Pregame Notes: Washington Capitals vs. Minnesota Wild

Happy Friday everyone as the Caps host the Minnesota Wild tonight at Verizon Center. The Caps look the rebound after a tough game on Wednesday as they fell to the Canadians 4-3. Here is the lineup for tonight's game based on the morning skate.

Forwards:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Johansson-Wilson
Laich-Richards-Galiev


Defense and Goalies:

Schmidt-Chorney
Alzner-Niskanen
Orpik-Orlov


Hotly
Grubauer


Other Notes:

*Michael Latta will be out tonight as the flu bug has got to him. Stan Galiev who I believe played very well on Wednesday will remain on the 4th line.

*Dmitry Orlov had a rough game on Wednesday and he may be out tonight. From the morning skate it is very possible we see Taylor Chorney make a return to the lineup.

*Mike Weber has yet to join the Caps because his wife went into labor and had their baby. Many of the Caps texted him today to congratulate him.

*There are rumors regarding Brooks Laich being sent out, however he remains in the lineup so we will have to wait till Monday to see if something happens.

*Braden Holtby will be put right back in net after being pulled Wednesday. Hopefully the guys in front of him play better tonight.

*One thing I want the Caps to do tonight is have a strong first period. They have had very slow starts of late and they need to stop that habit. Even if they don't score in the first they need to play well.

*The Wild are playing very well of late and are scoring a ton. The Caps defensive corp needs to play well in front of Braden Holtby. Also, they can't turn pucks over like they did the other night and leave Holts out to dry.

*Overall the team needs to get back to the way they normally play, just need to clean up a couple of things. Well will see if they can get back on track tonight, hopefully they are not looking ahead to the big game in Chicago on Sunday. Big two points on the line tonight.


*UPDATE: John Carlson is out tonight 

Gametime 7:00 p.m on CSN