Capitals at Penguins: Lines, Notes, & How to Watch

The Washington Capitals (7-5-1) will finish a set of back-to-back games Thursday night. They head up to Pittsburgh to face the rival Penguins (8-4-2) at PPG Paints Arena.

The puck drops at 7:30 p.m.

Thursday’s Pittsburgh game is the first of a four-game road trip for the Capitals. The road trip, which will take place over the course of eight days, will see the team also face Tampa Bay, Carolina, and Florida.

The Capitals are already coming off one of their best games of the season that snapped a four-game losing skid. On Wednesday night, they crushed the St. Louis Blues 6-1, as Alex Ovechkin became the first NHL player to reach 900 career goals.

Also in the win, Anthony Beauvillier and Tom Wilson each scored twice, while Logan Thompson made 23 saves in net. Thompson is now 6-3-0 to start the season, and has allowed only two or fewer goals in each of his nine starts.

The Capitals were also without the injured Pierre-Luc Dubois, who will be out for an extended period of time. They also ended their power play drought as Wilson scored on the man advantage in the opening period.

Meanwhile, Pittsburgh is coming off back-to-back losses in Canada. They fell 5-2 in Winnipeg and blew a commanding 3-0 lead to lose 4-3 to Toronto.

Pittsburgh also lost goalie Tristan Jarry to a lower body injury in that game. Jarry was placed on injured reserve, as Arturs Silovs will take over most of his netminding duties.

This is also the first of three meetings this season between modern-day NHL legends Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby, who are both in the twilights of their careers.

Expected Capitals Lines

Forwards

Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Anthony Beauvillier

Aliaksei Protas – Connor McMichael – Tom Wilson

Sonny Milano – Hendrix Lapierre – Ryan Leonard

Brandon Duhaime – Nic Dowd – Justin Sourdif

Defensemen

Martin Fehervary – John Carlson

Jakob Chychrun – Matt Roy

Rasmus Sandin – Trevor van Riemsdyk

Goalie

Charlie Lindgren

Expected Penguins Lines

Forwards

Ben Kindel – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust

Anthony Mantha – Evgeni Malkin – Tommy Novak

Ville Koivunen – Danton Heinen – Philip Tomasino

Connor Dewar – Blake Lizotte – Joona Koppanen

Defensemen

Parker Wotherspoon – Erik Karlsson

Ryan Shea – Kris Letang

Ryan Graves – Connor Clifton

Goalie

Arturs Silovs

How to Watch

TV: ESPN+, Hulu

Radio: 106.7 The Fan/Caps Radio Network

By Harry Lichtman

Harry Lichtman is an award-winning journalist who covers the Washington Capitals for Sportsnaut. He also contributes to the sites ... More about Harry Lichtman