The Washington Capitals are home from their Florida road trip and taking on the Philadelphia Flyers tonight at Capital One Arena.
Due to another injury to a top-six forward, Hendrix Lapierre will renter the lineup. Vitek Vanecek will get the start in net after relieving Ilya Samsonov…twice…against the Panthers.
Lapierre will jump back into the lineup because of Anthony Mantha who had surgery on his shoulder and will be out indefinitely. Mantha joins Nicklas Backstrom and TJ Oshie on the injured reserve list. These are the resulting lines.
Capitals lines at morning skate:
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Lapierre-Eller-Sprong
Hagelin-Dowd-Hathaway
Sheary-McMichael-LeasonFehervary-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
TvR-Schultz*Protas looks like the extra
*OUT: Backstrom, Oshie, Mantha— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) November 6, 2021
Aliaksei Protas who was called up from Hershey for the second time in consecutive days will be the healthy scratch at forward.
Backstrom is actually eligible to come off the long-term injured reserve for this game but he has yet to join the team for a full practice and is still only skating with trainers before the rest of the Capitals take the ice.
Lapierre is not only replacing Mantha in the top-six for this game but will also be filling in on the second power-play unit where Mantha normally gets minutes as well.
Capitals power play units:
PP1: Ovechkin, Carlson, Kuznetsov, Sheary, Wilson
PP2: Orlov, Schultz, Eller, Lapierre, Sprong
— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) November 6, 2021
As said previously, Vanecek will get the start in net. He stopped 13 of the 15 shots he faced in Sunrise Thursday.
Looks like Vanecek will start tonight.
— JJ Regan (@JJReganNBCS) November 6, 2021
Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB
