With center Evgeny Kuznetsov returning to the lineup after serving a three-game suspension (inappropriate conduct) for the Washington Capitals, center Nic Dowd will come out of the lineup when the team hosts the Dallas Stars on Tuesday night (7 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington). Center Chandler Stephenson will center the fourth-line of himself, Brendan Leipsic, and Garnet Hathaway.

Brendan Leipsic just told me that Chandler Stephenson *IS* indeed the 4C tonight. #Capitals

— Jason Rogers (@HeyJayJRogers) October 8, 2019

Practice -10:30 AM

As seen on Monday, Kuznetsov will skate on the third-line and first power-play unit against the Stars and defenseman Tyler Lewington will skate on the third-pair with Radko Gudas.

Capitals’ Lines vs. Stars

#Caps lines at morning skate:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Wilson
Vrana-Eller-Oshie
Hagelin-Kuznetsov-Panik
Leipsic-Stephenson-Hathaway
Siegenthaler-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
Gudas-Lewington

Both Stephenson and Dowd took rushes. It looks like Stephenson is in, but will have to ask Reirden.

— JJ Regan (@JJReganNBCS) October 8, 2019

Stars’ Lines at Capitals

Stars’ lines in Washington this morning:

Benn-Seguin-Radulov
Janmark-Hintz-Pavelski
Cogliano-Faksa-L’Esperance
Caamano-Gardner-Dowling

Lindell-Heiskanen
Sekera-Klingberg
Oleksiak-Fedun

— Mike Heika (@MikeHeika) October 8, 2019

Goaltender Ben Bishop will man the nets for Dallas.

Reirden Media Session

Filling in for @Adam_Zielonka on Caps today since he’s in Connecticut to cover the Mystics. Here’s Todd Reirden discussing Evgeny Kuznetsov’s return from a three-game suspension: pic.twitter.com/mQItf2wag2

— Matthew Paras (@Matthew_Paras) October 8, 2019

Capitals Today

CAPS TODAY: Evgeny Kuznetsov is set to play in his first game of the season tonight against the Dallas Stars. More info on Kuznetsov at https://t.co/HecIC0ECg1 pic.twitter.com/ncilz3Tz6R

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 8, 2019

Shavings

• The Capitals are 32-48-16-3 all-time against the Stars and 3-1-2 over their last six games.
• Evgeny Kuznetsov is one of nine forwards in the NHL on an active streak of four consecutive seasons with at least 40 assists, and he ranks 12th in the NHL in total assists over the last five seasons (204).
• Kuznetsov’s 0.67 assists per game last season ranked second on the team and tied for 16th among forwards in the NHL among players with at least 70 games played.

By Harrison Brown

View this post on Instagram

#ALLCAPS @aleksandrovechkinofficial throws out the first pitch before game 4 of the NLDS at @nationals Park. 👍👊💪 (🎥📷 @capitals) #LetsGoCaps #RockTheRed #WashingtonCapitals #alexovechkin #Ovechkin #alexovechkin #александровечкин #Овечкин #хоккей #хоккейроссиalexovechkin #Ovechkin #alexovechkin #александровечкин #Овечкин #хоккей #хоккейрос

A post shared by NoVa Caps (@nova_caps) on Oct 7, 2019 at 3:55pm PDT