Murray

PENGUINS (10-3-2) at CAPITALS (9-4-2)
7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, TVA Sports, SN, NHL.TV

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Penguins team scope

Goalie Matt Murray will start for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Murray is 4-0-0 with a 1.25 goals-against average and .961 save percentage in four starts. The Penguins have been off since a 4-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday. Pittsburgh is 3-0-0 against Metropolitan Division opponents and play six of its next eight games against divisional teams. "They're fun games to play in," coach Mike Sullivan said. "They're rivalries, they're teams that we have histories with and we play in a very good division. There's a lot of good teams, so they're a big challenge for us. I think they're fun games to play in."

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Capitals team scope

Goalie Braden Holtby will make his 12th start of the season for the Washington Capitals, who have lost two consecutive games. Holtby is 5-1-0 in his past six starts and has allowed two or fewer goals in five of those games. The Capitals are coming off a 2-1 overtime loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. They are 1-for-19 on the power play in their past seven games and tied for 24th in the NHL at 11.9 percent. Coach Barry Trotz thinks they have been getting scoring chances but haven't been putting them in the net, so there may be changes in the works to try to jumpstart the man advantage. "All the stats are there but the finish is not," Trotz said. "There's so many good things that we do but the best thing we can do is score on it. We may tweak a guy here, a guy there. It won't be an indictment on that person if we do make a couple switches. It might be just to see if the change will be good for us in terms of finding the back of the net."

Penguins projected lineup
Capitals projected lineup
Status report

The Penguins held an optional skate Wednesday. Kessel, Malkin and Cole did not skate but Sullivan said all three players were fine to play against the Capitals. Pouliot skated for a second consecutive day. … Schmidt replaces Chorney after he was a healthy scratch Tuesday. Connolly also returns to the lineup in place of Winnik.

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Who's hot

Crosby has 13 points in his past nine games. … Letang has three points in three games. … Ovechkin has scored 46 points in 45 games against the Penguins in his NHL career.