Washington Capitals Daily Report (01/19/16)

Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images)

The Washington Capitals (34-8-3) take on the Columbus Blue Jackets (17-25-4) tonight at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio. This is the Capitals final road game before the All-Star break (January 28th – February 1st) and final trip to Ohio for the regular season. Puck-drop is 7:00 PM.

R.I.P. Glenn.

Morning Skate
The Capitals held morning skate at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, this morning. John Carlson skated with the team for the first time since December 26th. The Capitals practice lines at morning skate:

Photo: @washcaps

Offensive lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Johansson-Wilson
Laich-Richards-Latta

Defensive pairs:
Alzner-Niskanen
Orlov-Schmidt
Stanton-Chorney

Braden Holtby looks to be the starter tonight for the Capitals. Sergei Bobrovsky will start for the Blue Jackets. Bobrovsky hasn’t played since December 8th.

Ryan Stanton will make his Capitals debut tonight as the 10th different defenseman deployed by Caps thus far this season. Stanislav Galiev and John Carlson appear to be tonight’s scratches for the Capitals.

Standings

Capitals @ Blue Jackets
This is the Capitals second trip this month and final trip of the season to Columbus. This is also the fourth game in six night for Washington. The Capitals will be looking to extend their 17-point lead in the Metropolitan Division. The Blue Jackets have posted a 17-18-4 mark since Tortorella took the reins, and are 4-5-1 in their last 10 games. The Blue Jackets’ projected lineup for tonight:

News and Notes

As per Isabelle Khurshudyan, Braden Holtby said he drinks 16-17 liters of water a day on game days. Said he left the game early on Sunday evening because he had a vision-impaired migraine. Said he started to lose vision before the Kreider goal.
Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner is scheduled to play in his 422nd consecutive game tonight against Columbus, tying Bob Carpenter (422) for the longest consecutive games played steak in franchise history.
The Capitals have won 12-straight home games, which is one shy of the franchise record. The Caps will be looking to tie the record Friday against Bruce Boudreau and the Anaheim Ducks. Coincidentally, Boudreau was the coach of the Caps when the franchise record for consecutive home wins was set during the 20009-2010 season.
At 16-5-2, the Caps have the best road record in the NHL.
The Capitals will hold their annual “Dreams for Kids DC” event on Friday, February 19th, at Kettler. More information is here:
This season the Capitals will sell Courage Caps with 100% of the proceeds benefiting Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a nonprofit organization that helps families of the fallen. TAPS provides comfort and care for anyone who has suffered the loss of a military loved one. More here: