The Washington Capitals made three roster moves to bring Evgeny Kuznetsov and Michal Kempny back to the active roster, but only one of them will play Tuesday against the Dallas Stars.
Kuznetsov will center the third line, but Kempny will not play for the fourth straight game as he continues to rehab the hamstring injury he suffered last season.
Tyler Lewington will take his place in the lineup.
Caps expected lines vs Stars tonight:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Wilson
Vrana-Eller-Oshie
Hagelin-Kuznetsov-Panik
Leipsic-Stephenson-HathawaySiegenthaler-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
Gudas-LewingtonHoltby
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) October 8, 2019
“[Monday] was the most intense practice he’s gone through,” Reirden said. “Drills were set up by design for both him and for Kuzy because of not being in five-on-five situations where there’s contact. That was a lot of the focus of practice was so they could go through more game-like situations. He’s still not going to be ready to play, but when something changes and he’s ready to go, I’ll let you guys know. But for right now, he’s still unavailable to us.”
The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell reported that Chandler Stephenson appears likely to center the fourth line though Nic Dowd also took rushes this morning in that spot.
While Kuznetsov centered the third line during the morning skate, he will get his normal spot back on the first powerplay unit.
Kuznetsov appears set to center the third line vs. DAL tonight in his return, but he’s working in his normal spot on PP1 in the morning skate. #Caps
— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) October 8, 2019
Puck drop is 7 pm at Capital One Arena.
