The struggling Washington Capitals (24-20-6) continue their long road trip on Wednesday night. They look to get back on track as they face the Vancouver Canucks (16-28-5) at Rogers Arena.
The puck drops at 10:00 p.m. ET.
The Capitals began their six-game, 12-day road trip with a 5-2 loss to Colorado on Monday. It didn’t help that the Avalanche are the NHL’s top team right now.
Jakob Chychrun and Ethen Frank each scored to keep the Capitals within a goal after 50 minutes. However, Colorado then responded with two tallies of their own.
The Capitals now have three consecutive regulation losses for the second time this season. The previous time this happened was Oct. 25-31.
Right before Wednesday’s game, the Capitals activated Tom Wilson off the IR and loaned Ivan Miroshnichenko back to Hershey. Wilson could make his return to the ice after missing several games with a lower-body injury.
The last time these teams met was in D.C. for a Sunday matinee in October. Vancouver ended up winning that game 4-3.
Luckily for the Capitals, Vancouver has fallen hard and is now the worst team in the entire league. The Canucks had a four-game winning streak in mid-December, but are 1-11-2 ever since.
Vancouver also made headlines this season for trading star defenseman Quinn Hughes to Minnesota in December. The team fared much better two seasons ago when they clinched the Pacific Division title with 50 wins and 109 points.
Expected Capitals Lines
Forwards
Connor McMichael – Dylan Strome – Ryan Leonard
Alaiksei Protas – Justin Sourdif – Tom Wilson
Alex Ovechkin – Nic Dowd – Anthony Beauvillier
Brandon Duhaime – Hendrix Lapierre – Ethen Frank
Defensemen
Jakob Chychrun – John Carlson
Martin Fehervary – Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin – Declan Chisholm
Goalie
Logan Thompson
Expected Canucks Lines
Forwards
Evander Kane – Elias Pettersson – Jake Debrusk
Drew O’Connor – David Kampf – Brock Boeser
Liam Ohgren – Teddy Blueger – Conor Garland
Nils Hoglander – Max Sasson – Linus Karlsson
Defensemen
Elias Pettersson – Filip Hronek
Zeev Buium – Tyler Myers
Marcus Pettersson – Tom Willander
Goalie
Kevin Lankinen
How to Watch
TV: Monumental Sports Network
Radio: 106.7 The Fan/Caps Radio Network
