The Washington Capitals are heading into a new week where they’ll play three games in four days all in different arenas. The first of those tests comes on Tuesday night at KeyBank Center when they visit the Buffalo Sabres.
In the team’s last outing, they dropped a 3-2 decision in a shootout to the Boston Bruins in what was John Carlson’s 1,000th career NHL game. The extra-time loss doesn’t seem to have deterred head coach Spencer Carbery. He went back to the same forward group on Monday morning.
Here’s what the whole lineup looked like on the ice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex.
Tom Wilson has an asterisk by his name as he will be serving the last game of his six-game, NHL-levied suspension against the Sabres. The rugged winger served as a fill-in on the top line for TJ Oshie as the Capitals say Oshie took a maintenance day on Monday.
Head coach Spencer Carbery said post-skate that Oshie would travel with the team and is expected to dress against Buffalo. Oshie scored in the lone game the Capitals have played against the Sabres this season, a 4-3 overtime home win on November 22.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Matthew Phillips are set to be the healthy scratches up front as Phillips helped fill out an extra defense pair at the skate. Vincent Iorio seems likely to join them in the press box as Rasmus Sandin was a full participant at the practice after he was a late scratch against the Boston Bruins on Saturday due to a lower-body injury.
Charlie Lindgren appears set for the start in the Capitals’ first game in April. Lindgren has started the past four games and is coming off a fantastic March where he went 9-4 with a 2.45 goals-against average, .919 save percentage, and two shutouts.
Later in the week, Darcy Kuemper will likely jump back in for his first start since March 22 as the Capitals will play back-to-back games against the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carolina Hurricanes. Kuemper allowed 11 goals on 59 combined shots over his two starts last month.
Buffalo comes into Tuesday night’s action losers of four of their last six games. In their last outing, they were shut out by Ilya Samsonov and the Toronto Maple Leafs. That 3-0 loss followed a 5-2 win over the New Jersey Devils the night prior where center Tage Thompson scored four goals.
