Capitals vs. Penguins: Line Combinations, Injury Report, Storylines, How To Watch & Game Preview

The Washington Capitals will look to put an end to a four-game losing skid against a top rival in the Pittsburgh Penguins, all while continuing to battle adversity on the injury front while looking to get back in the Metropolitan Division race.

Here's everything to know before puck drop at PPG Paints Arena at 7:30 p.m.

The lines will look a bit different than they did on Saturday for Spencer Carbery's group, as he's hoping that a new year will resurrect the famed Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson trio. Meanwhile, the blue line will see tweaks with Martin Fehervary returning from injury and Trevor van Riemsdyk being the odd man out with Ethan Bear now on board.

Darcy Kuemper will get the start, while Hunter Shepard will start on Wednesday against the New Jersey Devils.

Here are the line combinations:

Alex Ovechkin-Evgeny Kuznetsov-Tom Wilson

Aliaksei Protas-Connor McMichael-Anthony Mantha

Hendrix Lapierre-Dylan Strome-Matthew Phillips

Beck Malenstyn-Nic Dowd-Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Martin Fehervary-John Carlson

Rasmus Sandin-Ethan Bear

Joel Edmundson-Nick Jensen

Darcy Kuemper

Hunter Shepard

- As mentioned above, Fehervary is fine after suffering an upper-body injury at the start of Friday's game against the New York Islanders, which also held him out on Sunday. He will go back on the top pairing with John Carlson.

- Max Pacioretty (Achilles) will not play but could be back as soon as Wednesday. The team may be waiting so that he isn't put into the throes of a back-to-back situation right off the get-go. He has been taking contact regularly, though, and appears game-ready.

- T.J. Oshie (upper-body) remains day-to-day. He did not skate on Monday as head coach Spencer Carbery hinted that the news on that front was "not positive," but he had been taking contact.

- Charlie Lindgren (upper-body) is also day-to-day. His injury, which he also suffered in the opening minutes of Friday's game, is not as severe as initially thought. He will not play Tuesday or Wednesday but could be back sooner rather than later.

- Sonny Milano (upper-body) is further off in the distance and is now listed as week-to-week. He has not played since Dec. 9, when he appeared to be hurt on a hit by Jacob Trouba.

- Nicklas Backstrom (hip) remains on an indefinite leave of absence with his hip not responding to the hip resurfacing surgery he underwent in June 2022. He is unlikely to return this season, and no decisions on retirement have been made at this time.

- Alex Ovechkin has two goals in his last five games — technically, three if you count his disallowed second goal against Nashville.

- John Carlson remains one assist away from 500 in his career. He had hit that milestone on Ovechkin's aforementioned goal that was called back.

- Aliaksei Protas has assists in five of his last six games and leads all forwards in helpers this season.

- Bear logged 20:05 minutes in his Capitals debut on Tuesday while playing top-4 minutes with Rasmus Sandin. Expect the two to be paired together again with TVR being the healthy scratch. Nick Jensen logged the least amount of ice time on Saturday, and Carbery said Monday they are looking for him to bounce back.

The game between Washington and Pittsburgh is nationally televised and will be on Hulu and ESPN+. Click the links to access the streams.

Fans can also listen on Caps Radio 24/7 and 106.7 FM.