NHL video review overturned the call on the ice that Evgeny Dadonov had kicked the puck into the net. The ice-level angle showed that the centering pass redirected into the net off Dadonov's right skate. Good goal.

New Jersey Devils forward Ilya Kovalchuk participated in the pre-game skate Tuesday night, but was ultimately scratched for his club's game against the Boston Bruins due to a groin injury.

Devils coach Peter DeBoer informed reporters after the morning's skate that he wanted to hold Kovalchuk out for one more game, but said Kovalchuk would be a game-time decision. New Jersey visits Buffalo on Wednesday night.

Kovalchuk, 28, has 2 goals and 7 assists in nine games for the Devils this season. He last played on Nov. 3 at Philadelphia.

UNIONDALE, N.Y. – 2010 first-round pick Nino Niederreiter will make his season debut Tuesday night for the New York Islanders. 2006 first-rounder Kyle Okposo will sit.

Niederreiter rejoined the team after his two-week conditioning stint with AHL Bridgeport ended following Sunday’s game. The 19-year-old from Switzerland looked good in preseason, mostly skating with John Tavares and Matt Moulson, but went down with a groin injury in the late stages of camp. He skated Tuesday morning and said he “felt great.”

Coach Jack Capuano hinted at the morning skate that Niederreiter, the fifth player taken in the 2010 NHL Draft, would dress, but made no commitment and didn’t hint who might sit in his stead. The odd man out turned out to be Okposo, who has no goals, three assists and a minus-7 rating in 14 games. Okposo, the seventh player chosen in 2006, started the season on the second line with Frans Nielsen in the middle and Michael Grabner on the left, but was dropped down to the third line when Capuano remodeled his lines 10 days ago.

The Islanders hope Niederreiter can provide them with a spark – they are 1-6-3 in their last 10 games since beating the Rangers 4-2 in their big-city rivals’ last visit to the Nassau Coliseum on Oct. 15. Since then. The Rangers are 9-2-1, including their current six-game winning streak.

Capuano will also make a change on defense, dressing Milan Jurcina and scratching Mark Eaton.

BROSSARD, Que. -- Andrei Markov skated with his teammates for a second straight day today and spoke with reporters for the first time in two months, but was unable to shed any light as to when he might be able to return and lend a hand to the Montreal Canadiens' ailing defense corps.

"I'm happy to be back practicing with the team," Markov told reporters. "Finally, I'm doing something different."

The one-year anniversary of Markov's second ACL tear in his right knee passed Sunday, and the team against which he suffered the injury -- the Carolina Hurricanes -- is in town Wednesday.

But after two days of practice with teammates where he looked a little tentative on the ice, Markov does not want to answer the question that has been on everyone's mind all season -- when will he be back playing?

"Next question," Markov said twice when asked for a vague timeline for a return.

"I don’t know. I don't have a particular time for when I'll be back," Markov finally said. "I'm happy with my progress, I'm happy to be skating with the team. Hopefully tomorrow it will feel much better than today."

The Canadiens certainly could use Markov's help right now.

Chris Campoli only recently started to skate on his own after tearing his hamstring on opening night, and Jaroslav Spacek was lost to an upper-body injury in Monday's shootout loss to Buffalo. Hal Gill missed practice Tuesday after sitting out the Sabres game with a virus.

Gill’s status for Wednesday's game against the Hurricanes remains unknown, while Spacek surely won't play.

If Gill can't go, the Canadiens defense against Carolina will have just one member with more than two seasons of NHL experience -- Josh Gorges.

Up front, the Canadiens will welcome back Michael Cammalleri, who missed Monday's game with a lower-body injury. Andrei Kostitsyn's foot injury will keep him out all week, coach Jacques Martin said.

CALGARY -- Like Ottawa, the Flames will be without a key member of its forward core.

Flames coach Brent Sutter confirmed center David Moss, who played just 6:52 after suffering a lower-body injury in Calgary's 4-3 win against the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, will not play.
 
Moss' absence opens the door for Paul Byron to make his Scotiabank Saddledome debut. Byron was recalled from the Abbotsford Heat of the American Hockey League in time to join the club on its two-game road trip this past weekend, and he scored his first goal as a member of the Flames in Saturday's game in Colorado.

"It feels really good," Byron said. "I worked pretty hard down in Abbotsford. It feels good to be the one that gets to be called up."

Another Flame is nearing his season debut as well.

While he's not ready to play just yet, defenseman Brett Carson has resumed practicing with the Flames. Carson has missed training camp and the start of the regular season with a back injury.

"It's feeling a lot better," Carson said. "I made a lot of progression in the last couple weeks. I felt pretty good out there, now it's just a matter of strengthening it and making sure it's not just going to flare up again."

CALGARY -- While the rest of his Senators teammates are set to embark on the Western Canada leg of their current six-game road trip, veteran forward Chris Neil stayed in Ottawa.

Nursing an ankle injury, Neil did not join the team on their trip to Calgary and was placed on injured reserve.
 
Though the club has Bobby Butler and Erik Condra filling the role played by Neil, there is no replacing the 32-year-old, coach Paul MacLean said.

"You always miss Chris Neil and his physical play," MacLean said. "We lose his physicality and that presence that he brings to the rink every night. We don't have another element like that, but it's an opportunity for Bobby Butler to play and Condra to play up in the lineup a little bit. Condra's played real well in the place of Chris Neil."

While Neil is out, a familiar sight will be in net for Ottawa.

Goalie Craig Anderson is scheduled to make his seventh consecutive start for the Senators. Tonight marks the 17th game this season for the workhorse, who currently shares the lead in games played among goaltenders with Ondrej Pavelec of the Winnipeg Jets.

