Avalanche at Capitals

AVALANCHE (9-5-1) at CAPITALS (7-9-3)

Avalanche projected lineup
Artturi Lehkonen -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Alex Newhook -- Evan Rodrigues --
Martin Kaut
Andrew Cogliano -- J.T. Compher -- Logan O'Connor
Anton Blidh --
Jayson Megna
-- Dryden Hunt
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Jacob MacDonald
-- Josh Manson
Andreas Englund -- Erik Johnson
Alexandar Georgiev
Pavel Francouz
Scratched: None
Injured: Gabriel Landeskog (knee surgery), Darren Helm (lower body), Valeri Nichushkin (ankle surgery), Bowen Byram (lower body), Samuel Girard (lower body), Shane Bowers (upper body), Kurtis MacDermid (lower body)
Capitals projected lineup
Alex Ovechkin -- Dylan Strome -- Conor Sheary
Aliaksei Protas -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Sonny Milano
Anthony Mantha -- Lars Eller -- Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Marcus Johansson -- Nic Dowd -- Garnet Hathaway
Erik Gustafsson -- John Carlson
Martin Fehervary -- Nick Jensen
Matt Irwin -- Trevor van Riemsdyk
Darcy Kuemper
Charlie Lindgren
Scratched: Joe Snively, Connor McMichael, Alexander Alexeyev
Injured: T.J. Oshie (lower body), Nicklas Backstrom (hip surgery), Connor Brown (torn ACL), Carl Hagelin (hip surgery), Tom Wilson (torn ACL), Beck Malenstyn (upper body), Dmitry Orlov (lower body)
Status report
Makar and O'Connor, who each took a maintenance day on Friday, participated in the Avalanche morning skate Saturday; each is expected to play. ... Aube-Kubel returns following a three-game suspension for an illegal check to the head of Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Cal Foote on Nov. 11. ... Oshie, a forward, and Backstrom, a center, each took part in the Capitals morning skate wearing a blue non-contact jersey; it was Backstrom's first time skating with the team since he had hip resurfacing surgery in June. … Orlov, a defenseman, skated on a fourth pair but is expected to miss his seventh straight game.