Capitals at Blues preview

CAPITALS (24-11-3) at BLUES (15-18-4)
8 p.m. ET; SN360, SNE, FS-MW, NBCSWA, NHL.TV

Niskanen missed the past two games with an upper-body injury.
The Capitals are 4-1-0 in their past five games and 9-1-0 in their past 10 on the road as they begin a three-game trip.
Forward Vladimir Tarasenko will be a game-time decision for the Blues because of illness. Tarasenko, who has 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in 37 games but two goals the past 13 games, missed practice Wednesday.
Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson has been activated from injured reserve after missing the past 20 games with a hand injury and will play. The Blues are expected to dress seven defensemen and 11 forwards.

Players to watch

Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby is 7-0-0 with a 1.99 goals-against average and .934 save percentage against St. Louis.
Blues forward David Perron has two goals and four assists during a four-game point streak.

They said it

"We're getting closer to our projected lineup from the summer. Still not there yet, but it would just be good in terms of back-to-backs of having the options of some extra guys here. It's so tough to win back-to-back in this League." -- Capitals coach Todd Reirden on the return of defenseman Matt Niskanen
"They're 9-1 in their last 10 road games. They're a real good team obviously. Depth, scoring, they've got a lot of weapons. Our center icemen have to a good job of playing against [Nicklas] Backstrom, [Evgeny] Kuznetsov tonight." -- Blues coach Craig Berube

Capitals projected lineup

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

Blues projected lineup

Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- Robert Thomas
Alexander Steen -- Ryan O'Reilly -- David Perron
Robby Fabbri -- Tyler Bozak -- Pat Maroon
Ivan Barbashev -- Oskar Sundqvist
Jay Bouwmeester -- Alex Pietrangelo
Joel Edmundson -- Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn -- Robert Bortuzzo
Carl Gunnarsson
Jake Allen
Evan Fitzpatrick
Scratched:Jordan Schmaltz, Zach Sanford
Injured:Vladimir Tarasenko (illness)

Status report

Smith-Pelly will miss his second game of the season. Jaskin will play for the first time in six games. ... The Blues recalled Sanford from San Antonio of the American Hockey League on Thursday morning.

Stat pack

The Capitals are 9-2-0 the past 11 games. Ovechkin is one goal from joining Mike Gartner (15) as the only players in the NHL to begin a career with 14 straight 30-goal seasons. He has 28 points (15 goals, 13 assists) in 17 games against the Blues, but has gone six games without a goal. Oshie needs two goals for 200 in the NHL. ... The Blues have lost two straight after winning five of seven.