Sharks at Capitals preview

SHARKS (28-16-7) at CAPITALS (27-16-5)
7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SNE, SNO, SNP, TVAS, NBCSWA, NBCSCA, NHL.TV

It's Washington's longest skid since a seven-game losing streak (0-5-2) from Jan. 12-24, 2014. The Capitals have been outscored 23-9 during the streak.
Erik Karlsson (lower body) is expected to miss his third consecutive game for the Sharks. Karlsson is fifth among NHL defensemen with 43 points (three goals, 40 assists) in 47 games.
Goalie Martin Jones will start for San Jose, which has lost three straight (0-3-0) following a seven-game winning streak. Jones started in a 6-2 loss at the Florida Panthers on Monday.

Players to watch

Sharks defenseman Brent Burns has one assist in his past four games after scoring 18 points (five goals, 13 assists) in his previous 11.
Capitals forward Evgeny Kuznetsov has scored one goal in his past 22 games.

They said it

"We don't have him right now. It's not the end of the world. We've got guys getting opportunities. We're on the East Coast, we're traveling. Nothing's easy but we've got to stick together and find ways to get the job done." -- Sharks forward Joe Pavelski on Karlsson
"I just want to get back to doing the things that are the Washington Capitals and playing closer to our game, getting to the level of compete and battle that we have to have to have success." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden

Sharks projected lineup

Marcus Sorensen -- Joe Thornton -- Melker Karlsson
Timo Meier -- Logan Couture -- Joe Pavelski
Evander Kane -- Tomas Hertl -- Joonas Donskoi
Lukas Radil -- Barclay Goodrow -- Kevin Labanc
Radim Simek -- Brent Burns
Brenden Dillon -- Tim Heed
Joakim Ryan -- Justin Braun

Martin Jones
Aaron Dell
Scratched: Dylan Gambrell, Jacob Middleton
Injured:Erik Karlsson (lower body), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (upper body)

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- T.J. Oshie
Jakub Vrana -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Tom Wilson
Dmitrij Jaskin -- Lars Eller -- Brett Connolly
Chandler Stephenson -- Travis Boyd -- Andre Burakovsky
Dmitry Orlov -- John Carlson
Michal Kempny -- Matt Niskanen
Brooks Orpik -- Jonas Siegenthaler
Braden Holtby
Pheonix Copley
Scratched:Nic Dowd, Madison Bowey, Devante Smith-Pelly
Injured:Christian Djoos (thigh)

Status report

Orpik is expected to play after taking a maintenance day Monday. … The Sharks did not have a morning skate. … The Capitals had an optional skate.

Stat pack

Hertl has no points in his past three games after getting eight points (five goals, three assists) in a five-game point streak. … Ovechkin needs one goal to pass Dave Andreychuk (640) for sole possession of 14th place on the NHL all-time list and five points to tie Sergei Fedorov (1,179) as the highest-scoring Russia-born player in NHL history.