Blues at Capitals preview

BLUES (26-16-2) at CAPITALS (25-13-3)
3 p.m. ET; SN1, SNE, SNO, SNP, NBCSW, FS-MW, NHL.TV

Washington has won eight in a row at home and 15 of 17 since Nov. 2.
St. Louis is 6-2-1 in the second game of a back-to-back. The Blues lost to the Philadelphia Flyers 6-3 on Saturday.
Blues goalie Carter Hutton will start for the fourth time in five games. He started eight of the first 36 games as the backup to Jake Allen, who played Saturday.

Players to watch

Blues forward Paul Stastny had two assists in his final 10 games of December. He has two goals and two assists in three games in January.
Capitals goalie Braden Holtby is 7-1-0 in his past eight starts and has allowed at least three goals in five of those eight.

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They said it

"It's always nice to be able to respond quickly instead of having a couple of days to dwell on it. It's going to be another good test for us [Sunday] against Washington." -- Blues captain Alex Pietrangelo
"We did a little scrimmage the last couple days. [Saturday] we weren't as good as we were on Thursday, and the turnovers and the kind of sloppy plays in that little short scrimmage we had, those will turn into goals against the St. Louis Blues." -- Capitals coach Barry Trotz on how they used a four-day break in the schedule

Blues projected lineup

Ivan Barbashev -- Paul Stastny -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Alexander Steen -- Brayden Schenn --
Tage Thompson
Magnus Paajarvi -- Patrik Berglund -- Vladimir Sobotka
Dmitrij Jaskin -- Kyle Brodziak -- Scottie Upshall
Jay Bouwmeester -- Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson -- Colton Parayko
Carl Gunnarsson -- Robert Bortuzzo
Carter Hutton
Jake Allen
Scratched: Chris Thorburn, Oskar Sundqvist,
Jake Walman
Injured: Jaden Schwartz (ankle), Zach Sanford (shoulder), Vince Dunn (illness)
Capitals projected lineup
Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- T.J. Oshie
Jakub Vrana -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Tom Wilson
Brett Connolly -- Lars Eller -- Devante Smith-Pelly
Andre Burakovsky -- Jay Beagle -- Alex Chiasson
Dmitry Orlov -- Matt Niskanen
Christian Djoos -- John Carlson
Brooks Orpik -- Madison Bowey
Braden Holtby
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched: Chandler Stephenson, Taylor Chorney
Injured: none

Status report

Burakovsky is expected to play after two games as a healthy scratch. … Niskanen (upper body) practiced Saturday and is expected to return after missing a 5-4 overtime win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday.

Stat pack

The Blues haven't scored on their past 21 power plays. … The Capitals are 16-0-1 when leading after the first period. … Ovechkin has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past three games.