After taking a scary hit into the boards and being scratched for five consecutive games, both Matt Niskanen and Dmitrij Jaskin will be back into the lineup against the bottom-feeding St. Louis Blues.
For Jaskin, this is a chance to get revenge against the team who waived him this past fall.
Caps expected lineup:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Vrana-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Eller-Connolly
Stephenson-Dowd-JaskinKempny-Carlson
Orlov-Niskanen
Siegenthaler-BoweySeems that Orpik, Boyd and Smith-Pell are out. Niskanen will play after missing two games with an injury.
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) January 3, 2019
To make room for Jaskin and Niskanen’s returns, Devante Smith-Pelly has been scratched and originally it looked like Brooks Orpik would be in the press box as well.
It was later revealed that Jonas Siegenthaler will be the healthy scratch on defense and Orpik will play on the third pairing with Madison Bowey.
According to @JoeBpXp in St Louis, Siegenthaler is skating after practice.. So looks like #Caps will use Orpik with Bowey again on 3rd pair.. Great news.. #ALLCAPS
— Rob Carlin (@RobCarlinNBCS) January 3, 2019
Braden Holtby gets the nod tonight in net, so it’s assumed Pheonix Copley will take on the Dallas Stars tomorrow evening on the second half of the back-to-back.
#CapsAllStar Netminder will get the call between the pipes tonight in St. Louis.#HoltBeast #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/DzpBMi6IIl
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 3, 2019
Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong
