Pregame Notes: Washington Capitals at. Buffalo Sabres UPDATED

*John Carlson is out tonight with an injury. Conner Carrick will make his season debut. 

 The Caps are on the road tonight as they head to First Niagara Center to take on a Sabres team that is playing pretty good hockey lately. Here is was the lineup should look like tonight.


Forwards:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Johansson-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Beagle-Wilson
Laich-Latta-Burakovsky


Defense and Goalies:

Schmidt-Carlson/Carrick
Alzner-Niskanen
Orlov-Chorney


Holtby
Grubauer


Other Notes:

*John Carlson is a game time decision because he tweaked something in the Montreal win on Saturday. It appears he will play but if not then Connor Carrick might be in instead.

*Braden Holtby will be in the net again tonight, Holtby is on a roll with a 22-4-1 record on the season and has a league leading 1.92 goals against. The Sabres will counter with Linis Ullmark.

*One key tonight will be to keep quiet one of the leagues most talented young players. The #2 overall pick Jack Eichel who has 11 goals and 9 assists on the season. He is off  a 2 goal 2 assist performance against the Boston Bruins on Saturday.

*It will be important for the Caps to forecheck the Sabres defensmen, they are not the best group in the league but they are a unit that plays well at times.

*If Conner Carrick does play tonight he will probably be on the third pairing and Niskanen and Orlov might just move up. We will have to wait till puck drop.

*I would like to see the Caps get off to a fast start again tonight. They have a lot of road games coming off after Wednesday's home game against the Sabres in the second of a home and home series.

*Overall I think the Caps know how to play with each other and I expect a good effort tonight. The Caps are hot and we will find out if they can remain on a roll. Games in Buffalo are always tough as they play well in front of their fans. It will be important just to keep the compete level high in this game tonight.


Gametime 7:00 p.m on CSN Plus