Pregame Notes: Washington Capitals at. Pittsburgh Penguins

 The Caps are in Pittsburgh to take on their Metro Division rivals with a chance to clinch the Division, and the top seed in the Eastern Conference with a win. There is no morning skate today as the Caps are traveling. So, here is what the lineup with probably look like.

Forwards:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Beagle
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Chimera-Johansson-Williams
Winnik-Richards-Wilson


Defense and Goalies:

Alzner-Niskanen
Orpik-Orlov
Schmidt-Chorney/Weber


Holtby
Grubauer



Other Notes:

*The Caps have gotten off to better starts the last two games. Now the goal for them has to be to continue that. The Pens played in Philadelphia yesterday, so the Caps will need to try to jump on them right away. I still expect the Pens to come out hard as they are try to climb the Metro Division standings with just 3 weeks left in the season.

*Daniel Winnik scored his first two goals as a Cap on Friday, and that is important because the Caps are looking to bottom six production. It seems to be working but we will see how things go tonight against another tough opponent.

*Braden Holtby will probably be in net tonight because the Caps have not played a ton of games this week like in weeks past. I am not sure what the Pens will do as Marc-Andre Fleury played in Philly yesterday. It is possible he plays again tonight but we won't know till warm-ups.

*Evgeny Kuznetsov has been on fire lately as he continues to lead the Caps in scoring, while the Pens have lost their second line center Evgeni Malkin for a few weeks. He might even miss the first round of the playoffs.

*I am not sure if Taylor Chorney will remain in the lineup, I think most likely he will. If not then Barry Trotz might call upon Mike Weber because he is a more physical player.

*The Caps have a chance tonight to clinch the division in a rivals building, which I think would make it a little sweeter. I think the Caps will look to get that off the check list so they can again worry about more important things.

*Overall this is going to be a great atmosphere at the Consol Energy Center tonight. With the chance that these two teams might meet again in the postseason. The Pens are playing well lately and this will be a chance for the Caps to get their third win in a row, and like I said early it is a chance to clinch the division and the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference.


Gametime 6:00 p.m on NBCSN