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Lines: Alex Ovechkin skates on first line, Hendrix Lapierre set to make NHL debut against Rangers

By Ian Oland

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October 13, 2021 11:03 am

Here’s what appears to be some absolutely great news.

Alex Ovechkin participated fully in Wednesday’s morning skate and it appears he will play against the New York Rangers in the Capitals’ season opener. Ovechkin, officially a game-time decision, took rushes on the first line along with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson.

Ovechkin is coming off a lower-body injury he suffered during Friday’s preseason finale against the Philadelphia Flyers.He first returned to the ice on Tuesday for an optional skate and looked pretty dang good while doing so.

The other big news is that 2020 first-round pick Hendrix Lapierre will make his NHL debut after winning a battle with Connor McMichael during Training Camp for the team’s vacant third-center role. Lapierre will replace Nicklas Backstrom (LTIR) in the lineup as the Swedish center will miss at least the first 10 games of the season due to a hip injury.

The rest of the lines are as followed from The Athletic’s Tarik-El Bashir.

On defense, 22-year-old rookie Martin Fehervary will start the season on the first pairing with John Carlson while Dmitry Orlov will skate on the third with Nick Jensen. Trevor van Riemsdyk took Michal Kempny’s spot on the second pairing and will skate with Justin Schultz.

Vitek Vanecek will get the start in net over Ilya Samsonov.

Meanwhile, on special teams, Anthony Mantha graduated to the team’s first power-play unit with Backstrom out. Lapierre will get time on the second PP unit.

Update: After the morning skate, Ovechkin said he was unsure if he would play and that officially — for “the Twitter” — he’d be a game-time decision.

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