CAPITALS (10-4-1) at AVALANCHE (9-8-0)

9 p.m. ET; MNMT2, KTVD, ALT2, TVAS2

Capitals projected lineup

Alex Ovechkin — Dylan Strome — Aliaksei Protas

Connor McMichael — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Tom Wilson

Andrew Mangiapane — Lars Eller — Jakub Vrana

Brandon Duhaime — Nic Dowd — Taylor Raddysh

Jakob Chychrun — John Carlson

Rasmus Sandin — Matt Roy

Martin Fehervary — Trevor van Riemsdyk

Charlie Lindgren

Logan Thompson

Scratched: Dylan McIlrath, Hendrix Lapierre, Alexander Alexeyev

Injured: Sonny Milano (upper body)

Avalanche projected lineup

Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen

Jonathan Drouin — Casey Mittelstadt — Valeri Nichushkin

Miles Wood — Parker Kelly — Logan O’Connor

Joel Kiviranta — Ivan Ivan — Nikolai Kovalenko

Devon Toews — Cale Makar

Samuel Girard — Josh Manson

Calvin de Haan — Sam Malinski

Justus Annunen

Trent Miner

Scratched: John Ludvig, Oliver Kylington

Injured: Alexandar Georgiev (upper body), Ross Colton (broken foot), Gabriel Landeskog (knee), Tucker Poolman (head)

Status report

The Capitals held an optional morning skate Friday. … Nichushkin will make his season debut; he was reinstated after being in Stage 3 of the NHL/NHL Players’ Association Player Assistance Program since May 13, which included being suspended without pay for a minimum of six months. … Drouin and Wood each will return after an upper-body injury; Drouin missed 16 games and Wood missed seven. … Georgiev is day to day; the goalie did not participate in the Avalanche morning skate Friday. … Miner was recalled from Colorado of the American Hockey League on Friday and will back up Annunen.