Capitals at Canadiens

CAPITALS (25-14-9) at CANADIENS (8-30-7)

Capitals projected lineup
Aliaksei Protas -- Evgeny Kuznetsov -- Conor Sheary
Joe Snively
-- Nicklas Backstrom -- Tom Wilson
Connor McMichael -- Lars Eller -- Daniel Sprong
Carl Hagelin -- Nic Dowd -- Garnet Hathaway
Martin Fehervary -- John Carlson
Dmitry Orlov -- Nick Jensen
Trevor van Riemsdyk -- Justin Schultz
Ilya Samsonov
Pheonix Copley
Scratched: Alex Ovechkin, Matt Irwin, Michal Kempny
Injured: T.J. Oshie (upper body), Anthony Mantha (shoulder), Vitek Vanecek (upper body)
Canadiens projected lineup
Artturi Lehkonen -- Nick Suzuki -- Tyler Toffoli
Rem Pitlick -- Jake Evans -- Josh Anderson
Mike Hoffman -- Laurent Dauphin -- Brendan Gallagher
Paul Byron -- Ryan Poehling -- Cole Caufield
Alexander Romanov -- Ben Chiarot
Brett Kulak -- Jeff Petry
Kale Clague -- Chris Wideman
Cayden Primeau
Sam Montembeault
Scratched: Cedric Paquette, Michael Pezzetta, Joel Armia
Injured: Jake Allen (lower body), David Savard (ankle), Jonathan Drouin (wrist), Christian Dvorak (upper body), Mathieu Perreault (lower body), Joel Edmundson (back)
Status report
Ovechkin did not travel to Montreal because of COVID-19 restrictions in Quebec. The forward played in a 5-4 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday after being removed from COVID-19 protocol. ... Samsonov will start after he made six saves on seven shots in relief of Copley on Tuesday. ... The Canadiens will play their first game under coach Martin St. Louis, who replaced Dominique Ducharme on Wednesday.