Preview: Capitals Look To Ignite Spark vs. Panthers, Lines, Players To Watch & Everything To Know

Here's everything to know as the Capitals play host to the Panthers, including line combinations, who to watch and more.

WASHINGTON — The Washington Capitals are dealing with some ailments behind the scenes, and they will carry that and the search for offense into a Wednesday night meeting with the Florida Panthers.

Washington will be without Trevor van Riemsdyk, who is day-to-day with a lower-body injury, while Evgeny Kuznetsov is good to goa after he was deemed a game-time decision due to an illness that had kept him off the ice for the last two days.

Here is everything to know ahead of puck drop.

Kuznetsov is in, meaning that call-up Michael Sgarbossa is scratched. With Trevor van Riemsdyk out, Hardy Häman Aktell draws in next to Alex Alexeyev. Lucas Johansen remains a healthy scratch.

Here are the lines:

Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Tom Wilson

Sonny Milano-Evgeny Kuznetsov-T.J. Oshie

Aliaksei Protas-Connor McMichael-Anthony Mantha

Beck Malenstyn-Hendrix Lapierre-Matthew Phillips

Martin Fehervary-John Carlson

Rasmus Sandin-Nick Jensen

Hardy Häman Aktell-Alex Alexeyev

Darcy Kuemper will get the start, with Charlie Lindgren backing up.

As for the injury report, van Riemsdyk (lower-body) is out and day-to-day, Nic Dowd (upper-body) is out and remains on the injured reserve, Joel Edmundson (hand) is out and remains on the LTIR, Max Pacioretty (Achilles) is out and remains on the LTIR and Nicklas Backstrom (hip) remains away from the team indefinitely and is officially on LTIR.

The Capitals need to score at 5-on-5 and on the power play, and that will be the key to winning against Florida. 

Washington manages just 1.90 goals per game, the second-least in the NHL (only the San Jose Sharks are worse at 1.17 GF/G). The offense is currently having a problem getting goals at all strengths, as the forecheck has been out of sync with tape-to-tape passes failing to connect, feeds not in guys' wheelhouse and shots being shanked wide. Not everyone's on the same page, either.

It won't be easy to find offense against the Panthers, who surrender under three goals per game on average. However, their 77.1 percent success rate on the penalty kill is the seventh-worst in the league.

At the other end of the ice, the Capitals just need to keep the good times rolling on the penalty kill and stay sharp defensively. The team will also have to shut down Matthew Tkachuk and more weapons, while Kuemper needs to stay sharp.

Ultimately, the biggest thing is for Alex Ovechkin and the struggling forecheck to find its footing, and doing so against Florida in the final tilt of a five-game home stand will be huge.

- Tom Wilson has goals in three of his last four games. Washington is undefeated in each game that Wilson has scored in this season.

- Rasmus Sandin had his first assist of the season on Saturday (and was arguably robbed of another one in that 2-1 win). He appeared to find his confidence and played one of his best games yet, so keep an eye on him.

- Ovechkin has just two goals in his first 10 games, and the longer time goes without him finding twine, the hungrier he's getting. he still leads the team with eight points in 10 games so far. His splits are also stellar against Florida, as he has 43 goals and 45 assists for 88 points in 69 career meetings with the Panthers.