The Washington Capitals end a stretch of four home games in a row Friday at Capital One Arena. The Capitals, who have been at home for seven of their last eight games overall, are 6-3-1 in their last 10, a turnaround that has taken them from near the bottom of the Eastern Conference to third place in the Metropolitan Division.
Their opponent Friday, the Toronto Maple Leafs, have had a difficult start to the season. The Maple Leafs have had a variety of players miss time with injuries and are in 15th place in the East with a 10-10-3 record on the year.
“It’s hard to evaluate just based on the injuries, right? Missing Auston [Matthews] and Matty Knies, even Brandon Carlo for that matter, [goaltender Anthony] Stolarz,” Washington Coach Spencer Carbery said before Friday’s game. “With those guys coming back into the lineup, especially [Matthews] and Knies, those are big-time players. It almost gives them a full other line that you have to be extremely aware of and that can do a bunch of damage and is a top line in the league.”
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Matthews and Knies will play for Toronto on Friday, but the Maple Leafs will be without forward William Nylander, who is out with an illness.
Logan Thompson is set to start in goal for the Capitals, while Trevor van Riemsdyk draws back into the lineup on defense. Joseph Woll will be in net for Toronto.
Center Nic Dowd was placed on injured reserve Wednesday and will miss his sixth game with an upper-body injury. Carbery said that the Capitals “don’t have a great timeline” on Dowd, though he is expected to travel on the upcoming road trip to New York and California.
With Dowd on injured reserve, Washington recalled forward Bogdan Trineyev from Hershey to be an extra forward.
“He’s played really well down in Hershey, from all reports,” Carbery said. “[Ivan] Miroshnichenko is just coming back right now [from an injury] Just the thought process to let him continue to play and — not taking anything away from Bogdan — he’s playing really, really well, Bogdan, so he’s earned that call-up and that opportunity to come up.”
How to watch Caps vs. Maple Leafs
Location: Capital One Arena, Washington.
Time: 5 p.m.
TV: Monumental Sports Network.
Radio: 106.7 the Fan.
Projected lines
Capitals
Forwards
Anthony Beauvillier — Dylan Strome — Alex Ovechkin
Aliaksei Protas — Connor McMichael — Tom Wilson
Sonny Milano — Hendrix Lapierre — Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Justin Sourdif
Defensemen
Martin Fehervary — John Carlson
Jakob Chychrun — Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin — Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
Maple Leafs
Forwards
Matthew Knies — Auston Matthews — Nicholas Robertson
Max Domi — John Tavares — Easton Cowan
Dakota Joshua — Nicolas Roy — Bobby McMann
Steven Lorentz — Scott Laughton — Calle Jarnkrok
Defensemen
Morgan Rielly — Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Simon Benoit — Jake McCabe
Dakota Mermis — Troy Stecher
Goaltenders
Joseph Woll
Dennis Hildeby
Pregame reading
Alex Ovechkin, honored pregame, keeps on capitalizing in win over Jets
He’s an NHL late bloomer from Nebraska. Lately, he has been electric.
‘That’s not normal’: Justin Sourdif is on a meteoric rise with the Caps
The post The Caps hit the road soon. But first, a visit from the banged-up Maple Leafs. appeared first on Washington Post.
