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Capitals shaking up the lines for tonight's game

February 23, 2021, 1:16 PM ET [222 Comments]
Ryan Wilson
Pittsburgh Penguins Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT
The Penguins are back in action tonight against the Washington Capitals. These two games will be the last time the teams face one another until the end of April and early May.

There isn’t anything groundbreaking to share about the Penguins but there are a few things happening. Brian Dumoulin and Evan Rodrigues have been skating on their own before practice so they are slowly working their way back from injury. Also, Jordy Bellerive and Josh Curry were practicing with the main group today. Bellerive was drafted in the second round as an offensive minded player with upside a few years back. He unfortunately got into a really bad accident involving fire which has set back some of his progress. He is a center and anything is looking better than Mark Jankowski these days. We'll see where things go for Bellerive from here.

The lines from practice yesterday were the same ones they used in the game against the Islanders. Kasperi Kapanen was back with the Crosby line after his demotion during the game on Saturday. Tristan Jarry will receive yet another start due to his much improved play as of late.

Here are how things look for the Capitals tonight




Some pretty big changes from what we are used to seeing. Ovechkin is not with Backstrom or Kuznetsov. He has Lars Eller as a center. Former Penguins Conor Sheary can’t complain too much about his new line there is certainly no shortage of skill. The Capitals are going with the more balanced approach.

Vitek Vanacek will be getting the start for Washington. In three starts against the Penguins he is 1-1-1 with a .892 save percentage. Ilya Samsonov is on a conditioning assignment with the Hershey Bears.

The power play for Washington will look familiar with one minor change. Jakub Vrana will be replacing Evgeny Kuznetsov. The Penguins will still have to navigate the Ovechkin and Carlson shots from up top on the umbrella.





A neat Penguins anniversary today




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