The Washington Capitals (6-5-1) are back at home and look to snap their four-game losing skid. They will host the Western Conference foe St. Louis Blues (4-7-2) at Capital One Arena on Wednesday night.
The puck drops at 7:30 p.m. ET.
The Capitals are coming off three consecutive regulation losses to Ottawa, Dallas, and the Islanders, and a shootout loss to Buffalo.
Wednesday’s home contest vs. St. Louis is the front end of a set of back-to-back games. The Capitals will then travel to Pittsburgh to face the Penguins on Thursday.
Power-play woes and injuries have plagued the Capitals during their four-game losing skid. The team will be without Pierre-Luc Dubois an extended period of time. Luckily, Rasmus Sandin returns to the lineup after missing five games due to an upper-body injury.
Dubois suffered his injury late in the first period of the Capitals’ 3-1 loss to the Islanders on Friday, Oct. 31. Head coach Spencer Carbery said that Dubois’ injury is not season-ending, but the team will still have to be without him for awhile.
Captain Alex Ovechkin has been off to a slow start by scoring only two goals in 12 games. Everybody is waiting for him to finally reach career tally No. 900, but it will have to take the 13th game for him to do so.
Meanwhile, St. Louis just ended a seven-game losing skid with a 3-2 home win over Edmonton. The Blues trailed 2-0 before scoring two goals in the second period and the game-winner in the third.
St. Louis opened the season by winning three of its first five games, but went 0-5-2 over the course of their next seven. The Blues were outscored by a combined 32-19 and yielded five or more goals against in four straight games (Oct. 23-28).
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
Logan Thompson
Expected Blues Lines
Forwards
Pavel Buchnevich – Robert Thomas – Jimmy Snuggerud
Brayden Schenn – Pius Suter – Jordon Kyrou
Dylan Holloway – Dalibor Dvorsky – Oskar Sundqvist
Alexey Toropchenko – Nick Bjugstad – Nathan Walker
Defensemen
Philip Broberg – Colton Parayko
Tyler Tucker – Justin Faulk
Cam Fowler – Matthew Kessel
Goalie
Jordan Binnington
How to Watch
TV: Monumental Sports Network, TNT, TruTV, HBO MAX
Radio: 106.7 The Fan/Caps Radio Network
