Carlson has missed 12 games with a lower-body injury and last played Dec. 26. He wouldn't confirm if he was playing, but said he's ready.
"There's a lot of other things that go into it, and I've been feeling good for the past week or week and a half or so and I just keep progressing and getting better, which is a positive," Carlson said. "We'll see where that takes us."
Flyers goalie Michal Neuvirth will start against his former team for the first time. Neuvirth was selected by the Capitals with the 34th pick in the 2006 NHL Draft and was a member of two Calder Cup championship-winning teams with the Capitals' American Hockey League affiliate in Hershey.
"I just have great memories," Neuvirth said. "Really liked it here, but it's the past and now I'm playing for the Flyers. I'm going to do my best tonight for the Flyers."
Neuvirth has faced the Capitals once, in relief for the New York Islanders in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round in 2015 when starter Jaroslav Halak was pulled after allowing five goals on 32 shots.
"It feels a little different, but a lot of good memories and stuff like that," Neuvirth said. "We've got to make sure we're going to be ready because it's a pretty good team over there."
Neuvirth was traded to the Buffalo Sabres with defenseman Rostislav Klesla for Halak on March 5, 2014 and traded to the Islanders for goalie Chad Johnson a year later. He signed with the Flyers as a free agent in 2015.
Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner will play his 423rd game, the longest consecutive games played streak in Capitals history.
The Flyers recalled goaltender Jason LaBarbera from Lehigh Valley of the American League on an emergency basis. LaBarbera will be Neuvirth's backup.
Steve Mason, the regular starter, participated in the morning skate even though he was listed as being out with an upper-body injury. The injury is something he said had been lingering for a while.
"I don't think it's anything too serious," Mason said. "We're in a stretch where we have a little bit of time to take some rest. That's what we're doing. Hopefully come the end of the break here we'll be ready to go."
"We needed two goalies out there. I didn't overdo anything."
Here are the projected lineups:
FLYERS
Jakub Voracek - Claude Giroux - Wayne Simmonds
Matt Read - Michael Raffl - Brayden Schenn
Chris VandeVelde - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Ryan White
R.J. Umberger - Scott Laughton - Sam Gagner
Michael Del Zotto - Shayne Gostisbehere
Nick Schultz - Mark Streit
Brandon Manning - Radko Gudas
Michal Neuvirth
Jason LaBarbera
Injured: Sean Couturier (lower body), Steve Mason (lower body)
Scratched: Evgeny Medvedev, Jordan Weal
CAPITALS
Alex Ovechkin - Nicklas Backstrom - T.J. Oshie
Andre Burakovsky - Evgeny Kuznetsov - Justin Williams
Jason Chimera - Marcus Johansson - Tom Wilson
Brooks Laich - Mike Richards - Michael Latta
Matt Niskanen - Karl Alzner
Nate Schmidt - John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov- Taylor Chorney
Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer
Injured: Brooks Orpik (lower body), Jay Beagle (upper body)
Scratched: Stanislav Galiev, Ryan Stanton
Status update:Richards will not be sent to Hershey for conditioning during the All-Star Break.
Who's hot: Simmonds has four goals and two assists in the past six games. Gostisbehere has one goal and three assists during a three-game point streak. … Ovechkin has goals in consecutive games. Kuznetsov has seven assists in the past two games. Williams has five points (three goals, two assists) in the past two games.
