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Washington Capitals

Capitals Notebook: Kuznetsov Returns, Sandin & Edmundson Move Up As Defense Tweaks, Fehervary Update & More

Here's everything to know as the Capitals got back to work.

After a day off, the Washington Capitals got back to work on Monday with a rigorous practice where head coach Spencer Carbery made some tweaks to the mix — but not too many, with the forward lines impressing in Saturday's hard-earned win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Evgeny Kuznetsov's return up front was the only change to the forward lines, which were otherwise kept intact after Saturday's showing. Kuznetsov, who missed Saturday's game and the two practices leading up to it due to an illness, was interchanging with Hendrix Lapierre on the third line with Sonny Milano and Aliaksei Protas. The trio of Milano, Lapierre and Protas combined for eight points and three goals in Saturday's victory.

On the blue line, Carbery and Mitch Love made some changes, moving Rasmus Sandin back up to the top pairing with John Carlson and putting Joel Edmundson on the second pairing with Nick Jensen to provide No. 3 with some stability. Alex Alexeyev drew back into the mix after spending the last couple of games as a healthy scratch, slotting in for Lucas Johansen.

Johansen and Matthew Phillips were operating together on an extra pairing.

Here are the full combinations, per NHL.com's Tom Gulitti:

Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Tom Wilson

Anthony Mantha-Connor McMichael-T.J. Oshie

Sonny Milano-Hendrix Lapierre/Evgeny Kuznetsov-Aliaksei Protas

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Beck Malenstyn-Nic Dowd-Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Rasmus Sandin-John Carlson

Joel Edmundson-Nick Jensen

Alex Alexeyev-Trevor van Riemsdyk

Lucas Johansen-Matthew Phillips

Still not skating with the group is Martin Fehervary. The Slovak blueliner suffered a lower-body injury that appeared to be muscular in a Nov. 10 meeting with the New Jersey Devils, and he remains on the injured reserve.

Max Pacioretty continues to skate on his own and remains on LTIR. He turned 35 on Monday.

After the skate, Charlie Lindgren and Nic Dowd, who started their respective initiatives Lindy's Lineup and Dowd's Crowd, teamed up to host an adaptive skate with So Kids SOAR.