The Capitals will see Ethan Bear draw out of the lineup for the first time since signing with the team.

The Washington Capitals will see Rasmus Sandin make his return from injury, and the blue line will also get a shakeup as they take on the Minnesota Wild.

Washington will have Sandin draw back into the mix, and Trevor van Riemsdyk will also get a jersey following a healthy scratch on Saturday against the St. Louis Blues. As a result, Ethan Bear and Alex Alexeyev will draw out as healthy scratches.

Head coach Spencer Carbery explained the decision to scratch the 26-year-old, saying that there are still areas he needs to improve.

"Feel like his game has been good in stretches and not so good in some other stretches. St. Louis wasn't great for him individually, as for a lot of our other guys, so it's not like he's the only one in that situation. But just feel like he could use a little bit of a step back, come out of the lineup, talk to him about a few things," Carbery told reporters in Minnesota. "He's working on some things with Mitch Love, just to get a little bit more."

Regarding where he needs to improve, Carbery cited two areas.

"He's still not where he needs to be from A, the injury coming back from that, but B, also integrating into our system and being able to go out there, and whether it's breakout retrievals, reading the rush, all those little things, it's just not seamless for him quite yet," Carbery said. "And so we'll continue to work with him on getting as caught up to speed as quickly as possible as he's coming back from the injury and integrating into our team and organization."

This will give the team the same defensive pairings they had near the end of November and December before the Bear signing. Here are the projected pairs:

Martin Fehervary-John Carlson

Rasmus Sandin-Nick Jensen

Joel Edmundson-Trevor van Riemsdyk