At the Rink: Sabres at Capitals

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin will be a game-time decision against the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday because of a lower-body injury.

"We'll see," said Ovechkin, who did not practice Friday but participated in Washington's optional morning skate Saturday. "I'm probably going to take [the pregame] warm-up and we'll see how it goes."

Ovechkin missed Washington's 2-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday with the injury, sustained during a play Tuesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets that he would not reveal. He had played in 96 consecutive games prior to Thursday.

During Ovechkin's 10-season NHL career, the Capitals are 13-11-2 when he is not in the lineup.

"It was [the kind of] pain, probably if it was a [Stanley Cup] Playoff game, I [would have played Thursday]," he said. "Right now you don't want to push when you don't feel healthy enough. Right now I feel much better so I'm going to try.

"If it was [the] same pain like I have a couple days ago, I would probably don't even take a morning skate right now. I feel much better [than Friday]."

Ovechkin leads the League with 43 goals, including 16 in 19 games since the All-Star break. He is on pace for the sixth 50-goal season of his career. His 67 points are tied with teammate Nicklas Backstrom, John Tavares of the New York Islanders and Evgeni Malkin of the Pittsburgh Penguins for most in the League.

The Capitals recalled forward Andre Burakovsky from Hershey of the American Hockey League on an emergency basis to play in Ovechkin's spot Thursday; Ovechkin's status for Saturday will determine whether Burakovsky plays again or is returned to the AHL. If Burakovsky remains with the Capitals and Ovechkin plays, it would count as one of the Capitals' four non-emergency call-ups teams are allowed after the NHL Trade Deadline.

"If he [Ovechkin] does go, Andre has to go back to Hershey," Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. "Unless we were to recall him, then he'd be up for the rest of the year in my opinion. We want to save the recalls a little bit right now so that's why I say it'll be mandatory, unless we said we're going to go with the group that we have and he can stay and not send him back. Then that'll have to turn him into a regular recall."

The Sabres did not have a morning skate, but have announced goalie Matt Hackett will start.

Here are the projected lineups:

SABRES

Matt Moulson - Philip Varone - Tyler Ennis

Marcus Foligno - Zac Dalpe - Brian Gionta

Nicolas Deslauriers - Johan Larsson - Cody Hodgson

Jerry D'Amigo - Tim Schaller - Matt Ellis

Andre Benoit - Zach Bogosian

Nikita Zadorov - Andrej Meszaros

Mike Weber - Rasmus Ristolainen

Matt Hackett

Anders Lindback

Scratched: Tyson Strachan

Injured: Zemgus Girgensons (lower body), Evander Kane (shoulder surgery), Patrick Kaleta (lower body), Cody McCormick (blood clot), Josh Gorges (lower body), Chad Johnson (lower body)

CAPITALS

Alex Ovechkin - Nicklas Backstrom - Marcus Johansson

Curtis Glencross - Jay Beagle - Troy Brouwer

Jason Chimera - Eric Fehr - Joel Ward

Brooks Laich - Evgeny Kuznetsov - Tom Wilson

Brooks Orpik - John Carlson

Karl Alzner - Matt Niskanen

Tim Gleason - Mike Green

Braden Holtby

Justin Peters

Scratched: Andre Burakovsky

Injured: Michael Latta (upper body), Dmitry Orlov (wrist), John Erskine (neck surgery)

Status report: The Sabres recalled Hackett from Rochester of the American Hockey League and sent forward Mikhail Grigorenko and goaltender Andrey Makarov to the AHL. … If Ovechkin can't play Saturday, Burakovsky would slide into his spot on the top line, alongside Backstrom and Johansson.

Who's hot: Ennis has two goals and 11 points in his past eight games against Washington. … Ovechkin and Backstrom each have 416 career assists, two from tying Michal Pivonka's Capitals record.