Photo: NHL.com

Center Nic Dowd will draw back into the lineup for the Washington Capitals when they visit the Dallas Stars on Saturday night (8 PM ET, NBC Sports Washington) in favor of forward Chandler Stephenson, who will sit as a healthy scratch. Forwards Garnet Hathaway and Brendan Leipsic will skate alongside Dowd. More news heading Saturday’s game can be found below:

Goaltender Ilya Samsonov will get his second career NHL start at American Airlines Center tonight.

Other than the fourth-line center spot, the Capitals will ice the same lineup from the past couple of games against the Stars.

Defenseman Michal Kempny, who skated in some heavy drills earlier this week and was on target to return to the lineup sometime this week, will not play in Dallas.

Goaltender Anton Khudobin will get the net for Dallas on Saturday night.

Stars defenseman Stephen Johns, who has not played since the 2017-18 season (post-traumatic headaches), was on the ice for the team’s morning skate but will not play against the Capitals.

Capitals Lines at Stars

Capitals expected lines vs Stars:

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Wilson
Vrana-Kuznetsov-Oshie
Hagelin-Eller-Panik
Leipsic-Dowd*-Hathaway

Siegenthaler-Carlson
Orlov-Jensen
Gudas-Lewington

Samsonov

*Dowd in as 4C over Stephenson

— Samantha Pell (@SamanthaJPell) October 12, 2019

Stars’ Lineup vs. Capitals

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

Lindell-Klingberg
Heiskanen-Sekera
Oleksiak-Hanley

— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) October 12, 2019

Todd Reirden’s Pregame Presser

🎥 Coach Reirden from Dallas on tonight’s matchup against the Stars#ALLCAPS #CapsStars pic.twitter.com/jYA7wik8n6

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 12, 2019

John Carlson

🎥 “There are a lot of things I want to get better at right now. I think I can really elevate my game.” – @JohnCarlson74 #ALLCAPS #CapsStars pic.twitter.com/KcIu0MFFIS

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 12, 2019

Capitals Two-Man Advantage

A TEXAS SIZED TWO-MAN!

Preview #CapsStars with @VogsCaps and @WaltonCaps as Washington looks to get back in the win column with their second game against the Dallas in a week.#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/W7qtLnO34z

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 12, 2019

Caps Today

CAPS TODAY: Alex Ovechkin scored two power play goals against Nashville on Thursday, passing Luc Robitaille (247) for the fourth most power play goals in NHL history. More info on Ovechkin and the Caps at https://t.co/HecIC0ECg1 pic.twitter.com/GYRuMZiqn9

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) October 12, 2019

SHAVINGS

• The Capitals are 32-48-16-4 all-time against the Stars.
• Alex Ovechkin scored two power play goals against the Nashville Predators on Thursday, his 248th and 249th career power play goals, passing Luc Robitaille (247) for the fourth most power play goals in NHL history.
• It marked Ovechkin’s 21st career multi-power play goal game and he is now six goals shy of tying Teemu Selanne (255) for the third most power play goals in NHL history.
• Additionally, his two-goal performance was the 133rd multi-goal game of his career, leaving him three shy of passing Mike Gartner (135) for the fourth most multi-goal games in NHL history.
• Ovechkin scored twice against Pekka Rinne on Thursday, marking his first career goals against Rinne. Ovechkin has now scored a goal against 135 different NHL goaltenders and has scored multiple goals against 101 different goaltenders. In the history of the NHL, there have been 6,304 players that have scored 135 total goals or fewer in their careers.

By Harrison Brown