Tonight, the Washington Capitals welcome another new division rival, the New York Islanders, to the Verizon Center. The Islanders are currently second in the Metropolitan Division, with a 6-5-3 record and 15 points. The Capitals will come into the game in third place in the Metropolitan Division, with a 7-7-0 record and 14 points. The Capitals will look to cement themselves in second place in the division and go above .500 for the season. Last season, the Islanders went 2-0-1 against the Capitals.
Alex Ovechkin is expected to play tonight after missing the past two games due to an upper body injury sustained against the Vancouver Canucks. Here are the expected lines for tonight’s Capitals-Islanders game.
Capitals
Erat-Backstrom-Ovechkin (10-19-8)
Laich-Johansson-Brouwer (21-90-20)
Chimera-Grabovski-Ward (25-84-42)
Volpatti-Latta-Wilson (24-46-43)
Schmidt-Green (88-52)
Alzner-Carlson (27-74)
Urbom-Oleksy (34-61)
Holtby (70)
Neuvirth (30)
Scratches:
Beagle (83)
Fehr (16)
Orlov (81)
Islanders
Vanek-Tavares-Okposo (26-91-21)
Bouchard-Nielsen-Bailey (96-51-12)
Grabner-Regin-Clutterbuck (40-16-15)
Nelson-Cizikas-Martin (29-53-17)
MacDonald-Hamonic (47-3)
Hickey-Carkner (17-7)
Donovan-Martinek (46-4)
Nabokov (20)
Poulin (60)
Nabokov and Holtby will be in net for their teams tonight. Evgeni Nabokov has a 12-1-3 career record against the Capitals with a 2.09 GAA and a .926 save percentage.
