The Washington Capitals host the Seattle Craken for the first time on Saturday night. The Caps will look to build on an impressive 4-0 local game against the Carolina Hurricanes as they complete their home three games.
Axel Jonsson-Fjallbywho was called up by the team on Friday morning, will enter the squad in fourth place, replacing his injured compatriot Karl Hagelin.
Here are the rest of the lines via Tariq El-Bashir of The Athletic.
Line capitals
Ovechkin-Kuznetsov-Wilson
Manta-Backstrom-Oshi
McMichael-Eller-Shiri
AJF-Dowd-Hathaway
Fehervari-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
TVR-Schulz
The only other change Peter Laviolette has made to his lineup that beat Carolina on Thursday is Conor Sheary, who has raised the line to accommodate the arrival of the AJF. Because of this, Daniel Sprong will once again miss a healthy scratch.
It looks like Jonsson-Fjallby will break the ten-game mark in the NHL tonight and will need to expose him again for eliminations because of it if the Capitals decide to send him back to the minor leagues. Since Carl Hagelin’s injury has been called “serious” by the team, the AJF will likely not return to Hershey.
It will be the Swedish forward’s first game for the Caps since Jan. 20 against the Boston Bruins. He has yet to score his first NHL goal.
El Bashir also informs this goalkeeper Vitek Vanechek will be given a task in the grid against his former team of seven days. Vanechek was selected by the Kraken in the expansion draft last summer and quickly returned to the Capitals a week later. The Czech goalkeeper is 5-3 with a 1.81 goals average, .937 save percentage and three shutouts in 2022.
Seattle comes into play Saturday night as the worst team in the NHL’s Pacific Division. They have only won twice in their last ten games.
Header photo: Amanda Bowen/RMNB