CALGARY -- Here is what the lineups for the Senators and Flames could look like tonight when they face off in Calgary.

FLAMES
Alex Tanguay - Mikael Backlund - Jarome Iginla
Curtis Glencross - Olli Jokinen - Rene Bourque
Paul Byron - Roman Horak - Lee Stempniak
Tom Kostopoulos - Matt Stajan - Tim Jackman

Chris Butler - Jay Bouwmeester
Mark Giordano - Scott Hannan
T.J. Brodie - Derek Smith

Miikka Kiprusoff will start in goal, with Henrik Karlsson the backup

SENATORS
Colin Greening - Jason Spezza - Milan Michalek
Nick Foligno - Stephane Da Costa - Daniel Alfredsson
Kaspars Daugavins - Zack Smith - Erik Condra
Zenon Konopka - Jesse Winchester - Bobby Butler

Erik Karlsson - Filip Kuba
Chris Phillips - Sergei Gonchar
Jared Cowen - Brian Lee

Craig Anderson again will start in goal, with Alex Auld the backup.

For more on tonight's game, check out the preview here.

Here's how the lineups could project when the Washington Capitals travel to Bridgestone Arena to face the Nashville Predators tonight:

CAPITALS
Alex Ovechkin - Nicklas Backstrom - Joel Ward
Brooks Laich - Marcus Johansson - Alexander Semin
Jason Chimera - Jeff Halpern - Mike Knuble
Matt Hendricks - Mathieu Perreault - Troy Brouwer
 
Jeff Schultz - Dennis Wideman
Karl Alzner - John Carlson
Roman Hamrlik - John Erskine
 
Tomas Vokoun
Michal Neuvirth
 
PREDATORS
Sergei Kostitsyn - Mike Fisher - Martin Erat
Colin Wilson - Craig Smith - Patric Hornqvist
Matt Halischuk - Jerred Smithson - Jordin Tootoo
Nick Spaling - Blake Geoffrion - Niclas Bergfors
 
Ryan Suter - Shea Weber
Francis Bouillon - Kevin Klein
Jack Hillen - Jonathon Blum
 
Pekka Rinne
Anders Lindback
 

PITTSBURGH -- The Colorado Avalanche are taking on the Pittsburgh Penguins for the first time in nine months, but two key factors haven't changed going into the interconference matchup.
 
Sidney Crosby isn't playing, yet the Penguins remain a very difficult opponent even without their world-class center.
 
Since Crosby sustained a concussion during the first week of January, the Penguins are 33-17-8. They have gotten at least one point in 41 of 58 games, even while being without the player who was easily leading the NHL in scoring at this time last season.
 
Avalanche coach Joe Sacco said the Penguins are capable of being just as impressive, from a team concept standpoint, as they are when the former Hart Memorial Trophy and Art Ross Trophy winner is in the lineup.
 
"This team rolls along, they don't miss a beat, and they've done that for a year and a half now with the injuries they've had," Sacco said. "They've figured things out, how to get by without some of their top players. He's not the only guy missing, but certainly he's the key."
 
Since the 2010-11 season began, the Penguins have played only two games with all three of their top centers – Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal -- yet they are 59-29-11 during that span. Staal missed the first half of 2010-11 with a foot injury and broken hand.
 
Pittsburgh also was without Malkin (right knee) for half of last season and seven games of this season.
 
The key to Pittsburgh's success without its stars, according to forward Matt Cooke, is a determination to play with the same intensity, preparation and commitment to a system that has worked no matter who is in the lineup.
 
"If we play out our game plan, we're going to have success -- regardless of what the other team does," Cooke said.
 
Defenseman Alexandre Picard, who played for Montreal last season, is impressed with how the same system used in Pittsburgh is implemented at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL).
 
Penguins general manager Ray Shero and coach Dan Bylsma require that organization-wide uniformity so that a player such as Picard can be exposed in the minors to the same power-play unit, penalty-killing unit and offensive and defensive systems they will play in Pittsburgh.
 
"Even down there, it's the same thing, it's the mentality of the organization," Picard said. "It doesn't matter who you are or how many minutes you play, the coaching staff expects something out of you. Whether you're Sidney Crosby or Joe Vitale, they expect the same thing."
 
That doesn't mean that Picard isn't eager for Crosby to rejoin the Penguins -- and perhaps soon. Picard opposed the Penguins and Crosby while with Montreal, Philadelphia and Ottawa, so he can't wait to have him on his own team.
 
Like his other teammates, Picard sees daily in practice how Crosby appears to have recaptured all of his offensive skills despite being out more than 10 months with a concussion. The earliest that Crosby could play is Thursday at Tampa Bay.
 
"He's the best player in the world, so obviously when he comes back it's going to be a huge boost," Picard said. "But you still want guys to play the same way that we're playing now, and not hold back anything just because he’s back."
 
While Crosby won't play -- just as he didn't during the Penguins' 3-2 overtime victory at Colorado on Feb. 16 -- the Avalanche-Penguins matchup features the NHL's top power-play unit against its best penalty-killing unit.
 
Colorado's power play is converting at a 27.1 percent success rate (17 of 55), while the Penguins have permitted only 3 power-play goals in 50 attempts, a 94-percent kill rate.
 
"They have a simplistic approach," Penguins coach Dan Bylsma said of the Avalanche's power play. "They get the puck to the net. They get the shot up top. Then they have skilled players with a unit anchored by (captain Milan) Hejduk."
 
Bylsma also said, "They have skill, movement, they hunt pucks down, (they) have a big shot from the point. They've had success in a lot of different ways. They haven't gotten it one way. It's not a one-dimensional power play. They are relentless."