Kings at Capitals preview

KINGS (23-27-5) at CAPITALS (30-18-7)
7 p.m. ET; NBCSWA, FS-W, NHL.TV

Washington is 3-1-1 during the homestand after losing seven in a row (0-5-2) and is five points behind the New York Islanders for first place in the Metropolitan Division.
Los Angeles, which is concluding a season-long six-game road trip, is 3-0-1 in its past four games and 6-2-2 its past 10.

Players to watch

Kings forward Anze Kopitar has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his past seven games.
Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov has six points (three goals, three assists) in a three-game point streak and 11 points (five goals, six assists) in his past seven games.

They said it

"Guys are getting worn down a little bit and it's been a long [road trip], but when you look at [Washington's] lineup, you know if you're not good, they're going to be coming hard. So we'd better make sure we're good early because we're going to need to be." -- Kings coach Willie Desjardins
"Our game has improved since coming back from the [All-Star break], particularly the chance-for-chance has been better for us overall. That's what I'm looking for, but I need 60 minutes of the details, and the importance of the timing of mistakes we're making is tending to cause us problems." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden

Kings projected lineup

Alex Iafallo -- Anze Kopitar -- Dustin Brown
Brendan Leipsic -- Michael Amadio -- Tyler Toffoli
Carl Hagelin -- Adrian Kempe -- Ilya Kovalchuk
Kyle Clifford -- Trevor Lewis -- Austin Wagner
Derek Forbort -- Drew Doughty
Alec Martinez -- Oscar Fantenberg
Dion Phaneuf -- Paul LaDue
Jonathan Quick
Jack Campbell
Scratched:Sean Walker
Injured:Jeff Carter (lower body), Jonny Brodzinski (upper body)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Tom Wilson
Jakub Vrana -- Nicklas Backstrom -- T.J. Oshie
Andre Burakovsky -- Lars Eller -- Brett Connolly
Chandler Stephenson -- Nic Dowd -- Devante Smith-Pelly
Michal Kempny -- John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik -- Christian Djoos
Pheonix Copley
Braden Holtby
Scratched:Madison Bowey, Dmitrij Jaskin, Travis Boyd
Injured:None

Status report

Lewis returns after missing 38 games because of a broken foot. … Desjardins said Carter is "probably a few days away yet before he'll be back." … Kuznetsov and Wilson moved up to skate with Ovechkin, while Backstrom and Oshie skated with Vrana in the third period against the Panthers on Saturday.

Stat pack

Brown needs one point for 600 in the NHL. … Kempe has six points (four goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak. … Toffoli has six points (three goals, three assists) in a four-game point streak. … Ovechkin has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past six games. … Oshie has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in his past eight games.