{"id":889224,"date":"2026-10-20T20:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/889224\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T20:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T20:28:08","slug":"capitals-morning-skate-news-projected-lineups-and-injury-updates-ahead-of-potential-trap-game-against-kings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/889224\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitals morning skate: News, projected lineups, and injury updates ahead of potential trap game against Kings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Capitals<\/a> will continue their long homestand Tuesday night with a matchup against the Los Angeles Kings<\/a> at Capital One Arena.<\/p>\n

After consecutive victories over the Montreal Canadiens<\/a> and New Jersey Devils<\/a>, the Capitals have a chance to put together their first three-game winning streak of the 2026-27 campaign. To do so, they\u2019ll need to beat the Kings, the NHL\u2019s last winless team this year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just know that they\u2019re desperate going into the game,\u201d Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said Monday. \u201cYou\u2019re going to have a team that is putting absolutely everything that they possibly can put into a game to try to get two points. They\u2019re going to be hungry. I don\u2019t really put too much into it, but you know that they\u2019re a team searching for two points and that they\u2019re going to be desperate; that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Los Angeles, 0-4-2 to start the season, are led by former Capitals bench boss Peter Laviolette, who has already installed a very familiar defensive system.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 1-3-1, we\u2019ll get a heavy dose of that,\u201d Carbery said.<\/p>\n

Given their record, the Kings\u2019 early results under Laviolette are obviously poor: they\u2019ve scored just 12 goals in their first six games, including only one in each of their past four. They are also giving up the third-most goals per game in the NHL (4.17).<\/p>\n

News
\nCapitals injury updates<\/p>\n

The Capitals will again be without two of their centers, as Pierre-Luc Dubois<\/a> and Justin Sourdif<\/a> continue to recover from their respective illnesses. Dubois skated again on Tuesday morning, but still in a light blue no-contact jersey, while Sourdif has yet to return to the rink.<\/p>\n

With both still on the shelf, the Capitals will keep Boone Jenner<\/a> and Jonny Brodzinski<\/a> down the middle. Brodzinski began his NHL career with the Kings in 2016-17, playing 54 games over parts of three seasons with the club.<\/p>\n

Matt Roy<\/a>, who the Capitals have missed for six games with a lower-body injury, will return to the lineup against his former team. After being activated from injured reserve ahead of the game, Roy will presumably return to the team\u2019s top pairing alongside his usual partner, Jakob Chychrun<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a big part of our team,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cPlays in a lot of different situations. Logs a lot of minutes. Good leader for our team, so it will be good to get him back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capitals have warm memories of Laviolette, says Wilson<\/p>\n

Laviolette will return to DC with his second team after his 2020-2023 stint with the Capitals. He previously returned with the New York Rangers before the team fired him at the end of the 2024-25 campaign. Despite his tenure with the Caps ending on a sour note, leading the club to its worst full season in 16 years<\/a>, alternate captain Tom Wilson says he still has fond memories of Laviolette\u2019s time with the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he was a lot of fun to have around,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cHe was an experienced coach. I think everyone here learned a lot from him. He\u2019s got experience in this league that obviously is hard to come by. He\u2019s been around a long time. I just remember we had a lot of fun. He always had different things going on, different events, different little things around the room to keep it light.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has a great family. Him and his wife treated all our families very, very well. She was a lot of fun to have around as well. Obviously, his kid was playing hockey at the time, and great kids. Just a family guy that I think would do a lot for his players, whatever guys needed. And obviously it was kind of weird with COVID at the beginning and stuff. It was a weird transitionary period, but I had a lot of fun playing for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kings see return of veteran forward<\/p>\n

The Capitals aren\u2019t the only ones getting a key player back, as the Kings will see the return of veteran winger Mats Zuccarello<\/a> from injury. The Norwegian winger, who has recorded at least 54 points in each of his last five NHL seasons, is back after missing three games with an undisclosed injury.<\/p>\n

In recent practices, Zuccarello has been skating on a line with Quinton Byfield<\/a> and Trevor Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it helps slot things a little bit,\u201d Laviolette told NHL.com\u2019s Tom Gulitti<\/a>. \u201cBut that being said, I think we\u2019ll just watch his minutes and where he goes. He\u2019s been out for a bit for us. But definitely a guy that can come in and help with regard to the offensive part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Projected lineup
\nCapitals lines<\/p>\n

With Roy back in the fold and Dubois and Sourdif still out, here\u2019s how the Capitals should look.<\/p>\n

Ovechkin\n <\/p>\n

I. Protas\n <\/p>\n

Miroshnichenko\n <\/p>\n

Beauvillier\n <\/p>\n

Brodzinski\n <\/p>\n

Leonard\n <\/p>\n

Kings lines<\/p>\n

The Kings\u2019 projected lines come via team reporter Zach Dooley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Fun factoids<\/p>\n

The Capitals have not lost on home ice to the Kings since December 19, 2021. In that game, a 3-2 defeat, the Caps got goals from Connor McMichael<\/a> and Justin Schultz. Matt Roy, then with the Kings, provided the primary assist on LA\u2019s game-tying and game-winning goals.
\nFormer Capitals number-one netminder Darcy Kuemper<\/a> will start in net for the Kings. In seven career games against Washington, Kuemper is 2-5-0 with a 2.34 goals-against average, a .921 save percentage, and one shutout.
\nThe Capitals swept their season series against the Kings last season, with captain Alex Ovechkin<\/a> leading the team in scoring with three points (1g, 2a) in the two games. In his career against the Kings, Ovechkin has 26 points (13g, 13a) in 30 games.<\/p>\n

Puck drop is set for 7 pm. Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin will have the call on Monumental Sports Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals will continue their long homestand Tuesday night with a matchup against the Los Angeles Kings…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889225,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-889224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889224\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}