Without a morning skate, it’s always hard to know what Barry Trotz might have in store for that night’s game. But, as Mike Vogel observed, if the end of last night’s game is any indication, there may be a swap of left wings in the bottom-six. If that’s the case, expect these lines and defensive pairings in front of Braden Holtby, as the Caps try to figure out a way to not be terrible in the second of back-to-back games:
Alex Ovechkin – Nicklas Backstrom – Andre Burakovsky
Marcus Johansson – Evgeny Kuznetsov – Troy Brouwer
Jason Chimera – Eric Fehr – Joel Ward
Brooks Laich – Jay Beagle – Tom Wilson
That leaves Justin Peters backing up Holtby, Michael Latta (who could conceivably draw in) and Cameron Schilling as healthy scratches, and Dmitry Orlov, John Erskine and Aaron Volpatti still on the IR.