Capitals at Avalanche preview

Ovechkin, who has 698 goals, has gone two games without a goal. He has 15 points (14 goals, one assist) in his past nine games.

Center Evgeny Kuznetsov is out because of an upper-body injury. He skated Thursday for the first time since he was injured on a hit by Leo Komarov at 9:14 of the second period of 5-3 loss to the New York Islanders on Monday. Kuznetsov is tied for third on the Capitals with 46 points (19 goals, 27 assists) in 53 games.

The Capitals are 1-3-0 in their past four games but are three points ahead of the second-place Pittsburgh Penguins in the Metropolitan Division.

The Avalanche are one point behind the first-place St. Louis Blues in the Central Division and can match a season high with their sixth straight win. Colorado won six straight Nov. 27-Dec. 7.

Players to watch

Capitals forward Jakub Vrana has 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in his past 15 games.

Avalanche goalie Philipp Grubauer is 4-0-0 with a 0.75 goals-against average, a .974 save percentage and one shutout in his past four games.

They said it

"We're in the middle of a process here, going through a tough patch and trying to improve (while) going through a little adversity without one of our top players (Evgeny Kuznetsov). We hope to climb the ladder here in terms of getting back on track for how we're capable of playing." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden

"An elite goal scorer, a highly competitive guy, hasn't slowed down at all even as he's getting older. He keeps finding a way to produce. With the pre-scouts that are going on, to be able to do that is amazing." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar on Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin -- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson

Jakub Vrana -- Lars Eller -- T.J. Oshie

Carl Hagelin -- Travis Boyd -- Richard Panik

Brendan Leipsic -- Nic Dowd -- Garnet Hathaway

Michal Kempny -- John Carlson

Dmitry Orlov -- Nick Jensen

Jonas Siegenthaler -- Radko Gudas

Braden Holtby

Ilya Samsonov

Scratched: None

Injured: Evgeny Kuznetsov (upper body)

Avalanche projected lineup

Andre Burakovsky -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen

Gabriel Landeskog -- J.T. Compher -- Joonas Donskoi

Valeri Nichushkin -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Matt Calvert

Tyson Jost -- Vladislav Kamenev -- Matt Nieto

Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar

Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson

Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole

Philipp Grubauer

Pavel Francouz

Scratched: Mark Barberio

Injured: Nazem Kadri (lower body), Colin Wilson (lower body)

Status report

Eller replaces Kuznetsov in the middle of the Capitals' second line. … Barberio, a defenseman, has returned from a conditioning assignment with Colorado of the American Hockey League. He didn't have a point in four games.

Stat pack

Oshie has four points (two goals, two assists) during a three-game point streak. … MacKinnon has six points (two goals, four assists) during a five-game streak. … Makar has five points (one goal, four assists) in the past five games.