering the fourth line (………..yuuuuuup). Oh, and all bets are off when it comes to the defense, thanks to Rich Clune’s fist.
But here’s what we think the lines and defensive pairings might look like in front of Jaroslav Halak:
Mikhail Grabovski – Jay Beagle – Alex Ovechkin
Marcus Johansson – Nicklas Backstrom – Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera – Eric Fehr – Joel Ward
Dustin Penner – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Tom Wilson
That leaves Connor Carrick and potentially John Erskine out as healthy scratches (unless Hillen can’t go), Brooks Laich and Aaron Volpatti out with injuries, and Braden Holtby as Halak’s backup.
Update: Scratch all of that, this is how they’ll roll:
#Caps lines tonight: 90-19-20, 84-83-8, 25-16-42, 92-67-43. Defense: 27-74, 81-52, 4-38. Halak vs. Lehtonen. #CapsStars
— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) April 1, 2014