The Capitals will play their biggest game of the season tonight against the Flyers.
ARLINGTON, V.A. – The Washington Capitals are trending in the right direction, and they will get a couple of key names back for arguably their biggest game of the year on Friday against the Philadelphia Flyers.
Tom Wilson, who missed Thursday's practice due to personal reasons, will be in the lineup and will skate on the top line with Hendrix Lapierre and Alex Ovechkin. Meanwhile, Sonny Milano and Nick Jensen will draw back in after missing the last two games with an illness and lower-body injury, respectively.
Up front, Ivan Miroshnichenko and Pierrick Dubé are the healthy scratches. On the blue line, Ethan Bear will be the odd man out.
Charlie Lindgren will get the start against Philly in a critical game that could finalize the team's trade deadline approach and put them either closer or further to the playoffs depending on the result.
Here are the line combinations:
Alex Ovechkin-Hendrix Lapierre-Tom Wilson
Max Pacioretty-Dylan Strome-Sonny Milano
Aliaksei Protas-Connor McMichael-Anthony Mantha
Beck Malenstyn-Mike Sgarbossa-Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Rasmus Sandin-John Carlson
Joel Edmundson-Nick Jensen
Alex Alexeyev-Trevor van Riemsdyk
For the Capitals, one of the biggest focuses will be on puck management.
"They're a quick team that loves to take advantage of those quick transitions and get on the offensive side of the puck and maybe catch you taking an extra step or two going the wrong way," Beck Malenstyn said. "So for us, it's just really, really solid discipline of where we're putting the puck, making smart puck decisions, turnovers in the neutral zone around their blue line will be deadly... if we can just maintain possession, make them defend, keep the puck in our hands, I think we'll be alright."
In injury news, Nic Dowd took part in the morning skate in a non-contact jersey and stayed on with the group, but he remains out with an upper-body injury. Martin Fehervary skated ahead of practice but did not join the group, and he remains week-to-week with a lower-body injury.
T.J. Oshie, who is week-to-week after suffering a non-contact upper-body injury on Feb. 22 against the Tampa Bay Lightning, did not skate. He has been around the facility and in high spirits, though.