Here's everything to know as the Capitals kick off a vital three-game road swing.
The Washington Capitals are out west for a vital road swing as they look to get back to the basics that got them off to a red-hot start, and it all kicks off with a showdown against the Colorado Avalanche.
Here's everything to know before puck drop at Ball Arena at 9 p.m. ET
Washington Capitals Line Combinations
Lars Eller will make his season debut with the Capitals as he slots in for the first time since being acquired earlier in the week. He'll take Hendrix Lapierre's place as the third-line center between Jakub Vrana and Andrew Mangiapane as head coach Spencer Carbery seeks stability on that third line.
Otherwise, the combinations will remain intact. Sonny Milano is week-to-week with an upper-body injury, and Alex Alexeyev and Dylan McIlrath are the other healthy scratches.
Charlie Lindgren will start between the pipes.
Here are the combinations:
Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Aliaksei Protas
Connor McMichael-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Tom Wilson
Andrew Mangiapane-Lars Eller-Jakub Vrana
Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Taylor Raddysh
Jakob Chychrun-John Carlson
Martin Fehervary-Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin-Trevor van Riemsdyk
Charlie Lindgren
Logan Thompson
Washington Capitals Stats
- Dylan Strome leads Washington with 23 points this season and has 14 points in his last eight games.
- Connor McMichael is riding a four-game point streak as his hot start continues.
- Aliaksei Protas is coming off yet another multi-point performance and is producing at a point-per-game pace.
- Taylor Raddysh has points in back-to-back games and is among the team's Corsi-for leaders.
Washington Capitals Storylines
- Alex Ovechkin is looking to get back to his scoring ways and add to his total of 10 goals this season. He has 12 goals in 26 career games against the Avalanche.
- Lars Eller will make his season debut with Washington. He had seven points through 17 games with the Pittsburgh Penguins to start the year. Eller is also looking forward to playing with Jakub Vrana, who has points in four of his last five games.
- The power play is still struggling and has a chance to capitalize against Colorado, who surrenders the third-most goals in the league on average (3.71) and has the sixth-worst penalty kill (72.7).
- Still, the Avalanche will be dangerous with Val Nichushkin, Jonathan Drouin and Miles Wood all returning to the lineup and Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar dangerous as always.