Blue Jackets at Capitals preview

BLUE JACKETS (17-8-1) at CAPITALS (14-11-1)
7 p.m. ET; NBCSWA, FS-O, NHL.TV

Ovechkin has scored five times in his past four games and has 576 goals, one behind Mark Recchi for 20th place. He passed Mike Bossy for 21st by scoring three goals last Saturday against the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Capitals are 4-2-0 in their past six games but are coming off a 5-2 home loss to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday. They are 7-1-2 in their past 10 games against Columbus.
The Blue Jackets are 8-1-0 in their past nine games but 0-3-0 in their past three against Washington. Columbus is playing the second of back-to-back games; the Blue Jackets, defeated the Anaheim Ducks 4-2 at Nationwide Arena on Friday.

Players to watch

Blue Jackets goalie Sergei Bobrovsky's six-game winning streak ended with a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens in his last start on Monday. He struggles against Washington (6-7-4, 3.02 goals-against average, .905 save percentage in 18 games).
Capitals goalie Braden Holtby is 11-3-2 against Columbus with a 2.49 GAA and .914 save percentage.

They said it

"He knows I'm looking for him all the time in that defensive zone as far as face-offs. As a team we've struggled with face-offs." -- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella on Brandon Dubinsky, who had a goal and an assist against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday and was 16-10 on face-offs
"It was special moment. I scored a goal on my friend. We're from the same hometown. It's always nice. We were joking a little bit this summer, but not a lot. Hope maybe I score today and we win." -- Capitals defenseman Dmitry Orlov, who is from the same hometown as Columbus goalie Sergei Bobrovsky (Novokuznetsk, Russia) and scored against him in a game March 23

Blue Jackets projected lineup

Artemi Panarin -- Pierre-Luc Dubois -- Josh Anderson
Boone Jenner -- Brandon Dubinsky -- Nick Foligno
Sonny Milano -- Alex Wennberg -- Cam Atkinson
Tyler Motte -- Lukas Sedlak -- Oliver Bjorkstrand
Zach Werenski -- Seth Jones
Jack Johnson -- David Savard
Scott Harrington -- Markus Nutivaara
Sergei Bobrovsky
Joonas Korpisalo
Scratched :Gabriel Carlsson, Markus Hannikainen, Matt Calvert
Injured:Ryan Murray (upper body)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- T.J. Oshie
Brett Connolly -- Lars Eller -- Chandler Stephenson
Devante Smith-Pelly -- Jay Beagle -- Alex Chiasson
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik -- John Carlson
Christian Djoos -- Madison Bowey
Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched:Tyler Graovac, Taylor Chorney
Injured:Andre Burakovsky (fractured left thumb)

Status report

The Blue Jackets, who did not have a morning skate, activated Calvert (upper-body injury) from injured reserve on Saturday and placed Murray on IR. … Connolly will dress after being a healthy scratch the past two games. Burakovsky skated hard for 45 minutes with Washington's strength and conditioning coaches after the morning skate.

Stat pack

The Blue Jackets are 8-0-1 in games decided in overtime or a shootout. … The Capitals are 13-1-1 when they score at least three goals.