The Washington Capitals are on the road for the first time in 12 days, playing the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena. They’ll take the ice without two key members of their lineup, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Rasmus Sandin.
Head coach Spencer Carbery ruled Sandin out after practice on Thursday due to an upper-body injury, while Dubois, despite making the trip to Columbus, will miss his fifth straight game due to a lower-body injury.
“[Dubois] will not play tonight,” Carbery said Friday morning.
Dubois was a full participant in Thursday’s skate and could return as soon as Saturday night, when the Capitals host the Ottawa Senators in the back half of their back-to-back. The veteran centerman has not played in a game since the team’s 1-0 win over the New York Rangers on October 12.
With Dubois still out and remaining on injured reserve, Ethen Frank remains with the Capitals and is slotted to play another game on the right wing of the team’s fourth line. Connor McMichael will also likely stay down the middle, centering Hendrix Lapierre and Tom Wilson on a line that dominated the Seattle Kraken earlier this week.
Sandin’s absence will give Declan Chisholm his third game of the season. The reserve defenseman’s last appearance was a week ago against his former team, the Minnesota Wild.
Chisholm is expected to play on the left side of the Capitals’ third defense pairing with Trevor van Riemsdyk. In two games so far this year, Chisholm has averaged 14:42 of ice time.
“For him to have played two games, and I think I said this at the beginning of the year, we want to try and do a better job of utilizing our whole D corps,” Carbery said. “I know that’s a product of [Chisholm] having 100 NHL games under his belt. He deserves opportunities to play, and this is why we felt like we needed seven or eight defensemen for situations like this that you’re inevitably going to go through during an 82-game schedule.”
Logan Thompson will get the start in net for the Capitals after making 18 saves in a 4-1 win over the Kraken on Tuesday. Thompson is 4-1 this season with a 1.60 goals-against average and a .927 save percentage.
The Blue Jackets have won two games in a row coming into the contest, last downing the Dallas Stars 5-1 on Tuesday night. The Capitals went 1-1 on the road in Columbus last season, getting outscored 8-2.
